Guardians, Wizards and Kung-Fu fighters
by wondertown9
Summary: Five girls and a family. Five Guardians, two wizards and two Kung-fu fighters. As two realities merge, the destinies of all the people that form them converge and tangle. Two siblings, a war, and the whole universe will be changed forever as new players, both good and evil, step into this great game that is the cosmos.
1. It Begins with a Bang

**Disclaimer: I own neither the WITCH cartoon-show nor Jackie Chan Adventures; they are the property of their respective creators, writers, and producers.**

 **Many special thanks to my guest reviewer Matt in my other story, Out of the Corner of the Eye; for reminding me of this little idea that I had forgotten.**

 **Author Notes/Story Introduction: As many people in this website, my first encounter with both this shows was as a child. To say that they are probably the two cartoon shows that I identify most with my childhood would be an understatement. They had… _something_. In the case of JCA it was action and that 'adventure' vibe going on, and truth be told, I'm quite a fan of oriental folklore and seeing how that show run with it instead of the usual and more well-known European (ergo, mainly Christian) mythos was quite interesting. With WITCH it was mostly due to the well-made fantasy storytelling and how the show evolved within itself. Compare both seasons with each other, or just the first half of season one with its other half, and you'll know what I'm speaking about. And what the heck, I love Greg Weisman as a show-writer, and he being in the second season was and made the show awesome. And the funny thing is that… both of them could work pretty well together, and I don't even know why. Maybe it's the characters? Maybe the magic that both have in common? And that's how this little crossover came to existence. Read and enjoy, and for more notes, wait till the end of the chapter. Let's go.**

* * *

Guardians, Wizards and Kung-Fu Fighters

Episode One

It Begins with a Bang

* * *

Hey. Hey, you! Yes, you there, I'm speaking to you! Don't look at me like that, I'm speaking to you, really. Hey, do you know what causality is? It's how you refer to the law of cause-effect, the thing what humans normally simplify by calling it 'fate'. It goes deeper than simple 'fate', though. Causality is the thing that keeps things together, the law that maintains reality as constant. Let me explain, it's ratter easy, I promise. Fingers not crossed!

Causality normally runs in a normal way that any human being can understand. Let's say that we have two rocks and put another two together with the previous ones. Then we would have four rocks! That, is causality. Cause: the addition, Effect: the result. And reality keeps itself together.

But what if there was the possibility to alter causality? What if we put four rocks together... and we obtained a fish? That would mean that the thread of causality has been changed, transformed, corrupted. And that would mean that reality has been warped, that something has transformed spontaneously and it's not the same anymore. This is what humans simplify with the phrase 'Fate is not written.' This can affect the smallest ends as it can affect the biggest ones. And transforming the quartet of rocks into a fish can develop into bringing beings to life, erasing and creating timelines, shaping worlds in your image, or merging entire universes. But you may be wondering, how is that possible? The answer comes as rather simple; just five letters and one simple word.

 _Magic_

* * *

The life of Jade Chan had never been normal, and frankly she didn't want it in any other way. Her life in Hong Kong was fine, but boring. Her life with Jackie, in the other hand, had turned out to be incredible! Secret agencies, criminal organizations, magic, demons... she even knew kung-fu now! But everything had almost gone crashing down when, taking what must have been the easiest way to win in the history of good against evil; her family's arch-nemesis, Shendu (who Jade always referred to as 'old dragon breath') had possessed her uncle Jackie, travelled to Australia and used something called The Book of Ages in order to turn the world into his and his siblings' domain. Fortunately, she had escaped that fate by ripping a part of the page Shendu was rewriting, a part that contained her name. And now, as Shendu and his remaining brethren were being sucked to the Netherworld by a Portal conjured by a super-powered Uncle, the only thing needed to set everything right again was for Jade to stick the piece of paper where it was before.

In that moment, as she approached the altar, many things passed over Jade's mind. Over Shendu's however, who currently was being pulled towards the Portal, only one thing passed, and that was the fact that he was going lo lose again, to a child no less! As he used all the strength he was able to gather to hang over the border of the Portal, only one thought crossed his dark mind.

 _If I can't have the world, nobody will!_ , Shendu thought with hatred as he shot a pair of eye-beams by tapping into the power of the Pig Talisman inside of him. As soon as the beams were shot from his eyes and he was confident that they went in the right direction, Shendu put in a cruel smile and let the sealing spell to pull him completely into the Netherworld, which as a separated dimension from Earth, would remain unscratched. _I have won, Chan;_ the dragon thought _. After so many battles, I have won the war!_

Jade reached the gigantic book, piece of paper in hand in order to finally return reality to its rightful form. She was so concentrated in her task that the little girl didn't notice the demonic dragon's attack coming right at her.

"Jade, be careful!" she heard her uncle Jackie, or more precisely Jackie's alternative counterpart who now was gigantic, calling for her. Jade turned around and was met by the pair of eye beams coming directly at her, and she heard herself scream in both surprise and terror. Her instincts kicked in and helped by Jackie's lessons in martial arts, they made her jump in order to dodge the attack… which instead struck the Book of Ages, leaving a fuming hole in its center, with the borders scorched.

Jade's face turned into one of horror, and she looked at Jackie just to find that he had the same expression as her. Everyone of the presents were looking at the results of Shendu's last act of pettiness, and were understandably shocked; more because they didn't know what was going to happen than because they knew that this was bad, really bad.

All of them gathered around the now broken book, and for several minutes, nothing happened. The tension that was building up was much worse than anything else.

"Maybe we should… I don't know put more paper on it?" the little Mexican boy asked.

"What do you think this is; a printer?" Jade asked with disdain, just for Paco to raise an eyebrow in confusion.

"What's a printer?" he asked sincerely.

 _Right, new timeline without technology…_ ; Jade thought, but as soon as she was preparing for an explanation, she heard a noise that made the structure around them to tremble, and their ears hurt so bad that they were forced to cover them with their hands, albeit that did very little in order to help them. The sound was like a shriek of anger, sorrow and pain, like the desperate cry for help of a wounded animal. At first, Jade had thought that the book was the one screaming, but it wasn't just the book. it was the ground under her feet, the air around her… it were, space, time, gravity and electromagnetism. The one shrieking in pain and despair was reality, for reality was the one dying; it's heart, represented by the Book of Ages, gone after the backstab of a treacherous demon.

The remains of the book exploded into a cacophony of sounds and a mix of colors that Jade hadn't seen in her whole life. The fortress and the whole planet started to disintegrate, and Jackie, Uncle, Tohru, El Toro, Viper and little Paco started to lose and gain mass, color and body parts at random; their madness-induced screams and _laughs_ were deafening. Space bended over itself while vomiting living planets, and time twisted as its insides were torn apart by a cosmic vulture with three heads and the lower body of an octopus. And as up became down, past became future, and the present started to make out with left and right into a depraved orgy of chaos; Jade's attention was turned to the remaining piece of paper, still clenched in her hand. As her name still remained in that little piece she was still bound to the old laws of physics. Horrified by the macabre show she was witnessing, Jade bit her own fingers and as soon as blood started to pour out from her self-inflected wound, she started to wrote in the tiny piece of paper, hoping that the situation could be helped by that.

As her family and friends contorted and distorted into abominations, Jade's vision became blurry with tears, but that didn't stop it from finishing a sentence. Now, accompanying her name in the paper was just a single phrase: 'Bring us all to a safe place.' It was a good phrase, well written considering the circumstances. The piece of paper started to glow in golden light, and it floated in front of Jade.

"Please, please work; please bring everything to normal again…" Jade pleaded to the piece of paper. The little fragment of the heart of their reality glowed then more intensely, and it emitted a wave of energy that knocked Jade out, and that effectively brought an end to the orgy of chaos and abominations that had taken over the reality. Now only the unconscious child remained alongside the piece of paper; both of them floating across an emptied Void; a clean canvas into which a new universe could be painted. But the piece of paper wasn't enough o bring a new Book… and yet the orders given by the writer were to bring them all to a safe place… Yes, the piece of paper could work with that, and so it took the child, and with her both her allies and enemies, both known and unknown alike; and started to search for a place that was safe.

* * *

Jade woke up with the strange and pleasant feeling of being inside a warm and tender tank of water, floating calm and pleased. As she opened her eyes, however, she was proven wrong. She was floating in a space of both white and golden, into what seemed to be a place without any direction or gravity. At first she had thought that she was again in the Netherworld, but this place was too peaceful and beautiful to be that.

"Where the heck am I?" Jade asked aloud. Then, recalling her previous situation, a grim shadow came over this beautiful place. "Is this Heaven? Am I dead?"

"Dead is a very relative term, don't you agree?" a sweet, womanly, yet timeless voice said then.

Making efforts to turn her face into the voice's direction; Jade was greeted with something she could have described as impossible if not for everything that she had seen in the past two years in Jackie's company.

A woman was sitting in the air (how this was possible, Jade didn't know), sporting a mother-like smile. She had dark hair tied into a topknot and very pale skin, her features clearly identifying her as an asian; her lips painted with the color of a fresh peach. She was dressed into what appeared to be a White kimono, and there was a pink jewel hanging from her neck. The jewel was emitting beats, as if it was a heart of some kind, and with every beat the golden and white space around them beat too. But what surprised Jade much more than the Chinese woman was her company. Circling around her, flying above, were a quartet of dragons; one of them green, another red, another deep blue, and the last one of a light blue that looked almost white.

Jade looked at the quintet of strangers in front of her, a bit scared due t her previous experiences with dragons and the like. The woman noticed this, and smiling fondly waved a hand in the air as if wanting to rest importance to that.

"Fear not, child. My name is Xin Jing, and you are safe here;" the woman said. Her voice was as if someone was playing a lullaby in a lute. "The Four Dragons would never harm an innocent."

"However, we could still mess with you a bit!" the deep blue dragon remarked jokingly, just for the red one to smack him in the nose with the tail. "Auch! That was unnecessary!"

"That little girl has seen her entire reality reduced to dust, and you judge this as the appropriate moment to laugh at her," the red dragon retorted. "Well yes, I find my action necessary."

"My reality is gone?"

The Four Dragons and the woman turned their attention back to Jade, who continued to look at them, this time with teary eyes. The light-blue dragon distanced from the other three and approached Jade, mounting her on his back and travelling back to his companions.

"Yes child, I'm sorry, but your reality is gone, reduced to a cavalcade of horrors;" the woman answered. "Sealed away so its new contains cannot harm any other universes."

Jade started to cry. The woman didn't seem like lying, and she remembered perfectly what she had been witness to back when the Book of Ages had exploded. Xin Jing cleaned a couple of tears that were running over the girl's cheeks, putting her hand under her chin and making her to make eye contact with the woman.

"Ah, but haven't you learnt that nothing is lost until the last combatant falls? Look," Xin Jing pointed behind Jade, and the girl turned around to see shards of glass floating around, all of them with multiple images. Images of Jackie, Uncle, Tohru… but also of Valmont and his Enforcers; an old man garbed in dark clothes and holding a twisted root pouring with dark energy, nine ogre-like monsters commanding an army of shadows that marched behind a monster with a red face and feline features, a humanoid dragon-like being, snarling viciously while flames poured from his mouth. Noticing the girl's confusion, Xin Jing caressed her hair and talked almost in a whisper.

"When you wrote in that paper to bring all of you to a safe place, the paper really brought _all_ of you. That means good and evil, old and young, alive and long time dead;" the woman explained. "Which means that you shouldn't be sad, child; you did save an entire universe full of lives, you should be proud."

Jade dried her tears in her sleeve, and looked back at Xin Jing. "Then where am I?" she asked.

"In another universe, in its Heart, to be precise;" the woman explained. "I suppose it's the safest place the paper found."

"Oh!" Jade said, finally understanding that not only her, but her family had been saved. "Oh…" she whispered after that. "Sorry for…"

"Bringing evil to this universe?" Xin Jing laughed. "Don't be silly, there always has been evil in this universe, and there always will be. And besides, you brought heroes too, didn't you?" Xin Jing raised Jade in the air and put her forehead against hers. "Oh yes, you are all going to make this so much interesting…"

"Xin Jing, you shouldn't look at it as if it wasn't a problem," the green dragon spoke. "This enormous causality alteration will surely provide with new variables in the constants of fate."

"I won't let a whole universe to be destroyed by the actions of a petty madman!" Xin Jing yelled to the dragon. "And fate is always in constant change, what are a few more? As the living will of the Heart of Kandrakar, Center of the Universe, I Nymph of Quintessence, agree to this merging."

Upon hearing the woman's words, the space around started to twirled, and the shards started to mix in the current of white and gold. After several moments, the shards had completely fused with it, and Xin Jing eyed Jade. You have a lot of hard trials ahead of you, be prepared." Xin Jing kissed Jae I the forehead and let her go floating, as white and gold enveloped her.

"Wait, I still haven't thank you!" Jade said in the last second.

"Don't worry about it, child;" Xin Jing said. "You won't be able to remember me, not yet; it could be dangerous to you and the ones you care about. For now, let's think this has been nothing but a dream, and you are just going to wake up."

* * *

 ** _A road under the rain…_**

Jade Chan woke up with a start. She was in the backseat of a van that her family had rented in order to travel to the some weird town in the coast Uncle had received a call from. How was it named? Heather… something related to heathers; that was for sure. Jade looked around, in the front seat Jackie was driving while Uncle gave him indications from time to time. At her side in the backseat, and actually serving her as a pillow, was Tohru, reading a book of chi spells in order to study. If Jade hadn't been so tired, she would have been reading alongside him, but Uncle always had the habit of waking up at 6:00 AM in order to travel without ' _roads being full of aaaaangry drivers!_ '. Good thing that her school had agreed to let her spent some time away for family reasons; otherwise she was certain that Jackie would have forced her to stay back in San Francisco. Well, not that Jackie's words had stopped her in the past.

She mumbled a little before returning to her sleep. The last weeks had been really tiresome, with all the demon sealing, and she being trapped in the Netherworld for a while, and Jackie being possessed by Shendu… Good thing that they had been able to stop the possessed Jackie before he left Hong Kong, otherwise who would have known what old dragon breath may have done. As her eyes closed, Jade remembered Xin Jing's face and words for the last time before forgetting them. _Weirdest dream ever_ , she thought.

* * *

 ** _Across the Veil. World of Meridian_**

In a complete different world than Earth, was the Kingdom of Meridian; a vast civilization that included humans, a scaly humanoid beings of great physical might called Galhot, and other less numerous species that weren't very well received by the other main two. Since millennia ago, Meridian had been ruled by the Royal House of Escanor, in a no much different way than Medieval Earth. However, the main difference was that in Meridian, it were the Queens who ruled, each female member of the Royal Family inheriting the Heart of Meridian, the source of mystical energy of the planet and that made each one of the Queens as mighty as a goddess. Meridian usually was a Kingdom of light, glory and peace… but for the last thirteen years it had been nothing but a horrid sell of its former glory, a dark barren that put the Dark Ages of Earth to shame.

In this dark Meridian, a young boy with dark brown hair, green eyes, and a complexion that denoted too much physical activity for his age; jumped from roof to roof of a grim and dark castle. He was clad into a pair of plain trousers and a long, worn-out brown jacket. His name? Caleb. His current occupation? Leader of the Rebellion against the tyrant that ruled this world with an iron fist, let the commoners die of hunger after imposing incredibly high taxes, and that sucked their land's life-force away to increase his own magical power; Prince Phobos Escanor, nicknamed as _The Usurper_ by the commoners.

Caleb had to admit, this was a very risky move. But it was necessary, the Rebellion needed to be better armed; Phobos' forces were already vastly superior in number, and let's not forget the aid of the Lurdens, abominations like Tracker, or the Shapeshifters. That was the reason he had decided to take Aldarn and go in a stealth mission with him, in order to take as much powder barrels as they could.

And yet, the risk was still huge. It wasn't that he had to climb to the rooftops of the castle; it wasn't that the armory was always heavily protected, or that he didn't carry any weapon with him in order to not be slowed down. No, the risk was of being captured; of facing beings like the Snake, Tracker, a Gargoyle... or perhaps Raythor. Thinking about the man made Caleb lose a bit of concentration and almost trip with one of the castle's architectonic ornamentations. The rebel leader remained his composure as fast as he had lost it. He leaned over the border of the rooftop and looked at the shore of the lake below. Good, Aldarn was in position.

 _Let's hope Vathek has made sure that there are as less guards as possible_ ; Caleb thought. Using a rope, he entered the armory. Barrels of powder lied around, with several lances and swords too. Something caught Caleb's eye then, and he lowered his arm to catch it. He inspected the new weapon in his hands, and decided to take it.

"Nice bow..." he muttered. He then passed to inspect the swords. He had recognized the craftsmanship, and also the mark that identified them as a particular blacksmith's work. He frowned upon seeing them, his hand gripping angrily around the hilt of one of them. "Aldarn's father makes these..." he said bitterly. Phobos didn't have enough with killing them; he had to do so with their own weaponry.

He shook his head and left the sword aside. The powder was the only thing that was important now. Caleb started to throw the powder barrels out to the lake so Aldarn could catch them.

 _Perfect, the plan's going fine_ , Caleb thought as he smiled. _Nothing can go wrong at this point._

* * *

 ** _Ten minutes later_**

Caleb and Aldarn were now running away from the shadow of the castle as a storm of arrows fell over them, powder barrels left behind and only the bow the rebel leader had attached to his back as prize of their incursion.

"How did you blow up the entire armory?!" Aldarn demanded to know from his best friend.

"I needed an escape route," Caleb explained as he ran. "So I made one."

"By blowing the wall up…" Aldarn said to his leader as he turned his head over his shoulder and saw how smoke still darkened the hole that Caleb's actions had caused. Horns of alarm blew across the castle, alerting of their presence. They would last a little until organizing any platoon to go after them, but when they did… better put as more distance as possible between the guards and them. "You really aren't someone for subtlety, are you?"

Caleb snickered and dedicated one last glance at the fuming armory. "Well, look at the bright side, Phobos won't be able to use that armory anymore."

As the two friends ran into the Meridian Plains, the smoke in the armory started to dissipate, and between the coughs and laments of wounded guards, two figures that had shortly before arrived at the scene looked at the ruckus that the rebels had caused.

One of them approached the hole that had resulted of the explosion, and looked at the distance. He could still see the two troublemakers, running into the Plains as nothing but dots. Still, it wasn't a very large distance, not for cavalry. The man cracked his neck in annoyance; age in this world wasn't very kind, not even for men like him. He was a middle aged Half-breed, a man born of the union of a human and a Galhot; and so, he had yellowish skin and a prominent physical might, but no scales into his body. This middle aged man was named Raythor, Captain of Phobos' guards, nothing but a cape and a helmet differencing his outfit from the average soldier's.

Behind him was a younger soldier, not older from twenty-eight or twenty-nine. He had grayish-green hair, and slightly-pointed ears. He was wearing a well designed bronze colored Meridian military armor, with a red cape at his back. Like many meridianites he had light yellowish skin too, indicating that he had mixed ancestry, probably the son of a couple formed by a Galhot and a human too. His name was Lothar, currently a Lieutenant under Raythor's direct command, and he was kneeling over a coughing soldier in the ground.

"Speak to me, soldier;" he demanded calmly. "Who did this?"

"One of the… *cough* rebels… A young boy, their leader I think *cough*;" the soldier answered as best as he could.

"The rebel leader?" Lothar asked aloud. "Here?"

"Son of Julian…" Raythor whispered as one of his hands raised to touch the scar that was under his left eye and adorned his cheek. "We cannot let him escape; if captured he could provide us with an enormous advantage in this war."

"I'll organize a platoon, and…" Lothar started to say, but Raythor silenced him by raising a hand.

"No. Search for Frost, and order him to go after the rebel scum with the Rhinoceros Cavalry;" Raythor turned around and started to leave, his cape waving after him, moving smoke and dust out of the way. "And take the survivors of the explosion to the infirmary, Lieutenant. I will inform the Prince of this situation myself."

* * *

 ** _Across the Veil; the Silver Dragon_**

Wilhelmina Vandom; usually referred to as Will for abbreviation; was seriously considering to label this day as the worst day of her life. Not only did her first day in Heatherfield look like the second coming of Noah's Flood, but her first day at Sheffield Institute had been disastrous. Even when that bumbling girl named Hay Lin, who seemed like cuteness and energy incarnated as a person, had invited her to her family's restaurant for what seemed like a private reunion; it had felt bad when that blonde chick had instantaneously labeled her as 'New Girl'. Yeah, 'cause she wasn't nervous enough in her first day not only in a new school, but also in a new city; Miss. Alpha Bitch had to come and add more wood to the fire. At least the other three girls seemed nice. Hay Lin was like if someone had given life to a bunch of candy, the Taranee girl seemed calm and rational, and Irma… Irma was Irma, and Will was thankful that she had seemed to take a liking to her. It was good to have the only person that seemed able to counteract Cornelia's jerkiness on your side. However, these facts didn't make their current state less awkward. It was clear that the four girls had been friends for a long time, (hell, there was a rumor that Irma and Hay Lin had known each other since being preschoolers) and Will was the new addition. And so, the only thing that reigned over the room as they sat around a table in the Chinese restaurant was silence. Not even Irma's snarky commentary pointing the obvious did anything to improve the situation.

Fortunately, Will's salvation came in the form of a group of voices, talking at the other side of a door. Will was expecting for Hay Lin's grandmother Yan to show up; but surprisingly she didn't do alone. Accompanying her were and old, wrinkled Chinese man wearing glasses and sporting the craziest hairdo that Will had ever seen; a middle-aged man with a cute face, dark hair, and a pair of khaki pants and a blue pullover, followed by a girl with black hair that dropped in bangs to her shoulders, with golden eyes, and sporting an orange hoodie; and closing the line was what seemed to be one of those sumo fighters that Will had only seem in television. The troupe of four persons was so bizarre that Will thought that she was dreaming, so she pinched her right hand with her left. It hurt, so not a dream.

"So… who's this Kadma?" the little girl asked of Yan Lin, continuing with their previous conversation.

"Oh, Kadma is a stubborn woman who used to be a stubborn girl," Yan Lin answered. "Wasn't she, cousin?"

"Bah!" the old man spited. "Kadma was too headstrong to my liking, I mean… her own wellbeing."

"Wait, she was your girlfriend, wasn't she?" the girl asked again. "Jackie, Uncle had a girlfriend!" she told the pullover-wearing man. "And silly me here thinking that you were one of those celibates…"

That commentary earned a repressed laugh from Irma, which in turn turned into a chuckle that made the quintet of girls to gain the four newcomers' attention. Yan Lin repressed a chuckle too, almost as she had forgotten their presence. Or maybe she was laughing at the old man's expense too. She had a strange trickster aura around her, this old woman.

"Sorry to keep you wanting girls," Yan Lin said as she put a box she had been carrying over the table and distributed typical luck cookies to the five of them. Will opened and ate hers, reading aloud the paper inside.

"You will find a new best friend today," Will read in a low tone, just to see Irma looking directly at her in the very same moment the brunette winked at her. That made Will smile.

"Erh… Grandma, who're these people?" Hay Lin asked to Yan. So that mean that Hay Lin didn't know the three strangers either? That was weird.

"Oh right, presentations;" Yan Lin said as she smirked. "These are my dear first cousin, Uncle; his nephew, Jackie" she said gesturing to the old man and the middle-aged one in that order. "Jackie's own niece Jade, and their assistant and friend, Tohru;" Yan Lin told them gesturing to the girl and the sumo, but none of the girls needed to think a lot to know who was each one.

"Hi there," Jade greeted the quintet of girls, while Jackie and Tohru answered with a normal and gentle "Hello." The old man that Yan Lin called Uncle didn't even bother to greet them, instead remaining there, just standing. Ah, so he was one of those old people that were aware that being old made them automatically able to be rude if they wanted. Great…

"Can we get this over with?" the old man asked. "Uncle needs to sleep to regain energy."

"Well, maybe if someone hadn't made us left San Francisco at those hours in the morning, he wouldn't be tired," the girl, Jade, remarked. Wait, did she…

"Did you say San Francisco?" Taranee stepped in the conversation. "That's… pretty fair away from Heatherfield."

"And I don't know it, girl;" Jade remarked in a deadpan tone. She then approached the table, and for some reason, Will stepped a little aside to let her enough room to sit. Maybe Will could make _two_ new best friends today.

"Why did you come here from San Francisco, anyway?" Cornelia asked in a maybe too bitter tone. Jade raised an eyebrow to her commentary but if she was offended, she didn't show it.

"Dunno, ask the old timer, but careful with which words do you choose, blondie;" Jade answered, making Cornelia scowl a little to her.

 _I think I've found someone enjoyable_ ; Irma thought.

"Well, then why are you here?" Cornelia asked to Uncle. "In fact, why are we all here? Is this some kind of prank, or… ouch!" Cornelia said s she took a hand to her head, into the same spot Uncle had just hit her with one of his famous dope slaps. "Did… did you just hit me?"

"Blondie-girl was being disrespectful to Uncle," the old man explained. "You should talk nicely to your elders; it's a sign of good educatiooooon!"

"Told ya' to choose your words," Jade remarked again, which made Cornelia to put on the face someone must have when suffering an aneurism.

"I like this one," Irma remarked as she smiled teasingly to Cornelia and pointed to Jade, which drove the blonde to the verge of hyperventilation.

"But, Cornelia made a good question," Taranee said again. "Why are we here? Why are them here?"

"I want to know that myself," Jackie said too. "Uncle, you just told us that we needed to come to this town just when we were back from Hong Kong. I have a work too."

"I will take care of the explanation," Yan Lin said, as she moved to one side. "Now, pick a good seat, because I'm about to tell you a very long tale."

Noticing Cornelia's scowl at her back, Hay Lin tried to reach her grandmother. "Wait, grandma, I don't think this is the best time for stories…"

However, Yan Lin paid her niece no attention, as she walked in front of all the presents so they could see. She moved her right hand out of the sleeves of her greenish kimono and touched a point in the air. Yellowish waves started to fluctuate then from that very same spot, and in an instant, an image depicting several stars, planets and moons appeared in front of them. And now, the one in the verge of having an aneurism was Will.

"Whoa, cool mojo," she heard Jade saying at her side. "I never saw you doing that, Uncle."

"Bah! Simple projection spell! Very easy to cast," the old man answered.

 _Wait, mojo, spell? What are they talking about?_ , Will thought, but then she was caught by Yan Lin's words.

"Long ago, the whole universe was nothing but a peaceful realm in which the Known Worlds, each one populated by its own creatures and people, lived in harmony." Yan Lin said as the planets in the image started to move. "But soon, Evil started to take root in the universe. To fight and contain that Evil, a congregation formed by sages of all the Known Worlds was formed, a Council of Light in the brilliant world of Kandrakar. In order to fight the Evil, Kandrakar gave to worthy chosen of their worlds access to the power of their world's Heart, every world's source of mystical energy, or in other words, magic."

 _Magic? Seriously?_ ; Will thought skeptically, but then again, this display was either magic or an incredibly elaborated hologram, and she doubted that Hay Lin's grandma had enough money for that.

"Magic? Seriously?; Cornelia said aloud what Will had only thought. "Magic's not real."

"Of course it is," Jade told the blonde. "Uncle and Tohru here are both wizards."

Before Cornelia could retort by saying how stupid that sounded, Uncle clenched his fist, opened it and made a little ball of green chi energy to fly from it to in front of Cornelia's face. There, the ball took the form of a mini-Uncle, who proceeded to dance in front of Cornelia and then dope slap her again before poofing into green smoke.

"Yes blondie-girl, magic _is_ real;" Uncle told her. "Now, shut your mouth and let cousin continue with her explanation."

"Thank you. As I was saying, each world, and before you ask, yes, there a lot of more worlds with intelligent life aside from Earth, Taranee and Jade; has its own Heart since then, and both Kandrakar and the worlds' own authorities kept the Evil in check," Yan Lin continued. "But thirteen years ago, a new Evil rose up in Earth's nearest neighbor in the cosmos, the world of Meridian. This Evil is no other than Prince Phobos, a man of the royal line of Escanor, the bloodline that has been ruling Meridian and owning its Heart since generations ago. Only Queens rule in Meridian, and only women are meant to control the Heart of that world. Phobos is a male heir, and thus not recognized by the Heart of Meridian. His mother, the late Queen Weira, years after Phobos' own birth; gave birth to a female heir, and the Prince, thinking that he was being stolen of a right he thought only his, murdered his own parents and seized control of Meridian by force. In order to prevent his Evil to extent to the nearest world, which is ours, Kandrakar put a Veil around Meridian, in order to put it in quarantine."

 _Overkill much?_ ; Jade thought. True, she didn't like how this Phobos seemed to threaten Earth, but quarantining a whole world? That seemed to not play in a lot of favor of the people living there.

"What happened to the little sister?" Hay Lin asked, a little concerned by the girl, or maybe it was that she was too invested into the story.

"The true heir, and holder of the Heart of Meridian, was sent here, to Earth, hidden from her brother. Meanwhile, a Rebellion has flourished in Meridian, and holes known as Portals started to break into the Veil since, permitting the people from Earth to stumble into Meridian… or Phobos' legions to cross here."

"Uhm… question?" Irma said raising her hand as if she was in class. "How do we exactly fit into all this?"

"I was waiting for someone to make that question," Yan Lin remarked and approached the box she had left over the table. "Have none of you wondered how Kandrakar fought against Evil?" Yan Lin opened the box, and took something out of it. Something resembling a spherical pink pendant with metal adornment that hanged from a little and thin chain. The pendant was glowing, and beating. It seemed alive.

"This is the Heart of Kandrakar, shaped as a jewel so its power can be transferred from one holder to another. From time to time, a group of five women from Earth are picked by the Heart, and given power in order to fight against any Evil across the stars, or protect and guard the Veil. Each Guardian is given control over an element they can wield at her disposal. As you all may guess as of now," Yan Lin said dispelling the image she had conjured earlier. "You, girls, are the new Guardian generation."

For a few minutes no one said anything, every person opting for remaining in silence. As Irma had done before her, Jade raised her hand in order to make a question.

"So this… Kandrakar," she said, putting effort into not mispronouncing it. "It's like some sort of intergalactic police-force?"

 _See? It sounds completely stupid_ ; Will thought. _Maybe this is really a dream…_

"Yes, it is;" Yan Lin answered.

"Then where the heck were they when we were facing against the family composed by EIGHT demon warlords wanting to conquer the world?!" Jade asked, a bit offended.

 _And there goes the last straw of rationality…_ ; Taranee thought sadly.

"Niece should be more forgiving," Uncle said. "Until now, cousin Yan Lin was the only remaining member of her generation."

"Wait, you fought demons?" Irma asked Jade, who just nodded. "Awesome!"

"Duh! Even went to space once to defeat one of them," Jade said proudly. "Scary dude wanted to use the moon to shape Earth into chaos."

"Really?" Irma asked, amazed.

"Please Irma, don't tell me that you believe her," Cornelia said, but Irma just smiled at her.

"Do I need to ask the nice old man to slap you with his mini-me again, Corny?" Irma said.

"Don't. Call me. Corny. Like, never again;" Cornelia said in a threatening tone, annoyed by her friend's obsession of nicknaming everyone.

Before a real discussion could erupt, Yan Lin stepped in, putting a plant in front of Cornelia. "Perhaps you need a more physical proof. Cornelia, you may have noted that plants and anything earth-related behaves strangely around you."

Cornelia looked doubtful for a moment, but then she made a movement towards the plant in front of her, which proceeded to grow and then fell from its flowerpot.

"Cool," Jade remarked, this time without wanting to criticize Cornelia.

"And Irma," Yan Lin said as she put a glass of water in front of the brunette. "You hold a strange connection to water," the old woman said as Irma made the liquid inside the glass to be lifted and dance in her palm.

"Taranee," Yan Lin adrssed the glasses wearing girl, positioning a candle over the table, near a little basket of fruits. "Your element is the most alive of all, the one of Fire. Even if it can bring destruction sometimes, it can also bring light and protection against harm;" Taranee pointed nervously a finger towards the candle and a little flame, no bigger than her fingertip, shot towards it. However, it ended igniting the tip of a banana instead of the candle.

"As for my little Hay Lin, you seem to have inherited my position, and be free as the air;" Yan Lin said, and in cue, hay Lin moved her hand and a current of air hit every present, making their hair move.

"This. Is. Awesome!" Irma yelled.

"So… they're like good counterparts of the Demon Sorcerers?" Jade asked.

"Just because the Sorcerers used elemental magic, doesn't mean that it belonged to them from the beginning, Jade;" Tohru said, his deep voice as collected and polite as ever. "These forms of magic seem more primal, purer, if you asked me."

"Excuse me, didn't you mention five Guardians?" Will asked then, and Yan Lin's gaze fell over her. The old woman approached her then, and put the jewel around her neck.

"This is for you. The Guardians are nothing without a leader, and that role, the role of Keeper of the Heart, befalls on you, Wilhelmina Vandom."

Will looked at the old lady. Then she looked at the other four girls, especially at how Cornelia was looking at her, the fact that she wasn't the one in control clearly discomforting the blonde. Will then looked at Jade and her family, and her head started to spin.

"I… we… I can't! It's too much! I…" Will sat up, left the jewel over the table and felt her stomach hurl. "Ugh… Where… Where's the bathroom?"

"In that direction, second door for the girls;" Yan Lin said, pointing to a spot in the restaurant. Will rushed to that spot, and even at such a distance, everyone could hear her vomiting.

"She took it better than I thought," Yan Lin remarked. "Normally, people faint after discovering all this."

"Can I make a question now?" Jackie said, having remained quite silent until now. "you have explained how they fit in this, but how do we fit here?"

"Training." Yan Lin answered plainly.

"Training?" Jackie asked confused.

"Becoming a Guardian doesn't incorporate a user's guide; and it's clear that my granddaughter and her companions don't have time to hone their skills before fighting the enemy," Yan Lin took a seat at Jade's side. "That's the reason I called for cousin and all of you. Counting with experienced wizards and trained hand to hand combatants will make things much easier."

"Hand to hand combat?" Taranee asked.

"Jackie and I know Kung-fu;" Jade declared. "He taught me, and now I'm an unstoppable machine of kicking butt."

 _I seriously doubt that_ , Cornelia thought, but she didn't open her mouth, fearing retaliation once again. Man, this wasn't her day.

"What about Will?" Irma asked, and sighing, Jackie stood up from his seat and headed towards the bathroom.

"I'll handle it."

* * *

Will had stopped vomiting a few moments ago, now panting as she sat down over the toilet. This was nuts, completely nuts! She just arrived in town, hoping for a tranquil and nice way of adjusting to her new life after her parents' divorce, and then BOOM! Magic was real, fairy tales were real! BOOM! She was some sort of… magical maiden, or something! What the hell was going on? She pinched at her arms several more times, but she didn't wake up.

 _Shit, this real_ ; she thought. _This is very, very real._

Someone knocked at the door then, and as Will raised her head a male voice came from the other side. "May I come in?" her interlocutor asked.

Will breathed deeply. "Sure."

The door opened slightly, revealing the pullover-wearing man behind it. He made only his head to enter, looking at Will with a worried expression.

"Are you feeling better?" Jackie asked her.

Will looked sideways. "My _stomach_ feels better."

 _God, she's just a teenager_ ; Jackie thought as he entered the bathroom and closed the door behind him. _This must be hitting her pretty hard not everyone is like Jade._

Upon entering, Will realized that the man was holding the pendant in his hand. The redhead frowned upon seeing the little jewel. "Why did you bring that here?" she asked. "I don't like it."

Jackie looked at his hand, and carefully put the Heart inside his pocket. Even there he could still feel the beating of the jewel, the unbelievable mass of power inside it. "Yes, it seems like a very heavy amulet for something so small."

"You've no idea, eh... sorry, your name was?" Will asked awkwardly.

"Jackie, Jackie Chan;" the man said. "Will, right?" The redhead nodded. "Listen Will, I know exactly how you feel right now..."

"How could you?" Will said, sounding more angered than she intended. "You didn't turn into some sort of champion of goodness from night to morning!"

"Do you know what my work is, Will?" Jackie asked her.

Will shook her head; of course she didn't know. Jackie leaned against the bathroom's wall. "I'm an archeologist. And before you say that it sounds cool, it normally isn't. Sure, you have to go on the search of a treasure from time to time, but mostly it's just investigation and paperwork. Lots of paperwork."

Will smiled a bit after that. Jackie continued to speak. "So my life was fairly normal, until one day I came back from Bavaria with a shield and it resulted to have a magic talisman in it... and then everything went out of control. The thing is, it doesn't matter if you try to run or negate this, it will come back at you." Jackie pulled the Heart out of his pocket. "So instead of running from it, why not face it head on? I know all this sounds like crazy, but at least you have people around that will walk the same path as you. So, what do you say?"

Will looked at the glowing jewel and then at the man holding it. She breathed deeply again, calming down. "I'll give it a try," Will said, and took the jewel from Jackie, putting it around her neck again. At her touch, the beat intensified.

* * *

 ** _Across the Veil; World of Meridian; Throne Room_**

Under the guide and rule of Queen Weira and many other Light Queens before her, the castle of Escanor had been a thing of beauty, light and marvelous halls. Once her son had taken over, however, the castle had been twisted into a dark mockery of what it used to be, with thorns running through its whole structure into the city. These thorns nailed themselves in the ground and were connected to Prince Phobos' throne room, where they converged under the seat from where the tyrant governed and drained this world. Many people called it the Thorn Throne due to this, but never in front of the Prince, of course.

Prince Phobos had always been a man of beauty, even as a child. Many had identified his long, platinum-blond hair and his choice of clothing with the desire to accentuate that beauty. He view himself as a man that possessed some kind of effeminate aura, something that he interpreted as the fact that he was the first male ruler of Meridian, the Androgynous. But he wasn't really the ruler, was he? No matter that he was the oldest child, no matter that he had been educated to rule since his birth, a little girl was shot from in between his mother's legs and she was the ruler, she was the one bestowed with god-like power! And oh how much had boasted those wastes of flesh that dared to call themselves his mother's courtiers, how much had they falsely lamented that he wasn't going to be the First King… Well, where were those now? Dead, dead all of them, even his very own mother and father. All of them gone… except for his little sister, who had been exiled to that 'Earth' world, carrying his destined power within her. Now he had to limit himself to be satisfied with the life-force of Meridian, and albeit the energy he absorbed raised him above the most skilled sorcerer's level, it wasn't enough to get rid of Heart-wielders. His failure of an attack over Zamballa years ago was proof of that. That's the reason he needed his sister back, he couldn't maintain his rightful position without power to backup it.

 _But I will have power, I will have her power. My Power_ ; Phobos thought as his gaze fell over Raythor, the dutiful and loyal soldier kneeling before him. Ah yes, there had been an explosion not even half an hour ago. Well, this seemed something worthy of his time. "Report, Captain."

"My liege," Raythor spoke, bowing his head. "The Rebel Leader has attacked and blew up the west armory. He has escaped, but Frost and the Rhinoceros Cavalry are already after him."

Phobos raised an eyebrow. "The leader of the Rebellion was here? In my palace, and was able to perpetrate an attack?!" Phobos' voice returned to normal. "I want security doubled until we have repaired the damage done to the armory, and I want that boy delivered in my presence."

"My liege, I'm sure Frost will be able to catch him. He's not Tracker, but his skills…" Raythor argued, but Phobos held a hand that silenced him.

"This is too important to let to simpleton guards; or a mere brute like Frost!" Phobos spoke, and made a signal to a figure standing in the shadows behind his throne.

Stepping into the light a man of green robes, brilliant blond hair and potent blue eyes appeared. He had a smug smile in his face, an air of superiority surrounding him. This man was the Prince's right hand man, advisor, and from time to time, private assassin. He was Lord Cedric, nicknamed the Snake of Cavigor; the Prince having recruited him from that hell-hole years ago in exchange of his services.

"Are you sure Raythor shouldn't be the one taking care of this situation, my Prince?" Cedric asked of Phobos, his voice melodious and sweet, yet horribly cold. As poison enveloped in honey, that was the Snake. "He proved himself quite effective against rebellious leaders in the past."

Raythor shot a glare at the Lord. Their mutual animosity was well known in the court; even more considering that they held equal power within it. Phobos, however, didn't pay attention to these matters. Rivalry always kept the skills honed to their peak, and he needed skilled subalterns.

"No Cedric, Raythor may be a great soldier, warrior, and strategist in large battles, but until Tracker returns from his latest hunt, you are the best suited man to this job," Phobos declared. "Now go and bring me that brat!"

Cedric smiled, and then his pupils became the ones of a reptile, the color changing from blue to yellow. In an angry roar, his body became enveloped by lightning and his form shifted from the flamboyant blond man to the one of an enormous Naga with green and red scales, a white mane of hair adorning his head and falling to half his back.

Raythor repressed the temptation to role his eyes. _Shapeshifters and their flashy shows… at least the spider girl isn't as exaggerated as him_ ; the Captain thought.

"It ssssshall be done, my liege;" Cedric hissed before opening a window and jumping straight from it to the outside. Phobos contemplated this with a pleased smile. Good, if there was someone who could capture the rebel boy; that was his Cedric.

"You are dismissed now, Captain Raythor;" Phobos told his loyal and honorable follower. "Go and return to your usual duties."

Raythor bowed and left the room. As soon as the soldier was gone, Phobos closed his eyes and started to drain energy from his kingdom. He had felt something earlier, like a change in the status quo. He didn't know what it meant, but he was certain of one thing… he needed more power in order to take care of it. _Oh sister, where are you?_

* * *

 ** _Meridian Plains, twenty minutes later_**

Caleb and Aldarn had left the capital and the castle way behind, and now were almost getting out of the Meridian Plains… that's it, if their Hoogongs weren't so tired. As soon as they dismounted, the two animals fell to the ground, exhausted and needed a rest. Caleb patted one of them in the head. "You did a good job," he told the animal.

"The nearest entrance to the Infinite City is still pretty far away," Aldarn told Caleb. "I don't know if we can keep the distance between us and Frost and his men for much longer."

"Not we, I;" Caleb said, lending Aldarn the stolen bow. "You return to the Infinite City with this one, I need to find a Portal as we planned, the Mage told me that there was a one opening from time to time around here. If the true heir was really sent to Earth, then…"

"Caleb, please don't be stupid," Aldarn told him. "We both can return to the Infinite city. If you need a Portal, we can use the stabilized one."

"And pay a fortune for its use to that manipulative, double-crosser and greedy excuse of a man that is Charles Ludmoore?" Caleb inquired. "No, thanks, I'll take my chance with _this_ Portal."

"If you insist…" Aldarn said before shaking Caleb's hand for what could eb the last time. "Let the Light of Meridian to guide you, my commander."

"Good luck to you to, my friend;" Caleb answered, and they parted separate ways.

As soon as Aldarn was gone, the ground started to tremble, and Caleb saw how Frost and the other Rhinoceros riders appeared in the horizon. Caleb looked around and saw a small hill of stone that he immediately started to climb. The high ground will make him to gain advantage, and maybe mislead them out of his trail. However upon finishing climbing, he gasped in horror upon noticing that he wasn't alone in the top of the hill.

Cedric had been there, waiting for him the entire time. The Snake of Cavigor looked down at the rebel, his expression one full of uninterested despise.

"How can someone so small be so troublesome?" the Lord asked in a neutral tone.

* * *

 ** _Across the Veil; Heatherfield_**

After Will's acceptance of the role as the Keeper of the Heart, even if Jackie had just being able to convince her to 'give a try'; the girls had moved to a spot under Heatherfield's main bridge in the company of the four members of the Chan Clan. While Jade chatted enthusiastically with Irma and Taranee; Hay Lin seemed more focused into having a friendly chat with Tohru, the gentle sumo answering politely to any question the Chinese living mass of energy had about their adventures. Trailing behind them, Jackie walked alongside Uncle.

"Uncle, can I ask you something?" the archeologist asked of his elder. "Why didn't you tell any of us about this Kandrakar, or the Veil, or any of this before?"

Uncle guarded silence, looking at the girls I front of him. For a moment, the image in front of him shifted, and the girls weren't themselves, but a complete different quintet of young women, all of them walking to another adventure. "Uncle has his reasons to… dislike Kandrakar. They do a good job of fighting Evil, but their methods… sometimes they do as much harm as they heal."

Jackie pondered this for a moment as the group reached their destination. It was a place far enough of any attention, the perfect spot to practice whatever was going to happen. The five girls positioned themselves away from the Chan Clan, and Will held out the Heart. Minutes passed without anything happened, and both the girls and the Chans were confused.

"Maybe it has a switch, or something?" Taranee asked.

Will started to inspect the Heart, but Uncle approached her, and made her stop with a dope slap. Rubbing her head, the redhead scowled at the old man, who took her hand into his and looked at her seriously.

"This is not a machine, this is a Heart, this is magic, and it operates in its own rules;" uncle spoke. "You must feel the power within the crystal, and you must feel the power inside of you and your companions. Oly then you will be able to unlock the power of a Heart."

 _For someone that dislikes Kandrakar, he knows a lot about how their magic works_ ; Jackie thought.

Will stared at the heart then, doing as the elder had told her to do. _This is useless_ , Will thought. _Concentration, feel the power, what a bunch of… wait, now I'm feeling something_. And indeed, she was feeling something. At first it came small, a pulse from the jewel. Then it became stronger, and the pulse divided into five pulses going at unison. The jewel started to glow strongly, and Will started to float in the air, the streams of light that came from the jewel becoming as thick as pillars.

"What's going on?!" Jade shouted as she and her family were pushed backwards by the power radiating from the Heart.

"We must find cover! Being near first transformation always a bad idea!" Uncle yelled.

 _Wait, did he said transformation?_ ; Jade thought, but then she looked into the redhead's direction and saw how the other four girls were being lifted in the air too. And then, Jade Chan heard the words that would change her life forever, the words that would immerse her into a universe of new surprises and perils.

Guardians, Unite!

From the Heart, four streams of different colors shot themselves, each one from Irma, Taranee, Cornelia and Hay Lin. Will was also was took by one stream of energy, and the Chan Clan (except for Uncle) looked in amazement at how the five girls were enveloped in spherical masses of energy. As they looked, they were certain that see things moving inside of the spheres, as if the girls were being transformed.

"Uncle! What's happening?!" Jackie yelled.

"Wait and see…" Uncle said as he eyed the transformation stoically. Ah, this brought back memories, when he had passed a summer here, with Yan's family. He couldn't fight back a nostalgic smile on his face. Ah, memories.

The five sphere started to dispel, and what emerged from them were the same five girls than before… except that calling them 'the same' wouldn't be correct.

Air!

Earth!

Fire!

Water!

The Heart!

Now standing in front of the Chan Clan were five women. Emphasis in the word _women_ ; not girls. The five teenagers had experienced a sudden jump from puberty straight into adulthood, looking now like women in their twenties. To add to the weirdness of the new image, they were all clad in the strangest outfits every member of the Chan Clan had never seen, all of them composed of different styled tops showing their midriffs, and skirts that went from long like Hay Lin's and Cornelia's, to shorts like Taranee's; passing from the normal looking ones of both Will and Irma. All of them were wearing blue and green colored stripped tights; and most surprising of it all, they had wings at their backs.

"Whoa, what just happened?" Jade asked aloud, staring with her mouth wide open to the quintet of winged women in front of her.

"These are the forms that the Guardians of Kandrakar use in battle, the Heart empowering their bodies and magical abilities to their fullest;" Uncle explained. "The uniforms are different from the ones of Yan's generation, though."

Jackie and Tohru, meanwhile, were more concerned by the fact that the girls seemed strangely quiet right now. Looking at each other, the sumo and the martial artist approached the quintet. "Are you alright?" Jackie inquired.

Will's eyes were staring blankly at the ground, the feeling of the transformation still fresh in her mind. It had felt… it was _indescribable_ how it had felt. She tried to explain the feeling in her head, but she couldn't find any appropriate words. Instead, the only thing leaving her mouth was…

"Holy cow!" Will yelled. "Did anyone else feel that?!"

"You bet _I_ did!" Irma answered.

"Somehow, I can't imagine your grandma wearing these things…" Taranee spoke next, focusing in their change of outfits.

"What do we have behind us?" Hay Lin said, looking back at her new wings.

"What do we have in front of us?" Cornelia remarked proudly, her mind more interested in the fact that all of them had become way bigger.

 _Of course she would focus in that_ ; Irma thought, just for her attention to fall over her own breasts. _Then again, I think I'm bigger than her_.

"Wings! We got wings!" Hay Lin cheered, still amazed by their new appendages.

"They can't be wings, if they were, by doing this…" Will said, just to start flapping her wings and start floating in the air. Seeing this, Hay Lin flapped her own, and then skyrocketed into the air.

"They can fly too?!" Jade asked, amazed to the extreme. "Oh my god, how much cool is that?"

Meanwhile, as Taranee complained about her dizziness in high heights, Irma was literally creating water around her hands. She pointed her palms to the ground and shot a little blast of water against it. "Cool… Now you do something!" she said, pointing to Taranee, who with a bit of fear pointed her finger to the ground as if it was a gun, shooting a little flame to it.

Cornelia, meanwhile, was laughing at her friends' display, just for her to stumble, fall in the Earth and produce an overly grown cactus out of it. Landing in her hands, she saw how the ground opened slightly under her palms, revealing a worm cuddling in the mud; a worm that went straight to make contact with her. Cornelia shouted in discomfort and stumbled backwards.

"I think that the coolness has decreased a bit…" Jade commented, just to see how Will, who continued floating in the air without control, fell directly over Cornelia. "I was wrong, it has disappeared."

"Sensei I can understand why they need help with their use of magic from you, but why is Jackie's need required?" Tohru asked of his mentor in the ways of chi magic.

"Being a Guardian doesn't just mean that you have power over an element, it means that your strength, resistance, agility and speed are enhanced to a limit beyond the ones of humanity. They not only need guidance in the world of magic, but also control, discipline, training;" Uncle explained with a serious face that matched his tone of voice. "For that nephew is a very good option. And I fear that now that Shendu and his brethren are gone, a new Evil will also raise to fill that vacuum of power. Phobos and his delusions of conquest could very much be that."

"So we got ourselves into a new adventure," Jade remarked, quite thrilled by the prospect of fighting another set of bad guys.

Jackie looked at his niece, and the quintet of girls. Somehow, he felt that he had been entrusted with five more Jades. _Ah… it seems I can't catch a break; he thought_.

* * *

 ** _Across the Veil; Meridian_**

As the Guardians finished their first flight lesson, Caleb ended his fall from the top of the hill to its bottom, where he landed in his back, his body aching with pain. _Augh… I think I broke something there…_ ; he thought. Then he felt a change of density in the air, and he saw how something luminous appeared behind him. _Finally!_

Cedric arrived minutes later, coiling down the hill of rocks. He had enjoyed playing with his prey, but now it was time to finish the job. But then he saw the Portal, and the boy rushing to it. Realizing that the possibility of losing the boy was now over y real, Cedric roared in anger and rushed in pursue of Caleb, both of them entering the hole in the Veil into Earth.

* * *

 ** _Back on Earth…_**

"Okay, I think we destroyed enough property for today… ugh!" Will protested as she took one of her hands to her head. The other four girls and the Chans approached her, Hay Lin landing perfectly and putting a hand over the redhead's shoulders.

"You okay?" the Air Guardian asked of the Keeper.

"Yes… it's just, like a feeling in my head;" Will explained. "Something… something is going to happen."

 _She has her own willies!_ ; Jade thought in amazement.

"What do you mean with some-" Cornelia started to ask, but her question was cut short when the swirling, bluish form of a Portal opened in front of them all.

"Whoa!" Taranee exclaimed, jumped slightly.

"So that's a Portal?" Jade asked. "It's prettier than the ones I've seen."

"Something's coming," Will muttered.

"What?! Something's coming from the big, scary hole in the fabric of reality?" Irma asked in a joking tone, albeit she did so to cover her own fear.

Jackie took Jade by her shoulder and put her at his back. "Jade, stay behind me," he told her as he readied himself for whatever may come from the Portal in the air. His own experiences with this kind of situation had taught him that nothing good uses to come from Portals. At his sides, Tohru and Uncle readied their old dried lizard and blowfish, respectively.

Imagine his surprise when a boy no older than fifteen years old appeared from the Portal, landing badly in the ground. Imagine the boy's surprise when he raised his head and saw not only three strangers obviously ready to battle, but also five women that, considering all the stories his father used to tell him, couldn't be no other than the Guardians of Kandrakar.

"Is a… boy?" Taranee asked, not giving credit to what she was seeing.

"A cute boy;" Cornelia remarked.

"We… we have to run!" Caleb yelled.

"Something more is coming!" Will said, but both statements came too late.

Cedric's upper half body crossed the Portal, arriving in Earth with all its scaled glory, roaring angrily. The deafening sound of the roar took all the girls by surprise. It didn't do the same for any of the Chan Clan, though. But the Snake of Cavigor didn't trouble himself with that, instead focusing in Caleb and graving him with one of his claws. The boy struggled, but Cedric had caught him in a strong grip, and once a snake caught a prey, they hardly let it go.

"Do something!" Cornelia demanded of Will, who kept staring at the gigantic monster in front of her. She was terrorized, it felt as if she was a child again, and she couldn't do a thing. She wanted her mother, _now_.

Hay Lin flew into the air, and trying to be useful, she shot a current of air towards Cedric, who just swung his free claw towards her, dispelling the air attack and striking Hay Lin down. The Air Guardian fell over Taranee and Irma, sending them to the ground in the process. Seeing this, Cedric was confident of an easy victory… until a blue blur flew from the ground and hit him in the chin, making his head to stumble back and hurt. Landing in front of the Guardians, Cedric was met by the sight of Jackie Chan, who kept himself ready to battle against him.

 _What, who is he?;_ the Lord thought, but as he readied another attack, he was met with a green blast of green energy that hurt a lot, leaving the scales over which it had impacted slightly burned. The blast was followed by another; and another one after that. Looking behind the man and the Guardians, he saw both Tohru and Uncle shooting chi blasts at him, alongside Jade, who kept staring at him strangely. _Wizards?! They have Wizards?!_ ; the Snake thought with anger. He couldn't keep up if they were really experienced sorcerers, so he decided to retire. He had his prize, after all.

"Keeper must close Portal with the Heart!" Uncle yelled.

Will raised the Heart, who instantaneously started to shot pink energy to the Portal, making it to start closing, but not before Cedric could went back in it… with Caleb in hand. The Portal close and the five Guardians of Kandrakar were left there, panting and not knowing exactly if what they had seen was real, or a very horrible nightmare.

"You lost him!" Cornelia blamed Will, but then Uncle approached them and dope slapped Cornelia one more time.

The Chinese elder looked a t the spot where the Portal had been just seconds ago, Jackie still maintaining a combat position, just in the case the hole in the Veil returned. "Uncle thinks the training session has ended."

* * *

 ** _The Silver Dragon_**

The Guardians, now returned to human, Jade and Jackie were sitting at a table in the restaurant, Hay Lin drawing in sketch book; night falling over Heatherfield already. Yan Lin, Uncle and Tohru were reading through several books, trying to identify the monster.

"I think that I found something, sensei;" Tohru spoke, pointing to a page in a book. "Here, Shapeshifters, a native species of Meridian; also known as Changelings or the Fair Folk here on Earth. They are described as beings with the ability to alternate between a human form and an animalistic one."

"The monster looked like this," Hay Lin said, handing her sketchbook to her grandmother, with her depiction of the beast in it.

"Lord Cedric…" Yan Lin muttered, remembering the time in which she, Kadma and Halinor had travelled to aid Zamballa. Cedric was already a member of Phobos' court back then, and fearsome to say the least.

"They have very low knighting standards in Meridian," Irma remarked drily.

"I can't believe we lost that boy like that…" Cornelia said.

"Don't blame yourself Cornelia," Taranee told her friend, who in return changed from sorrow to anger as if she had pressed a switch.

"I'm not blaming myself, I'm blaming her!" the blonde yelled towards Will, who in return seemed to sullen in her seat. "She was the one that didn't close the Portal in time!"

"Didn't see _you_ doing anything either," Jade remarked, which only added wood to the fire that was Cornelia's anger. "In fact, my family did all the work."

"Why you little…!" Cornelia started to protest, but Jackie put an end to that.

"Fighting between yourselves; trying to blame one another won't solve anything," Jackie said. "And Jade, the only reason we could answer so fast was just because we are used to fight these kind of threats."

"Whatever…" Jade and Cornelia both said in unison, closing their arms at the same time.

"He is right, you must focus into the enemy ahead of you," Yan Lin spoke. "In-fighting can only lead to…" the image of a green eyed brunette laughing maniacally behind the energy bars of a prison crossed her mind for a moment; "very _ugly_ consequences. I'm certain that Phobos knows about your existence as by now, and that he will try to take you all out of the equation as soon as he is presented with an opportunity."

"Great…" Will said ironically. Why had she accepted this thing about being the Keeper of the Heart to begin with? Now there was some kind homicidal maniac out there, hoping to gut her. What if he went after her mom? What if…? Oh, too many possibilities… each one more horrible than the previous. The Heart, still hanging from her neck, now weighted more than ever.

Something pulled then from the redhead's sleeve, and looking to the person the hand belonged to, Will saw Jade looking at her, the orange hoodie wearing girl having noticed her bad mood. "Hey c'mon, don't give me that face. Everything's going to turn out okay, My family has been up against international criminals, shadow ninjas, dragons, and demons, and it turned out fine; and we don't even have superpowers like you, A bit of training and you will be as tough as Jackie and me, and uncle and Tohru can teach you all to control your powers. Besides, you're the good guys, and good guys always win. Okay?"

Will noted how her lips turned into a smile, and how the Heart seemed to lose a lot of its previous weight. She didn't know if it was the girl's choice of words, or the sheer strength the redhead could see in her golden-like eyes, but Will felt more confidant after Jade spoke to her. The redhead's smile widened. "Okay. You're right, Jade, Good always triumphs against Evil," Will remarked, remembering the fairy tales her mother used to tell her. And yet, little she knew, little none of them knew that the line that separates Good from Evil can be blurry sometimes, or not exist at all. And maybe what you call Good can be Evil in another man's eyes, and his Good be Evil in yours. Maybe there aren't Good and Evil at all. And these five girls and this family… these Guardians, Wizards and Kung-fu fighters… they were going to learn that lesson very soon.

* * *

 _In my life I've been certain of a lot of things, and dubious of other ones. Sometimes I became dubious of the ones I was certain, or certain of the ones I was dubious about. But if there is one thing I'll always be certain of is that you can always trust and count in Jade Chan_.  Wilhelmina 'Will' Vandom.

* * *

 **Authors Notes: That was a massive chapter for the first one… but considering I don't know if I will be updating this in a long time, I suppose is good to let all of you with enough material to read. I hope the others don't fill so much space… Now for a little explanation… the reason I decided to immerse the JCA characters (both heroes and villains) into the WITCH universe and not to do the exact opposite was because I feel that, after five seasons, the main plot of JCA doesn't have anything else to offer or develop. The main characters were developed, and the myth arc of the show ended around the fourth season, having to repeat itself in the fifth one. The WITCH plot, however, has a lot more of potential to explore and a lot of question to answer that never were in the show, mainly because it was cancelled before the third season could air. And so, I have decided to rewrite the entire two seasons adding the Chans to the mix. And albeit the first three chapters of the first season will develop more or less exactly the same as they were in the cartoon, by the start of the fourth chapter, this story will start diverging from canon. The main plot of the first season, finding Elyon and preventing her power to be absorbed, will be still the main line, but there will be other plots, other antagonists showing up in the conflict… and other things. I must admit I enjoyed rewriting the episode It Begins into this chapter, It Begins with a Bang; and I'm quite excited to see how the Chans are going to change the WITCH universe, for better or worse. Also, if you have read my other WITCH fanfic, you may know that I don't like that the WITCH show always played into Black and White morality, so as this story advances, the tone of the war in Meridian will become more and more grey, albeit not in a unbelievable extreme that isn't plausible, like I think I did by overexagerating in 'A different story'.**

 **That was all. I hope you enjoyed this one, and if you have any idea, comment, or counsel for the story; leave me a review or send me a PM.**

 **Bye, Bye!**


	2. It Resumes with a Rescue

**Disclaimer: I own neither the WITCH cartoon-show nor Jackie Chan Adventures; they are the property of their respective creators, writers, and producers.**

 **A/N: Many thanks to author Zim'sMostLoyalServant for being the first review of this crossover. Also, many thanks to my usual guest review Matt, who pointed out a couple of scenes that went missing from last chapter, and that I've already added. This will be mainly a rewriting of It Resumes, but with several changes. As I said, after my rendition of The Key (third episode of the first season) we will start with my own episodes and own plot, which won't diverge extremely from canon, but you'll see… For now, enjoy this chapter. For more notes, see end of the chapter.**

* * *

Guardians, Wizards and Kung-Fu Fighters

Episode Two

It Resumes with a Rescue

* * *

 ** _World of Meridian; Throne Room_**

The Thorn Throne was radiating with energy, Prince Phobos siphoning it from the land and noting how it make him stronger, more powerful than any other meridianite. Albeit Cedric had returned from his mission successful, the Prince couldn't rub the feeling that something had changed, that the balance of power had changed… and not precisely in his favor. Cedric, still in his snake form, bowed before him in order to report about his mission. Phobos was curious; normally Cedric reverted to his human form in court, but not now, and that meant that the Snake of Cavigor was feeling uncomfortable. Also, the Prince noted that he had the remains of a couple of burns over his body, which meant that he had entered battle. The presence of Raythor, who had also been summoned to the Prince's presence, didn't help in the slightest.

Phobos closed his eyes, and breathed deeply in order to calm himself. He acted very impulsively when not calmed. _Enemies, enemies all around me; trying to take what is mine by birthright_ ; he thought as he opened his eyes. "Report."

"My liege," Cedric started to say, his voice a reptilian hiss. "I successssssfully captured the rebel leader, but in doing so, I had to cross a Portal to the realm of Earth, and there I faced the Guardians of Kandrakar in battle."

Phobos' eyes twinkled for a second, but he didn't let it to show. "The Guardians? The Guardians are old women now Cedric; and only one has the Heart currently."

"No my Prince Phobos;" the Snake of Cavigor corrected his master, albeit in a humble tone in order to not provoke him. "These were five new Guardians, young girls probably."

Phobos' face showed then a change in his expression, something that the Prince didn't normally let to happen. Emotions meant that you are a regular human being, and thus killable, challengeable. _This must be it, what I felt earlier_ ; the Prince thought. "So the Heart has passed to a new generation at last… But they shouldn't be able to reach their full potential if a Veil is raised around Meridian, and they are surely young and inexperienced…"

"There is more, my liege;" Cedric interrupted his Prince. "While battling the Guardians I faced other three opponents. One of them seemed to be a warrior of some kind, and the other two were wizards."

Now Phobos frowned. Kandrakar's allies, perhaps? Maybe sent to aid the new generation? An untrained and inexperienced group of Guardians was one thing, but wizards to aid them? That was dangerous to his reign, dangerous to his plans. He needed to look into it... but first things first, better take care of the problem that lived in the same world as him.

"Good job, Cedric;" Phobos told his second in command. "Now, I would want to meet with the man who leads those idiotic peasants."

Cedric bowed and moved to one side of the room. Shortly after, the sound of titling chains could be heard, and Caleb was dragged into the room, both hands chained to one another. The one dragging him was a bulking being of blue skin, with white, scaly protuberances in one side of his head and chin. This bulky man, a genuine and pure-blooded Galhot was named Vathek, warden of the castle's dungeons... and secretly a member of the Rebellion, spying and giving information about Phobos' forces. It was thanks to him that Caleb had been able to perpetrate the latest attack. The blue Galhot kneeled and put in his best 'loyal soldier' act.

"The troublemaker, Prince Phobos;" Vathek spoke.

As he was dragged in front of the tyrant, Caleb looked back and caught a glimpse of Raythor's waving cape. The Snake was smiling smugly near him, and as he raised his head, he was met by the sight of Prince Phobos himself. _There he is, the root of all Evil in this world_ ; Caleb thought. It was as if someone had put all the men he hated in the same room.

"This... this is the rebel leader?" Phobos asked, genuinely surprised and disappointed. "They must have been desperate to put you in command, boy."

"This boy blew up one of your armories," Caleb retorted proudly.

A dry chuckle escaped the Prince's mouth then. "A pathetic and pointless attack which results I can repair by snapping my fingers; and on top you left yourself to be captured," Phobos' grin widened then. "Your first direct act in command and you endanger your whole little Rebellion. Your father must be revolving in his own grave."

 _That was a very low blow_ , Vathek thought. _Damn it Caleb, don't do anything..._

"Don't dare you to speak about my father!" Caleb yelled in anger as he jumped towards Phobos, the chains slipping from Vathek's grip.

Expecting this outcome, Phobos raised a finger and a beam of swirling energy shot from it, taking Caleb and holding him in the air, helpless. The Prince lowered his finger, making Caleb smash against the floor of the throne room, groaning in pain.

"Take him to the oubliette, Vathek," Phobos ordered. "I will see to his interrogation later."

Vathek rose and bowed in faked respect and obedience to his Prince; taking Caleb's chains in his hands again and dragging him out as he had dragged him in.

That left Raythor and Cedric alone with their Prince. Approaching the center of the room, both men expected Phobos' orders. The rebel gone, Cedric transformed into his human self, again in a flashy way.

"That settles that matter. Now..." Phobos reached into his sleeve, were a sand powder always rested. Taking a handful and imbuing it with magic, threw it to the floor, in where it started to twirl until it became a circle that showed an image. The sand mirror showed the image of a redheaded girl, a glowing pink crystal that both Shapeshifter and Half-breed identified as the heart of Kandrakar.

"Who is she?" Raythor asked.

"The new and current Keeper of the Heart," Phobos answered. He took a hand to his chin, ruffling his goatee and thinking his next move. "Cedric, take some of the Lurdens, find a Portal and go to Earth. Bring this girl into my presence."

"As you wish," Cedric answered, excusing himself with a soft bow and exiting the room.

"Raythor," Phobos addressed the Captain after that. "Instruct that Lieutenant of yours to find Frost and see if Tracker has already returned. Tell him that I demand for both of them to be in court immediately. Search for Miranda too, and order her to go to the Alchemical Laboratory and bring the wizard here. After that, maintain yourself near the oubliette. Rebels aren't well-known for surrendering."

"Of course, my Lord," the Captain answered.

Raythor bowed and exited the room too, letting Phobos to recline in his throne and focus on the absorption of power once more. His mind revised once again all the information he had received from his minions, especially from Cedric. While his mind was telling him that all this new characters in the play were a menace, a part of him was thrilled by the new possibilities.

 _If I play my cards right, I could gain the power of the Heart of Kandrakar alongside my sister's…_

* * *

 ** _Across the Veil; Shell Beach_**

"C'mon girl, turn that frown upside down!" Irma Lair, in her Guardian form, said to a frowning jade Chan, the orange hoodie wearing girl sitting over a rock in the shore of Shell Beach, near a cave. They all had agreed that this was a great spot in order to train; no curious eyes, no property that could be broken… After the five girls had finished school that day, they all had come to this spot alongside Jackie, Jade and Tohru; Uncle remaining in the restaurant in order to help Yan Lin with something. They all had come here eager to learn how to use their powers… all of them except Jade, who after tomorrow would be attending Sheffield Institute with the girls, albeit a grade less than them.

"But it's so unfair!" the girl protested.

"How's that unfair?" Cornelia asked. "We all have to attend school, why should you be any different?"

"Because I'm not from this city!" Jade protested yet again. "Duh!"

"Neither was Will until yesterday, the same day you arrived," Irma pointed out. "And besides, tomorrow's just picture day, so it's basically the same as not having school at all."

"Tch," was Jade's only response, and she crossed her arms over her torso.

"What I still don't understand is how you were accepted so quickly," Will said as she approached them. "Mom had to do a lot of paperwork in order to get me there in time."

"Friends in high places," Jackie said as he looked for a part of the shore that was stable enough to train the girls. He found one into a little rock formation that was plain enough not to cause stumbles.

 _You own me a BIG one Captain Black_ ; Jade thought with disdain as she saw how the five girls flew and positioned themselves in front of Jackie, waiting eagerly for the training lesson to start. _Well, at least I'll see a good show_.

"So, what are we learning today, Mr. Chan?" Hay Lin asked in her usual cheerful manner. "How to escape from a buried coffin using our bare hands? How to break a brick with our heads? Maybe…"

"Today, we will learn how to punch," Jackie said, surprising the quintet of girls.

"Seriously?" Irma asked. "I thought we would be learning, you know; something more flashy."

"The 'flashy' part comes when Tohru teaches you how to work your magic properly," Jackie explained. "Have you ever been in a fight in your whole lives?" The girls looked to each other, clearly acknowledging that they hadn't.

"Do tickle fights count?" Hay Lin asked, just for Jackie to smile and shake his head slowly. "Oh…"

"Then form a line, and one by one, you all will try to punch me;" Jackie explained, and the girls did as he had asked them to do.

Jade wasn't very surprised of seeing Cornelia taking the first spot in the line, with Will at the last one. Even after everything that happened yesterday with the Portal, the Snake and the rebel boy, Will still seemed not fully integrated in the group, mainly due to certain blonde. Jade couldn't avoid smiling to the girl's direction, clearly feeling a bit of pity for her lack of confidence. Jade never had that kind of problem, but she could empathize. Cornelia, meanwhile, positioned herself in front of Jackie, ready to attack.

"When you're ready," Jackie told the blonde, who proceeded to throw a punch towards Jackie. The archeologist, however, dodged quite easily by turning out of the way of the punch, and Cornelia, having put too much strength into it, lost her balance and fell to the ground, where she landed face first with a loud groan.

"Hey! You dodged!" the blonde protested from the ground.

"I never said I couldn't;" Jackie answered. _Is as I thought, they aren't accustomed to having so much strength, neither to fighting_ ; the martial artist thought as he helped Cornelia up and she went directly to the end of the line. Irma and Hay Lin tried next, meeting more or less the same results, albeit Irma fell on her butt and Hay Lin was able to stop her falling with her air control and her wings. Surprising Jade immensely, Taranee was the one that did the better, throwing a punch and not losing her balance like the other three did, earning an approval smile from Jackie. Seemed like the bookworm was the only one that understood how the added strength of being a Guardian worked.

Will was, of course, the last one. Jackie had to admit to himself that he was more interested in training the redhead than any of her four companions. While the others had elemental powers in order to use as defense, Will had none. That meant she had just enhanced strength, speed and durability, and that; considerer that kind of magical threats that Jackie had faced in his own, wasn't a very optimistic situation.

Will threw a punch like the others, and she fell to when Jackie dodged, the archeologist taking a few steps back this time. However, as she was falling Will moved her wings and stopped her fall like Hay Lin… and suddenly threw another punch towards Jackie, taking the man by surprise and forcing him to block it.

"You threw another punch," Jackie said as he loosened his grip around Will's fist. This time his was a smile of pride.

"You never said we couldn't," the redhead retorted.

All the other girls looked surprised by Will's successful attempt at attacking Jackie, even Cornelia couldn't do nothing but look completely impressed at the Keeper's display. Jade snickered at the girl's surprising ability to use a loophole, something she had in common with her.

As for Jackie, he was reconsidering his former statement about the Keeper of the Heart. _Maybe not so helpless at all_ , he thought.

* * *

 ** _Vandom residence_**

Will let her body fell over her bed completely worn out; night having taken over Heatherfield, and her mother making dinner for the two of them back in the kitchen. While the others had been practicing their powers with Tohru, she had been given an extra lesson in hand to hand combat with both Jackie and Jade, the redhead forced to practice her new moves with the twelve year old girl. Will rubbed her tired legs in an annoyed manner. _That kid's too strong for a twelve year old_ ; she thought. _Then again, I'll be still twelve until my birthday comes in a couple of weeks_.

"Will! Dinner's ready!" she heard her mother, Susan, calling for her.

Will rose up from her bed and went to the kitchen. Her mother was actually quite happy about the fact that Will had seemed to make new friends so easily, but of course she didn't know about all the 'Guardians stuff'. _Friends, uh?_ ; Will thought. _I don't know if I should be calling them all that so soon. I never was a very social person anyway…_ ; the redhead's mind travelled back to Fadden Hills, her hometown. But she forced herself to stop her mind from going there.

 _Well, better not think about it_ , Will told herself. _Mom's happy, and a happy Mom means something good for dinner_.

As Will Vandom sat at her table with her mother, however, in the dark streets of Heatherfield's night, a shinning Portal opened in an alley, and from it came four Lurdens, and Lord Cedric's human form behind them.

"Search for the redhead girl I told you about," Cedric ordered the quartet of humanoid creatures. "In the moment you see her in the least of company, capture and bring her to me."

The four Lurdens gave an affirmative growl to Cedric and scattered around Heatherfield, searching for Will. Lurdens weren't known for the ability to track any odor, but yes magical might. Maybe that was the reason they had sided with Phobos during the Prince's cup, after all he was the mightiest living being in Meridian.

Cedric looked back at the Portal, the swirling mass of blue energy making him think about his current condition. _I hope this one last long enough for us to return without having to wait. I don't want to get stuck in this reeking world_.

* * *

 ** _Next morning_**

"That's not a very good choice of clothes for picture day," Jade pointed out, as she and Will (using her usual casual and comfortable clothes) walked the street from their homes into Sheffield's direction. Albeit having the possibility of a home in the form of their family connection to the Lins, Jackie didn't want to exploit their kindness, and the Chans had rented a flat near Will's block. So, for the girl it seemed rational to accompany the redhead in the way to school.

"Says the girl that always wears an orange hoodie," Will retorted. "And this is just picture day. I mean, who gets preoccupied with appearing like a model in a school photograph?"

"I bet _Corny_ does," Jade said, having taken in Irma's custom of calling the blonde that nickname. "I'm sure she will be like ' _Oh, look at this new pair of jeans, do they make my butt bigger? In a good way?_ '."

"Jade, that's rude," Will reprimanded her, but the redhead couldn't hide a smile of her own. However, all that fun was cut short when the pair of girls passed in front of an alley, and then a quartet of monsters jumped straight in front of them, taking each pair one of them by force.

"What the-?!" Jade said, but all their pleas fell in a broken sack when they were dragged to the alley, directly in front of a Portal. They struggled in order to get rid of the Lurdens' grip, but the only thing they were able to accomplish was for their bags to fell to the ground. Their hopes of escaping completely died when Cedric, now back into his snake form in order to inspire more fear, appeared and pointed to the swirling hole in the Veil.

"Take them in!" the Lord roared. "They have a very important meeting to attend…"

As the Lurdens dragged both girls into the Portal Cedric shot one last look at Heatherfield. _Better to take the other girl too, or she would have alerted the others…_ ; and with that lat thought, the Snake of Cavigor entered the hole in the Veil, which closed behind him.

However, he hadn't count in the presence of Taranee Cook, who having heard the ruckus in her own way at Sheffield, had approached the alley as fast as she could, thinking that she was hearing an assault. Instead, she only found Will's and Jade's school bags, and looking at them, the Guardian of Fire was able to put two and two together.

* * *

 ** _Sheffield Institute_**

"Hey, does my new pair of jeans make my butt bigger? In a good way?" Cornelia asked of Irma and Hay Lin as she patted her backside. The two girls looked at Cornelia, and both of them rolled their eyes. "What?" the blonde asked.

"Yeah Corny, your butt is fantastic, as always;" Irma teased her friend, who just scowled at her.

"Haha," Cornelia laughed dry and sarcastically. "Very funny, _Irmy_. Like you didn't choose that precise top in order to accentuate certain 'assets'."

Irma blushed deeply at the blonde's counterargument, and looked sideways. If she was going to say something back, nobody knew, because in that moment, Taranee appeared in scene, running like the Devil was going after her; carrying two school bags on top of her own.

"Guys, guys, guys, guys!" Taranee shouted as she approached the other three girls. "We've a very big problem!" she said putting the two bags in the floor.

"Aren't those Will and Jade's bags?" Irma asked, just for Taranee to nod like crazy.

"I was coming here, and then I heard all this noise, like an assault;" she explained, almost hyperventilating. "But when I went there, there wasn't anyone, and the two bags were there, and this was inside Will's!" Taranee yelled in worry as she took the Heart of Kandrakar out of her pocket. "I think… I think that those people from Meridian took them!"

"Oh crap," Irma said. "Are we sure of that?"

"What other explanation do you have?" Taranee said.

"And what do we do?" Cornelia asked. "Without Will using that little shiny, we can't transform."

"Better call Jackie and the others," Hay Lin said as she took out her phone. "They'll know what to do."

"Second day on the superhero job, and already have to safe a damsel in distress;" Irma replied dryly.

* * *

 ** _Across the Veil, World of Meridian_**

 _Go and spy on those rebels, Miranda; go and kill that man, Miranda; go and bring the wizard to court, Miranda… I'm a Shapeshifter, not an errand boy!_

Miranda, a fourteen year old Shapeshifter with an alternate form that resembled a spider (if spiders were enormous balls of black fur bigger than a man with four humanoid, grey and thin appendages, and four brilliant blue eyes) and that had been in service of Prince Phobos for almost half her life, complained in her thoughts as she climbed the walls of the castle towards the Alchemical Laboratory. She reached the entrance to the wing of the castle that served as Phobos' way of producing abominations like the mudslugs or the larveks, or trying to reproduce already living ones like Tracker.

She maintained her beast form upon entering, crawling inside the Laboratory. There was something awful about that wizard from earth that Phobos' had taken into his service a few years ago. Maybe it was the fact that he demanded prisoners or even guards that asked too many questions to be dragged into his lab and that those weren't heard about again, or maybe it was the fact that his and Tracker's camaraderie and enjoyment of company seemed to be _genuine_. That, somehow, startled Miranda.

"Wizard!" Miranda called as she crawled around the laboratory and the fuming dark purple potions, the bubbling liquids, jars full with eyes that _still_ moved, and corpses of different species hanging from the ceiling. "Wizard, come out! The Prince demands your presence in the court!"

"I thought me and Phobos agreed that my title was Archmage," a deep and dry voice with a strange accent said at her back.

Spinning around in a fast jump, Miranda was greeted with the sight of Phobos' magical advisor. At first he didn't look nothing but a frail old man, hair white and skin of a sick pale color; black tattoos adorning his face, one eye without any color and the other of a deep greenish blue tone. Wrinkles adorned his face and the rest of his skinny body, and thin arms and hands ended in sharp nails that resembled a Lurden's claws. He was dressed in a robe of dark colors, mainly black and dark green; and his hand carried a twisted root-like staff, in which end Miranda could see purple shadows dancing and _screaming_.

"I'm sorry, _Archmage_ Wong," Miranda corrected herself. "But the Prince has called for you and the other high ranking members of his regime. Apparently, Cedric has been able to capture the Keeper of the Heart."

"A Guardian of Kandrakar, here?" Daolong Wong asked, more to himself than to Miranda. "Very well, let's go to court, little shapeshifter."

Miranda grumbled something intelligible between her spider teeth, and she followed Wong as they both exited the Alchemical Laboratory.

* * *

 ** _The Dungeons_**

As Wong and the rest of members of Phobos' elite were going to court, Caleb was being dragged towards the oubliette, in order to pass a bit of time in a pit before Phobos himself decided it was time to take out of his mind the secrets of the Rebellion. However, the Prince had been right; Caleb (and no other rebel, for that matter) wasn't known for surrendering.

Taking impulse in a moment in which the guards were distracted, Caleb struck them with the very own chain he was being imprisoned with. However, maybe taking such a risky move in a dungeon, full of guards and Lurdens, wasn't the best of ideas. Someone was quick to hit the alarm, and in mere minutes, the dungeon was full of Lurdens, all of them ganging up on Caleb, who just used his chains in order to hit them and send them away.

"C'mon, I can beat any of you!" Caleb challenged the beasts, which then proceeded to form a circle around him. Shortly after that a figure clad in helmet and cape and carrying no weapon, entered in the circle, defiantly standing to the rebel's challenge. Caleb scowled at the sight of Raythor, the Captain standing proudly against him. "You…" Caleb said in a fit of anger.

"Me," Raythor replied. "You really are nothing but an idiotic boy," the Captain told him. "The Prince was right, your father would feel disappointed at you know."

Caleb's eyes bulged in pure hatred. "How dare you?!"

Caleb swung his chains towards the Captain, but he evaded the incoming attack. "You are still tired and wounded from your encounter with Cedric," Raythor explained calmly as he took the chains that held Caleb's hand. No matter how strongly the rebel leader threw from them, Raythor didn't let them go. "And your anger clouds your mind and battle ability. I respected your father as an honorable enemy worthy of being fought, but you?" Raythor said as he pulled strongly from the chains, making Caleb to be launched towards him, whom the Captain met with a butting to the head of the real, who was left unconscious due to Raythor wearing a helmet of thick iron. "You are just a child, trying to play soldier. Put him in his cage Vathek, I had a meeting to attend in court."

"Yes, sir;" Vathek answered, taking Caleb's body and putting it in the cage. Without anyone noticing, he put a little key in the bread he had to give the prisoner, and threw it into the pit alongside Caleb. _I hope this gives you a chance, my friend_ ; the blue bulking Galhot thought as he left Caleb in the pit. _I hate when I have to do this, when I cannot move a finger to stop innocents to getting hurt._ _Phobos! I swear I'll see you into a cage like these ones one day!_

* * *

 ** _Throne Room_**

Jade Chan had been into very uncomfortable situations during her short live. Captured and almost gutted by Tohru? Check. Captured by the Dark hand and held as hostage? Check. Trapped in the Demon Netherworld with Shendu's family? Check. But this, THIS! This was taking the great prize by far.

Will and her had been captured, handcuffed at their backs, and the same snake-man of two days ago had dragged both of them into a throne room that put the ones of those dark lords of her fantasy novels to shame. Seriously, who had designed this room, Sauron? But the cherry on top were with no doubt the people (if you could refer as them as people) that were scattered around the room, looking at them. The snake-man was there, of course, standing left to the throne, his coils resting under him. In contraposition, at the throne's right stood a man with yellowish skin wearing something that clearly was a soldier's attire; perhaps some kind of high commander of the minions, thought Jade.

At the snake's left was a man clad in dark robes that made Uncle look like a twenty year old in comparison. His eyes had been fixated in Will since the beginning, as if he was analyzing her with them. Left to that man was a tall, green skinned… _humanoid_ _thing_ clad in an old hunter's attire (cool hat included); that Jade only could identify as a zombie. His face had dried skin, the teeth exposed, and two red eyes looked at them menacingly.

 _Whoa, is almost as if Shendu had a son in here_ ; Jade thought before classifying the thought as impossible. Who could have a son with Shendu?

Turning her head to the other side, she saw how a muscular man with deep brown skin stood next to the commander, blond hair adorning his head and pointy ears in place of normal ones. Jade thought that he looked like one of those barbarians of her comic books. Jade was sure that something was in the ceiling too; crawling over their heads, but she couldn't tell due to the shadows in there. Having all of them there, this was clearly a show of power.

But what totally sold the game was without doubt the man in the throne. A man in his late twenties, with pale blond hair and a goatee, dressed in a robe of black and red that just screamed 'I'm the bad guy'. _That must be Prince Phobos_ , the girl thought. _He's_ _pretty normal-looking in comparison with the others_. And yet, there was something in his eyes, something that made him dreading, especially as his pupils grew and seemed to consume the color of his irises. If the eyes are the windows to the soul, then Jade was now looking directly into Phobos'… and she saw nothing, nothing but a bottomless pit, and endless void that seemed to suck everything away.

 _What is this… sensation?_ ; Jade thought as she looked again at Phobos. There was something _wrong_ with that man.

"Welcome to my court, Keeper of the Heart," Phobos addressed Will from his throne, completely ignoring Jade's presence. "I am Prince Phobos, rightful ruler of Meridian. You may have heard a lot of lies about me."

 _Seriously? Is he trying to play the 'I'm a nice man' after his minions kidnapped us and the company he has? His freaking right hand snake tried to eat us just days ago!_ ; Jade thought offended.

"Now, I know you may be scared of this situation," Phobos continued to talk. "But I don't desire any harm to you. You and your friend can go home safely, if you give me the Heart of Kandrakar."

 _He wants the Heart?_ ; Jade thought again. _Will don't give it…_

"I'll never give it to you!" Will yelled in defiance. "And besides, I don't have it here, your idiotic monsters left it in Earth!"

"And yet, if you give it to me, it will me mine;" Phobos explained. "Surrender the Heart of Kandrakar, and you will go peacefully to that reeking wet rock you call your home-world."

Will shut her mouth, but kept staring defiantly at the Prince. A fond smile appeared into Jade's face then, the orange hoodie wearing girl clearly impressed with the redhead's determination. However, Phobos wasn't as impressed.

"As you wish…" the Prince said, and then his expression changed. His eyes lighted in energy, and vines full of thorns and black roses shot from the floor, enveloping Will. Jade watched in horror as the vines tightened around the redhead, elevating her rom the ground, some of the thorns piercing her clothes, and others her skin, making small yet painfully annoying wounds.

"Surrender the Heart of Kandrakar!" Phobos demanded angrily.

"No!" Will shouted again, and then the light in the Prince's eyes brightened and current of energy enveloped the vines, hurting Will. The redhead screamed in pain, her body fuming from the attack that was being inflected on her. Due to the other attendants' silence, the teen's screams echoed loudly across the room. Cedric and Wong smiled cruelly, while both Raythor and even a brute like Frost couldn't avoid taking their eyes out of the scene.

"Hey, leave her alone, you monster!" Jade shouted, trying to get up and jump to attack the Prince, but then something shot from the ceiling, and the next thing she knew was that she was glued to the ground in what appeared to be spider-web. Something landed them over her, something big and black that looked directly at her with a quartet of brilliant blue eyes.

"Surprise!" Miranda yelled in the girl's face, opened her maw as if she was intending to eat Jade.

"Miranda…" Jade heard the snake-man's hiss, and the spider-like being moved aside, looking disappointed.

 _What the hell is that?!_ ; Jade thought in fear. _Is that one of those shapeshifters?!_

Meanwhile, Phobos continued glaring at Will. "Surrender the Heart of Kandrakar!"

"N-no…" Will replied weakly.

"Wrong answer," Phobos replied, and a new current of energy shot from the vines, torturing Will even more. This time the scream was even louder. Across the whole castle, it sounded as if someone was shrieking her lungs out of pure pain. After the energy stream stopped, Will fell unconscious.

* * *

 ** _Across the Veil; World of Earth_**

Unknown to Phobos and all his minions, the Heart of Kandrakar was able to sense its Keeper's peril, and was now projecting the image of the tortured Will in its surface, alongside the captured Jade.

"They have them!" Hay Lin shouted. "We've to do something!"

The four girls were back at the Silver Dragon, where Jackie, Uncle and Tohru had arrived shortly after they had called them and informed of the situation.

"But without a Portal…" Cornelia said, genuinely worried about the well-being of the two girls. How was she supposed to apologize to Will for calling her New-Girl and being so mean if she died?!

Yan Lin appeared rushing from the back of the restaurant carrying a map of Heatherfield, which she proceeded to put over a table. "Bring the Heart."

The girls did as told, and then several glowing crosses appeared across the map. "These are Portals to Meridian. We have to use one of them to cross the Veil to that world."

"But which one?!" Irma asked. "They are twelve there!"

As if actually hearing the Water Guardian's words, the Heart started then to point directly to one Portal in particular.

"I think that is the one," Taranee said, pointing to the place where it was. "Right in our school, it seems. Talk about convenience."

"Then let's go," Yan Lin proclaimed, which earned her a confused glare from the teens.

"See, I don't want to be rude here, but aren't you a bit old for… OW!" Irma rubbed her forehead as Uncle slapped her with his usual technique of two fingers.

"We are going into enemy territory! The more help we bring, the better! Do you want to save Will and niece? Yes?" the old Chinese man pointed to the door. "Then obey cousin Yan and mooooove!"

"Don't worry girls," Yan Lin said, rolling the map and putting it aside. "This old lady still has a few cards up her sleeve."

"Then let's go already," Jackie said in a somber tone. How dared those monsters to lay a hand over Jade?! He was angry, incredibly angry, beyond anger! But he won't let it go to his head like it had happened when Captain Black had been harmed thanks to Valmont and the Dragon Talisman.

 _I won't let anger to get the best of me again_ ; Jackie thought as he exited the Silver Dragon. _But if they had touched Jade in the slightest, they are going to pay._

* * *

 ** _Back on Meridian; the oubliette_**

Will awakened inside a cage that was being lowered into some kind of pit. She had felt just tired the night before, but now she felt incredibly pained. _What happened?_ ; she thought as memories started to come back to her. The alley, the Portal, the court, the monsters, black roses, Phobos…

Jade.

"Jade, where are you?!" Will yelled, even if her chest was hurting.

"Here, here, don't worry;" said the girl's voice, coming from the redhead's… stomach? Looking down, she saw how Jade was laying over her body, chin on top of her chest. The twelve year old hugged the redhead tightly then, and the Keeper could see a couple of tears in her eyes. "Oh my God, Will! I thought I've lost you!"

"You aren't getting rid of me so easily, silly;" Will said ruffling the younger girl's hair, making her to dry her tears. Unfortunately, that tender moment was interrupted as the cage stopped its descent and its lower part opened, dropping both girls into the pit. Fortunately, both of them landed into something soft. Something soft… that moved and protested.

"Get off me!" Caleb shouted to both Will and Jade, whom both quickly get up from the boy's back. Unfortunately, Will fell on her butt shortly after, not having enough strength to maintain herself in her feet. Jade quickly rushed to her side, helping her to stay balanced and not fall to the ground; or worse, lose consciousness.

Noticing this, Caleb's expression softened. It was clear this girl was wounded, she had several bruises and small cuts all over her body. And she looked strangely familiar, almost exactly like one of the Guardians he met a couple of days ago... unless she was a Guardian.

"Is she alright?" Caleb asked.

"No, you jerky doofus!" Jade yelled. "That psycho-prince tortured her!"

 _Phobos, how unsurprising_ ; Caleb thought with hatred towards the tyrant. If the Prince had tortured her personally, then she really must be one of the Guardians. That meant an opportunity to escape, an opportunity to counterattack... but she couldn't, not in that estate.

"Can you come to your feet?" Caleb asked of Will, but the redhead shook her head.

 _Blast_ , Caleb cursed internally. "What did Phobos want of her?"

"The Heart of Kandrakar," Jade answered. "But she didn't surrender it; or something like that." Jade focused a bit over the boy in front of her. "Hey, you're that boy from days ago!"

"I'm the rebel leader," Caleb said, a bit offended for being called 'boy' by a girl younger than himself. "I'm fifteen."

That only made Jade snicker. "And against what do you rebel exactly?"

"Maybe diaper rash?" Will asked as a joke, as she tried to incorporate.

"You better?" Jade asked to the redhead, who answered with a nod.

"Can we get out of here?" Will inquired, but Caleb shook his head.

Searching in one of his jacket's pockets Caleb pulled an iron key out. "This is one of the dungeons' master keys. It can open everything in this place, but if we can't reach the entrance, there is nothing we can do."

"Have you tried?" Will asked, but before Caleb could retort, another voice was heard answering.

"Oh, he tried, ihihihihi! Tried almost as much as Blunk!"

Turning around both Will and Jade saw a small figure to step out of the shadows. In was green, bald, with hair in his hands and dressed in a weird clothing that resembled something that a child with very bad taste should be wearing on Earth. He smelled to trash too.

"What's that?" Will asked.

"This is Blunk," Caleb said. "A Passling," Will noted that there was a change in his tone of voice upon saying that word. It didn't sound like despise, but yes like distaste. "And he's a smuggler."

"Not smuggler; businessman!" the green dwarf said. "Blunk told you already!"

"Cool," Jade, who apparently seemed immune to the Passling's stench. "What are you, some kind of Goblin?"

"Not Goblin; Passling!" Blunk protested. "Goblins build things, we Passling-folk trade!"

"Trade?" Jade asked, just for Blunk to pull out a bunch of chains from the ground.

"Blunk gives you chains for hoodie. Deal?" the green dwarf asked.

"Nope," Jade answered plainly.

"Oh..." the Passling answered disappointed.

Meanwhile, Will and Caleb were looking at the top of the pit. _If there was someone who could just threw us a rope... Or maybe if this guy and I throw Jade high enough..._

"Did someone asked for a rescue?!" the redhead heard then a too familiar voice.

"Irma?!" Will shouted in utter joy. And it really was Irma. And Hay Lin, and Cornelia, and Taranee too. Even old Yan Lin was there, and so were Jackie, Tohru and Mr. Uncle.

"You guys came!" Will said. "You really are my friends!"

"Of course, you dummy;" Cornelia said. "Don't tell me that you were thinking that we were going to left you two here."

"Never for a second!" Will cheered.

"Hey, I think this is yours;" Taranee said as she dropped something into the pit, something that Will caught. The Heart of Kandrakar started to glow warmly in her hands, the pendant being happy that its Keeper was safe. Will took air in and raised the pendant high.

Guardians Unite!

"Don't miss this, rebel boy; it's the coolest thing ever;" Jade told Caleb as both saw how the power of the Heart transformed the girls.

And for the first time in a long war, Caleb thought that maybe there was still hope in order to depose the Prince.

As each girl exclaimed her signature element, the five Guardians reunited at the top of the pit; Cornelia using some vines that sprouted from the ground in order to literally rip the bars of the pit apart.

"How are you?" Taranee asked the redhead.

Will clenched her fists; the transformation into a Guardian having took care of her injuries and pain. "I'm way better."

"Irma, help me taking Jade and the rebel from the other day from that pit;" Will instructed the brunette. "Be careful, just his mouth must weight a ton already."

Irma nodded in agreement, and she and the redhead went down the pit, coming back carrying Jade, Caleb and Blunk shortly after that.

 _Good thing we have this 'super-strength'_ , Irma though. _Thought for a second I should've to fill the hole with water or something._

"Jackie!" Jade shouted in joy as she threw herself in her uncle's arms.

"Jade!" Jackie answered with a tight hug. "Are you alright?!"

"Yeah, Will took the worst part," the girl answered. "Jackie, this Phobos guy, he…"

"Relax, Jade," Jackie assured the girl. "Everything will be okay now."

"What's that?" Cornelia said meanwhile, pointing to Blunk.

"A Passling," Yan Lin explained. "Haven't seen one in decades, I must say. They're pretty friendly fellows."

"We have to get out of here," Caleb said, without paying too much attention to the people around him. "The alarm could be given in any second…"

Just as the rebel leader ended that sentence, a deafening sound of a horn was heard across the dungeons and the whole castle afterwards.

"You have to say that, didn't you… erh… who're you exactly?" Irma asked.

"The rebel leader," Will answered for Caleb.

"You are the rebel leader?" Cornelia asked, albeit in a much sweeter tone than Jade had done, all accompanied by what Irma usually called 'focus in me, pretty boy'-Cornelia-mode.

But before any of them could retort to the blonde that now wasn't the time for this, the chains above them started to sound, and a whole platoon of Lurdens descended from them, ready to fight.

"Bad day…" Jackie and Jade muttered as both of them, the Guardians, Uncle, Tohru Caleb, and even Yan Lin prepared for battle.

* * *

Meanwhile in the throne room, Phobos continued his usual siphoning of energy, eyes closed and body relaxed... until he felt a change of energy in the dungeons, an energy that was luminous and clearly not from this world. Raythor and Frost were long gone to the dungeons alerted by the alarm, but the Prince had regarded it as another attempt of escape from the rebel, or even the Keeper... until now.

The Prince's eyes snapped open, and he incorporated from the Thorn Throne, unable to repress the feeling. "The Heart of Kandrakar... it's here! Wong! Cedric!"

"The Keeper's companionssss must have come to her aid," Cedric hissed. "It's the perfect time to take them all!"

"I will take the advance," Daolon Wong said in his gruff and old voice, moving his root staff and being enveloped in dark purplish smoke, being teleported away. Cedric started to creep out of the room shortly afterwards.

Meanwhile, Phobos returned to his throne, and started to put as much energy as possible inside his body. No one defiant to him walked into his castle two times in a row and went out alive!

* * *

Back in the dungeons, Jackie was fighting through a mass of enemies, knocking unconscious guard after guard, but as soon as one of them hit the ground, another took his place; they seemed endless. It was as fighting the Shadowkhan, except this time he had to be careful not to break their spines, or anything else in their bodies for that matter.

 _This is frustrating_ , Jackie thought, glancing back to how Jade was doing against those Lurdens the boy had spoken about. His niece was 'fighting', or more precisely, striking down an enemy by surprise (even if Jackie had clearly told her to stay behind them); alongside Tohru and the rebel boy, who were on the defense. Behind them, Uncle and Yan Lin waited calm but in guard, the Passling (as Yan Lin had called it) remained near them, scared to no avail. There was something weird with the rebel boy, though. Jackie had the impression that there was something weird in how he moved, in how he fought. There was too much anger in him, and in a large battle, anger can only lead to defeat. And even if they had rescued the girls, this battle was long from solved. After all, this was enemy territory.

"Haiya!" Jade yelled as she jumped in the air and kicked one Lurden in the head, knocking him out. "Do these guys never end?"

"Hay Lin, find us an exit!" Will said as she and the other girls fought the Lurdens in the front lines. "Taranee, aid Jackie! Cornelia, block the entrance to the stairs; that will give us some time! Irma, with me, let's get rid of the remaining ones!"

 _Whoa, those are some neat leadership skills_ ; Jade thought about the redhead.

The Air Guardian flew as fast as she could, searching for an escape route around the labyrinth that the dungeons under the castle were. Taranee threw a wave of flames in front of Jackie, which stopped the guards in the tunnel they were using as an entrance. Cornelia was quick too, flying slightly and then landing abruptly, making a vine to emerge and wrap the gate that gave access to the stairs and the upper levels, closing it and stopping the Lurdens behind it. Will and Irma battled the remaining ones, who ended in the ground shortly thanks to the water blasts of the brunette and the punches and kicks of the redhead.

One of the remaining creatures tried to attack Uncle and Yan Lin from their backs, but as the Lurden roared, Uncle turned to face him and delivered a precise hit in his chest sending the creature to the floor, unable to move.

After the Lurdens had been taken care of; and the guards in both the tunnel and the stairs were stopped and forced to found an alternate route thanks to Taranee's flames and Cornelia's plants; the Guardians and the Chan Clan gathered in the center of the room, now filled with unconscious Lurdens and guards; and Hay Lin descended upon them.

"There's no other way out, this place's a complete labyrinth!" the Air Guardian informed, just for the Passling to pick at her pink skirt.

"Blunk knows way out! Secret way!" the green dwarf said as he pointed into a corridor's direction.

"You do?" Will inquired, but before Blunk could say anything, Caleb stepped in the conversation with the angriest of scowls.

"You can't trust him! He's a Passling!" the rebel leader yelled. "They are just a bunch of little, green smugglers!"

"Businessmen!" Blunk yelled.

"Chill out, rebel boy!" Jade yelled at him.

"My name's Caleb," the rebel leader grunted. "And I don't take orders from... ow!"

Uncle had approached Caleb and dope slapped him as strong as he could. "Is Rebel-Boy out of his mind?! Does Rebel-Boy know what Uncle has passed today?! Niece got captured, Uncle had to travel to broken world to rescue her, put apprentice, cousin and nephew in risk for that! We need to escape! Does Rebel-Boy want to escape? Yes? THEN WE FOLLOW PASSLING AND REBEL DOESN'T PROTEST!"

Caleb looked speechless at the stern old man, and shortly afterwards he closed his mouth and stepped aside.

"As rude as ever," Cornelia pointed out.

"I need this man in my house," Irma said thinking about her little brother Chris.

"Good," Uncle said. "Now let Passling to guide us and... Aiyah..." Uncle's whole body trembled, as a shiver ran through him.

"Sensei?" Tohru inquired. "Are you alright?"

"Uncle?" Jackie asked in concern. In all the years he had spent with the stern Chinese man he had never seen him like this. He looked scared. Uncle never was scared.

"You alright, Mr. Uncle?" Will asked of the old man, her four friends sharing her question.

"Uncle has the willies..." the old man answered.

"Willies?" Taranee asked.

"It's when Uncle feels something evil coming," Jade explained. "But I never saw him having such a strong..."

"Is that the unmistakable stench of good chi magic?" an old and dry voice said at her backs.

Turning in the voice's direction, all of them saw Daolon Wong approaching them slow a and calmly, the old wizard walking in such a manner that he seemed to be levitating over the floor. Aside from his voice, he hadn't done any noise upon moving, as if he was a phantom. The dark robes were almost the same tone of the dungeons' walls, making the old man's white hair and pale skin stand out even more

"Who's that?" Taranee asked.

"Dunno, but he was in the throne room." Will explained.

"He could use a lifting," Cornelia said.

Blunk, however, cowered behind Tohru. "Bad man, bad wizard. He does things to Passlings... he opens them to see how they work..."

"Dark chi wizard…" Uncle whispered, almost not believing to find a practitioner of the dark arts here.

"I thought that Cedric may have been exaggerating when he mentioned some 'wizards', but to see a chi wizard in Meridian of all places," Wong said without paying attention to the words of his opponents. His eyes then focused in the quintet of winged girls. "And the new generation has come here too. I'm glad; I haven't faced a full generation of Guardians since your predecessors."

All the eyes turned to Yan Lin. "Grandma, you know this man?" Hay Lin asked of the old lady.

"Never seen him before," Yan Lin answered sincerely.

"Oh, no… no, I phrased thatincorrectly. I'm not referring to the generation that preceded this one," Wong cleared. "I'm referring to the previous one, or maybe the one before that. I'm not so sure myself."

 _How old is this guy?_ ; Jade thought.

"But enough with the nostalgia," Wong spoke as he raised his twisted root, which lighted in purplish dark energy. "The Prince ordered me to subdue you, and that I will do."

"Yeah? You and who else?" Irma taunted.

Instead of answering to the Water Guardian's taunt using one of his own, Wong merely smiled and pointed his root to the side. "Gan, Ren, Chui!" shouted the wizard, and three balls of purplish dark-blue smoke were shot from his root staff, each one of them quickly becoming a humanoid being of orange skin and red hair (except for the bald one) clad in strange black clothes that left a lot of their bodies exposed, and with totally blackened eyes. One of them was carrying a big hammer, other one a staff, and the third one what looked to be an over growth three-bladed shuriken.

"Me, and my Dark Chi warriors, of course," Wong explained smugly. "Go and conquer!" he ordered the trio, who just jumped in the air, directly headed towards the Guardians and the Chan Clan, who dodged the first assault. The three warriors recovered quickly, rapidly making another attack towards their opponents. Jackie evaded Gan's staff, while Tohru was quick to block Chui's hammer with his own hands. The girls tried to shot them with their respective elements, but the warriors were too fast for them to aim correctly, much less to land a hit.

"Don't worry; we still hold the number advantage!" Caleb said as he picked one of the fallen Lurdens' scimitars and blocked the incoming attack of Ren's bladed weapon. "We still can win!"

But fate seemed to want to deny Caleb's reasoning, and as soon as those words escaped his mouth, the chains of the dungeon titled again, and this time Raythor, Frost and Lothar descended from them, landing at Wong's side.

"Go for the Guardians and the others," Wong told them upon their arrival. "The old man is _mine_."

In any other circumstance, Raythor would have retorted to the self-entitled Archmage, but not this time. This time, his eyes were focusing solely in the guards lying unconscious and beaten in the ground. Raythor's eyes flashed with fury as he unsheathed his own sword, Lothar making the same behind him.

"What did you do to my men?!" the Captain yelled as he rushed towards battle, Lothar in tow.

Dispatching Gan aside, Jackie had enough time to barely evade Raythor's blow, and counterattack with the strongest kick he could muster to the man's head. This knocked Raythor's helmet of, but didn't send him to the ground. Spitting a bit of blood, Raythor calmed himself and took a real fighting stance with his sword.

"I take you are the warrior Cedric informed us about," Raythor said.

"What if I am?" Jackie answered in a serious tone, kicking one of the shields in the ground that belonged to one of the fallen guards, taking it in midair and holding it with his left hand.

"Nothing," Raythor answered, and attacked Jackie once more, this time with much more discipline, his blows only being stopped by Jackie's prowess in martial arts and the shield in his hand.

 _Strong and well trained_ , Jackie thought as he was being forced completely into the defensive. _And much more focused and calm than Hak Foo or any enforcer…_

As Raythor tried to butcher Jackie for the insolence of invading his Lord's castle, Caleb had been immersed in a battle with Lothar. The scimitar of the rebel leader clashed with the sword of the young Lieutenant; sparks being created each time that the two weapons collided.

"Surrender now rebel;" Lothar said. "And maybe the Prince will be merciful with you!"

"A monster like Phobos doesn't know about mercy!" Caleb retorted in a yell. "Neither does that excuse of a man that you call Captain, Lothar! Look at you! Drake told me that you were one of the best in the academy, humble and moral. What did force you into becoming the lapdog of a waste of flesh like Raythor?!"

Lothar parried Caleb's attack then, and circling around himself, he delivered an ascending blow with his sword that made Caleb lose balance and forced him to take a couple of steps back in order to dodge, albeit he couldn't avoid to gain a wound in his cheek courtesy of the Lieutenant.

The green haired man pointed his weapon at Caleb, his eyes flashing in fury. "Insulting the Captain in my presence is a very stupid move, rebel scum. And that traitorous Drake has no right to speak about me!" And after that sentence, Lothar rushed at Caleb with a battle cry once more.

Tohru was having his own set of problems too. Albeit not as skilled and dedicated as the other two men, and the fact that he was carrying no weapon was of clear help; Frost was proving quite a match to the sumo in terms of strength. But as many in the court would like to point out, brute strength was Frost´s best (and only) asset. The brute limited himself at engaging Tohru at close range, throwing punches at him without putting on a good defense. Meanwhile, Tohru shielded himself against the punches of the brute the best he could, and tried to wait for a moment in which counterattack.

"Is that all you got? Putting on a barely decent defense until I tire out?" Frost asked of the man. "Ha! Frost the Hunter is known for many things, but not from being unable to reduce an enemy to a puddle before he gets tired!"

As those battles progressed in one direction or another, the girls were trying to get rid of the trio of Dark Chi warriors. Irma, Taranee, and Hay Lin were in the air, trying to blast them, while Cornelia and Will remained in land; Yan Lin, Jade and Blunk at their backs. However, the trio of Wong's personal soldiers was proving quite difficult to fight for the girls. Yan Lin understood it as fairly normal, her cousin having spoken about this kind of creatures once. Dark Chi warriors were humans submitted to the will of their master by dark chi magic, which contaminated their bodies and made them mightier than any man in exchange of a life of servitude towards their master. Uncle had explained to her that, once enough time had passed, the dark chi would overwrite their personalities completely, reducing them to obedient puppets. There was the possibility that these three men were normal men once, people with their own personalities, dreams and hopes. But that wasn't the case anymore, now they were just shells of their former shelves; puppets in Wong's hands.

"Stay still so I can hit you!" Irma yelled at Chui, who either evaded her water attacks or blocked them with his hammer.

Hay Lin wasn't doing any better trying to disorient Gan and Taranee was having the same problems trying to burn down Ren. Meanwhile, Cornelia maintained a combat position at Will's side, and the redhead was growing exasperated seeing how the situation was evolving into a direction that clearly didn't favor them.

 _This is getting us nowhere!_ , Will turned around and directed to Jade. "Jade, take Mrs. Lin and Blunk and find an escape route, now!"

"Me? Really?" Jade asked, not being accustomed of getting part of the action. Jackie often ordered her to be in the backlines, and albeit there were situations in which she really was forced to do so, she always preferred to lend a hand.

"Do it now! We can't stand this for much longer!" Will yelled, and at her orders, Blunk rushed towards one tunnel, taking Yan Lin and Jade with him.

Will looked towards the Dark Chi warriors, still busy with her companions. "Cornelia, wrap them in all the vines you can get!"

Cornelia nodded and punched the ground trying to; as Tohru had put it that morning during their lesson, get in connection with her element. The earth cracked under the trio of warriors and vines erupted from it, enveloping and stopping them… at least for the moment. The three warriors started to struggle with the vines as soon as they were trapped, trying to free themselves with their weapons. At least, the girls had now time to breathe.

"This is madness," Taranee said, panting a little. "From where did all these creeps appear?"

"They aren't the only ones, there was a zombie like thing, and a spider monster that almost ate Jade," Will explained. "And the snake, and that's not counting Phobos himself."

"You met the big baddie?" Irma asked. "How was he?"

"Terrifying," Will answered plain but effectively. "Go and help the others before…" Will started to say, but then a roar interrupted her. Looking into the direction of the gate that Cornelia had closed, they saw a new swarm of guards and Lurdens approaching them. But this time, Cedric was commanding them, the Shapeshifter ripping apart the gate; vines included; as if it was nothing but a cheap toy, and then entered the room followed by the soldiers, roaring in anger. The roar echoed through the dungeons, alerting everyone of his presence.

"Can't we catch a break?!" Irma protested.

Will rose slightly in the air, and the other four girls did exactly the same. "We have to make sure that he doesn't go after Jackie or any of the others!"

The girls flew towards Cedric, and the Snake of Cavigor waited for them smiling smugly, confident in his superiority. He had faced Guardians before, and these ones were a long way before getting on that level. Still, he won't underestimate them, underestimating someone is what leads to one's defeat.

* * *

As the other fights progressed, Uncle stood in front of Daolong Wong. Even with all the ruckus and chaos around them, both wizards had been silently watching one another, as if trying to measure the other's strength. After several minutes, Wong decided to open battle by firing a beam of dark chi energy towards Uncle, which the good wizard answered with a small green barrier casted with one of his dried lizards. Then he answered with a set of smaller blasts, which Wong blocked mainly with his own shield… except one, which he stopped with his bare hand. The dark wizard laughed at his enemy's display.

"That is all? All that you can conjure?" Wong taunted in arrogance. "I was hoping for a real chi duel, but I suppose I'm out of your league."

"You underestimate me, servant of Evil!" Uncle shouted defiantly to his adversary. "I studied under Fong, Master of Chi!"

Something crossed Wong's colorless eye then, and his face twisted in a macabre smile. Then a dry chuckle escaped his throat, which proceeded to evolve into full maniacal laughter shortly afterwards. "Then this must be fate!" Wong said, clearly happy of this outcome. "Allow me to introduce myself properly, then. My name is Daolon Wong, Archmage of Meridian, greatest of all Dark Chi Wizards on Earth! And I am also the man who bested in battle, defeated and killed Chi Master Fong!"

At first there was nothing but silence, even the sounds of the nearer battles seemed to lose their sound. Uncle contemplated the man ahead of him with wide eyes, and then his face contorted into a scorn full of pure anger.

"Then you will pay for that," Uncle said, calm yet menacingly, and Wong seemed pleased with this turn of events.

"Then come, light wizard. Come, and avenge your master;" Wong challenged him.

The two elders fired beams of pure chi energy to one another. As green collided with purple, both men found themselves into a clash of wills, their magic reflecting it. None of them seemed to let the other take any advantage, and in the moment one of them seemed to win the upper hand, the other retaliated. It was as if two halves of the same coin, yin and yang, had met in the battlefield, ready to prove whom of them was the mightiest. However, there was one major difference between Uncle and Daolon Wong aside from their moral orientation. And that was that, for all his bravado, Wong was so confident in the skills he had developed so long ago, that he usually looked down to the youth around him. Uncle, in the other hand, knew that there was always something new to discover, something new to add, or change into his teachings. During the last two years living along with Jade, Uncle had learned something that no scroll or old master could have taught him. He had learnt that sometimes, a guile mind outplayed simple power.

Holding his lizard with just one hand, Uncle directed the other one to his pocket, pulling a second lizard from it. Casting a small spell, he directed it towards Wong, who was then hit by a small wave that somehow made him freeze slightly.

"Wha-" Wong asked in disbelief, just to lose concentration and his beam to weaken, letting Uncle's stream of green energy to overpower the one of Wong, who was hit and send flying, colliding with a wall.

The evil chi wizard fell to his knees, and looked to Uncle in utter surprise. Rising from the ground with some body parts still covered in thin ice, Wong looked how this time Uncle was the one grinning in superiority. "How did you do that?"

"Master Fong taught me well," Uncle proclaimed.

But Wong's face didn't last long until putting into another cruel smile. "Well then, let us see if you are able to withstand the power that defeated Fong!" Wong pointed his twisted root towards the direction in which the Dark Chi warriors had been entrapped in vines. "Come back!"

The trio of minions went _poof_ into smoke, and they returned fast inside Wong's staff. Then dark purplish energy started to shot from it and enveloping Wong, whose tattoos lighted in brilliant purple energy and his skin became of the same scarlet tone as his warriors'. His good eye became pitch black, while the colorless one became pure white.

" ** _Behold the true power of Dark Chi!_** " Wong exclaimed, and his voice echoed as if the laments of a hundred wraiths spoke in unison with him. " ** _Fǔxiǔ de shìjiè!_** "

Wong's staff shot another chi beam, but this one was pure blackness in comparison with his previous purple ones. Uncle raised both his lizards and put all his energy into creating the strongest barrier he could, but the beam of blackness struck against it and shattered the shield as if a cannon bullet had been shot against a mirror. Uncle was struck by the beam and hit a wall, which proceeded to break under the intensity of the attack. The Chan patriarch landed in the other side, a few bones broken, and (what was much more important) his chi totally messed up. It was as if that beam wasn't directed to destroy his physical self, but rather harm his spirit, leaving him contaminated, unable to cast spells properly.

 _So that's how he did it…_ ; Uncle thought, remembering the evil wizard's words about Master Fong. It was in this type of situations that he envied the raw magic that holders of Hearts, Guardians, or the like used. It was pure magic, and albeit there were spells, and those much harder to cast than the ones from chi magic, that raw magic proved to be superior to his in direct and fast combat.

"Uncle!" he heard the concerned voice of Jade. He girl was running towards him, Yan Lin and the Passling following near; and as soon as she reached his fallen body, she helped him to incorporate. "Uncle what happened?!"

"Too strong…" Uncle explained. "We have to… go…"

"Blunk found secret passage, but it has bars!" the Passling cried.

"And the girls, how are they doing?" Yan Lin asked.

In order to answer her, the five Guardians appeared shortly after, flying as fast as they could; Will carrying Jackie, Hay Lin carrying Caleb and the other three helping Tohru. Both the sumo and the archeologist rushed towards Uncle, worried about his condition.

"That old geezer went full Anime-villain, firing energy beams all around!" Irma yelled. "And the snake and the other bad guys are coming right towards us!"

"We have to get out of here," Caleb said. "This battle is lost."

In cue, they all heard Cedric's approaching roar, and then they saw how Wong turned around the corner, reverting to his normal form upon seeing Uncle lying defenseless on the ground. Wong laughed.

"It seems I really overestimated you, good wizard," Wong stated. "Fong needed five of those blasts in order to go down."

The Guardians and the Chan Clan were now surrounded. Wong and Cedric maintained their positions, while the guards and the Lurdens started to put themselves behind them, commanded by Raythor and Lothar. And yet the Guardians readied for battle. They hadn't come this far to let it go. Jackie and Tohru did the same, the sumo drawing out his own blowfish in order to cast chi spells against Wong.

And then the earth trembled. A shockwave hit the Guardians and the Chans as a cannonball in steroids, sending them flying against a wall, their bodies hitting the ground shortly afterwards. The whole dungeons seemed to shake, and both guards and Lurdens looked around in something between fear and awe. The lines of soldiers and commanders started to divide in two, as if forming a passage. And the cheers began; Galhot, Half-breed, Shapeshifter, dark chi wizard, Lurden… all of them cheered. And their cheers sounded like the chants of Hell in the heroes' ears. And Will's body froze in terror, the confidence she had won upon being rescued now smashed to shards.

"Prince Phobos! Prince Phobos! Prince Phobos!"

Indeed, it was the tyrant, having descended to the dungeons in person in order to take care of his enemies with his own hands. He had come in order to take care of them _once and for all_.

"My Prince," Cedric addressed Phobos. "Asssss you can see, we have everything under control…"

"I have eyes Cedric," Phobos told his right hand man. "I can see by myself;" the Prince spoke, and the directed his eyes to the Guardians, the agents of Kandrakar and Caleb, leader of the Rebellion, always a thorn on his side. "Greetings, Guardians and…" his eyes fell over the Chan Clan and Blunk. "Peasants I don't know about. At the risk of sounding repetitive… surrender the Heart of Kandrakar, and your execution will be as fast as possible."

Before any of the girls or Caleb could retort, or Jade could insult the man; Yan Lin stepped in front of the girls and the Chan family. She looked at Phobos with a look that could melt steel.

"You are still the same you were back in Zamballa, boy;" Yan Lin told the tyrant. "Still the same arrogant, snotty brat that doesn't know when he's chewing more than he can eat."

"Know I remember you," Phobos said nonchalantly. "The former Air Guardian, aren't you? Your threats mean nothing, old fool. I'm the single most powerful being in this castle, in this world! What can you do that I cannot?"

Yan Lin's lips curved into a smile. "I can do this!" she said clapping her hands, and then the Guardians, the Chan Clan, Caleb and Blunk saw nothing but green, and a booming sound, as if something was breaking, as if space was breaking… and the next thing they knew was that they were out of the palace.

"No!" Phobos yelled, and the dungeons trembled again due to all the energy he had absorbed before coming down. _She teleported away…_ ; the Prince thought in bitterness, more because that was a skill he never was able to master than because they had escaped. He searched in his sleeve and pulled a bit of sand out, throwing it into the ground, where it started circling. "Show me where they are!"

An image formed shortly afterwards, showing all of the escapes not very away from the castle. "The southern plains…"

"One of the Gargoyles should be protecting the South Gate, my liege;" Raythor informed.

Phobos raised his right hand and made one of his thorny vines to emerge from the ground. He touched its tip with his fingers and send a wave of energy through it towards the Gargoyle in the South Gate. After that, the Prince looked around and saw all the waste laid upon his dungeons.

"Return to your usual duties," Phobos ordered. "Let the Gargoyle handle it, and start repairing my dungeons!"

* * *

 ** _Outside_**

"Jesus Christ!" Cornelia yelled. "What the hell was ALL that?!"

"Evil minions, evil wizard… very mean pretty haired dude," Irma answered in her usual deadpan tone.

"That was Prince Phobos?!" Taranee asked as she got up from the mud. "He threw all of us away without even moving a finger!"

"Not that we were doing very good against that weird old guy…" Hay Lin said. "Or the other ones…"

"We still have to go," Caleb said to the girls, getting up too and landing a hand to Jackie in order to incorporate. "They will send someone after…"

"ROARGH!"

Looking back the party saw how a one eyed enormous rock-like monster with one hand considerably bigger than the other and enormous fangs was approaching them slowly. This was one of the Gargoyles of Meridian, strong rocky creatures that Phobos had called to his aid, albeit now only four remained at his side. However, they usually decanted the fights they were part of thanks to their great strength.

"A Gargoyle!" Caleb yelled. "We are Lurden porridge if he takes us!"

"Mr. Tohru, how are they?" Will asked, referring to both Uncle and Yan Lin. Even since they had excited the castle they had been in a complete bad shape. For starters, both of them had fallen unconscious, and she supposed that was just the tip of the iceberg.

"Mrs. Lin is just tired, dried out of energy, I think. Whatever she used to take us out of the castle has let her worn out. Sensei, on the other hand, has been infected by energies that are messing with the current of chi inside his body," Tohru explained as he got up and took both elders in his arms.

"Can you do something about it?" Jackie inquired as he touched Uncle's cheek. The old man was cold.

"I need to get to the Silver Dragon," Tohru explained. "I need a place in which work properly."

"Then we need a Portal," Will explained. She then took Jade over her shoulders and Jackie with her hands; and made a gesture so that the others moved and take Caleb, Blunk and Tohru like before. "Tell me you came here by a Portal."

"It should be near here," Taranee said, and the she looked at how the Gargoyle was approaching them as fast as he could. "That thing's coming!"

"Where the heck is that…?" Jade started to say as the Guardians lifted them in the air, just for the Portal to open a few meters away. "Oh okay, nevermind!"

"But where's that Gargoyle?" Jackie asked while glancing back, the monster gone from their sight.

"My father told me to never face a Gargoyle in a mud field," Caleb commented. "But I don't remember exactly why..."

The party stopped in front of the Portal, letting their 'passengers' down. "Get Yan Lin and Mr. Uncle to the Silver Dragon, Tohru. I don't think any hospital can cure what they have."

The Japanese mountain of a man nodded and crossed the swirling hole of energy, elders in hand. After that, Will looked around. "Is everyone ready?"

"The sooner we leave this Mordor rip-off, the better." Cornelia said, raising one of her feet covered in mud. "I'm so going to need a shower when I get home."

"Good, let's go;" Will said, noticing then a pull in her leg. Looking down, she saw the Passling from before. "What?"

"Can you bring Blunk too? Blunk doesn't want to be back on scary dungeon..." the Passling pleaded.

"No!" Caleb yelled before none of the others could answer. "He could be a spy, or..."

"ROARGH!" they heard again as the ground trembled. The Gargoyle emerged from beneath them, sending them aside and blocking the Portal.

 _Oh, now I remember_ ; Caleb thought. "Gargoyles can move under mud to travel faster!" the rebel leader said as he took a palm to his face. He should have remembered! Now he felt like an idiot.

The Gargoyle started to swing his bigger arm towards them, trying to smash them into pulps. The girls flew into different directions in order to avoid the attacks, while Jade, Jackie and Caleb dodged the best they could. Seeing an opportunity to escape in the ruckus, Blunk rushed to the Portal, disappearing through it without anyone noticing.

"Hey, stone-face!" Jade yelled to the Gargoyle, distracting it from the others and directing his attention towards her.

"What in the name of God are you doing, Jade?!" both Jackie and Will yelled to her in concern.

"Cross the Portal, I've got an idea!" Jade told them.

"Are you insane?!" Will shouted as she and the others continued to avoid attacks.

"Will, trust me!" Jade told her, and the redhead directed herself to the others.

"Cross the Portal, now!" the Keeper of the Heart told them, and albeit reluctantly, all the Guardians did as told, and even Caleb crossed the hole in the Veil.

"Jade, hurry!" Jackie shouted at the girl.

In cue, the twelve year old girl rushed towards them, the Gargoyle following near. Jade and Will crossed the Portal, and Jackie was the last one to return to Earth. However, as soon as he was met with the surroundings of Sheffield Institute's underground, he noted a grip around his body, and looking down he saw Gargoyle's enormous hand around him trying to pull him back into the Portal.

"Close it!" Jade shouted to the redhead. "Close it now!"

"Got it!" Will shouted as she pointed the Heart to the Portal. "Not this time!"

The Heart shot a pink stream of energy towards the Portal, which started to close, stopping Gargoyle's hand. At first Will thought that the Portal wouldn't close, but it did... severing Gargoyle's hand in the process. The lifeless limb fell to the floor, Jackie still inside it. The archeologist was able to get out of it, and Jade rushed to his side, checking if he was alright.

The five Guardians let their guard down then, and as if sensing that there wasn't any more danger, the Heart glowed and they returned to their normal forms. They fell to the ground exhausted, while Caleb was leaning over a wall.

"So… we won?" Irma asked of the rest of the team.

"By the skin of our teeth," Taranee explained. "But considering that we went there to rescue these two and that they're here… yeah, we won."

"I so don't want to repeat that experience again…" Hay Lin said as she rubbed her back. "I feel like a truck went over me several times…"

"I think we all have earned a break," Will said. "Don't you agree, Mr. Chan?"

"I think that just 'Jackie' is fine by this point," the archeologist told them. "Good job everyone, and Will," Jackie told the redhead specifically. "Thank you for taking care of Jade."

"Don't worry, Jackie;" Will told him. "She helped me more than I helped her."

"Good, then I think I'll be back to the Silver Dragon to check on Uncle and Yan Lin," Jackie said directing a look to Hay Lin, indicating to the girl to not be worried about her grandmother. "Are you coming?" he asked Caleb.

"Not that I have any other option…" the rebel leader said as he started to follow the martial artist. Yet he owned them his freedom, and any man who could fight Raythor, and any woman who stood against the tyrant were worthy of his respect.

"So, is he cute or what?" Cornelia whispered to her friends, all five of them rolling their eyes.

"This is not the time for your 'hormonal-girl' mode, Corny;" Irma whispered too, which produced a snarl from the blonde, and a laugh from the other girls.

 _Wait, time…_ ; Will thought. "Oh my God! Someone has a watch? What time is it?!"

"Twelve o'clock…" Taranee said looking at her watch, and then her eyes opening in fear. "Twelve o'clock! Picture day ended an hour ago!"

"Oh crap," Irma said. "Knickerbocker…"

* * *

 ** _Principal Knickerbocker's office_**

Ms. Knickerbocker was the person in charge of Sheffield Institute, a middle aged heavy woman with her white hair tied in a top bum, tiny glasses over her eyes, and maybe a too much formal clothing for a school's principal. Sometimes authoritative and a lover of rules, yet not abusive of her power, Ms. Knickerbocker had only one thing that pissed her of; and that was that students didn't get to their classes.

"Not one, or two; but the six of you have been out of school during picture day!" the principal shrieked in anger. "What were you all thinking?!"

"That picture day isn't really educational?" Irma asked, just for be shut by a glare of the middle aged woman.

"That is irrelevant," Knickerbocker told her. "You can't get out of school if you want to! I'm especially disappointed with you two, Miss Vandom, Miss Chan. After all the bureaucratic effort this institution had to make in order to take you two in, you just throw it overboard. I'm calling all your parents in this very moment so…"

"Wait, Ms. Knickerbocker," Cornelia stepped in. "It's my fault, I talked the girls into doing it because picture day is boring and…"

"Please, everyone knows you wouldn't miss standing in front of camera," Irma cut in. "It was my idea, ma'am. See, there was this cool new videogame I wanted to show them…"

"Don't be an idiot Irma," Taranee said too. "This was my plan, ma'am, I wanted to show Will and Jade around Sheffield and it went to our heads…"

"No, no, no, no…" Hay Lin said. "I took everyone to rescue puppies in the streets; they're too in need of help for waste our times in this anti-imagination cage…"

"Enough!" Knickerbocker yelled, silencing all the girls. "It seems I won't get nothing out of you, so for the rest two hours of class, you all get detention. Understood?"

"Yes ma'am," said the six girls in unison.

* * *

Waiting in a designated class for detention, the six girls kept silence at first, but after a while they couldn't avoid talking.

"Hey, good one back there Cornelia;" Jade told the blonde. "In my old school I would've tried to convince the principal that I was in another world."

"Did that ever work?" Cornelia asked, just for Jade to shook her head in negation; followed by the two girls' laugh.

"Hey," Will said too. "Don't know if you heard this one pretty often, but you guys are the most awesome friends I ever got. And thank you for taking me and Jade out of that prison!"

"Same to you, Will;" Taranee told the redhead. "We were… kind of cool back in Meridian, weren't we?"

"You kidding?" Jade asked. "You rocked! Remember how you were blasting all those monsters?"

"No more impressive that how your uncle was knocking them out with his moves, or you kicking one's head!" Irma told the orange hoodie wearing girl.

"Well, duh!" Jade said. "I've been in all this fight against forces of evil much more than you all!"

The room burst in laughter, and the six girls continued to chat and joke about their little incursion into Meridian, the fear and sorrow experienced there driven away but each other's kindness.

"What are you doing, Hay Lin?" Jade asked of her distant cousin, seeing how she was using a pen in her arm.

"Are you writing over your skin?" Taranee asked the bumbling girl. "Again?"

"Yes, but look at this!" Hay Lin said as she raised her arm, revealing the word WITCH written in it. "Our initials make this name! Well, except for Jade, but that's…"

"Hey, no problem," Jade told the other girl. "This Guardian business is your thing, and besides, I'm already part of the Chan Clan, and that's as awesome as having magic powers."

The girls laughed again and spent the rest of detention like that, just talking; just bonding with each other. Just knowing more about the others, just sharing about their lives; comparing vacations, who had the most overprotective adult under the same roof, whose younger sibling was the most annoying one. And at the end of the day, the only thing remaining in each one was a better soul, and a stronger person.

After all, what are friends for?

* * *

 _I never was someone to have a lot of friends; and for what she told me, neither was Will. But the people I met here, people I could talk about magic with, people I could laugh and cry with… All of them made me feel like I had finally found my place in this world. I'm honored that they call me friend. I think I'll never be grateful enough to Uncle for bringing us all to Heatherfield_.  Jade Chan

* * *

 **Author's Notes: Long A/N ahead, people. I swear to God, I tried to get this chapter shorter! But I couldn't… there were so many things to add to the episode itself… Damn you, desire of expanding the episodes! Anyway, I hope you enjoyed this one, because oh boy I'm tired of writing it as of now. Now, a couple of things to clear out:**

 **1.- The reason Daolon Wong is part of Phobos' court is because… it bends well with him. At first I thought having him work with another villain I'll present to you in the next chapter, but then I remembered something. Wong is the only antagonist of JCA that isn't actually selfish. His ambition for power is in order to further the 'cause of evil', so teaming up with Phobos seems logical to me, since Phobos (albeit selfish in his goals too) brings the opportunity to Wong to turn a whole world upside down.**

 **2.- Yes, Phobos and Wong are considerably more powerful than in canon. Why? They need to be a threat. In both cartoons they were menacing, but both of them seemed clearly weaker than the heroes, and albeit the WITCH cartoon-verse is one in which you fight more with the brain that with power, the villains need to be powerful enough to suppose a challenge. By the way, Wong's last spell against Uncle is Chinese for 'Decaying World'.**

 **That is all. Next one is my rendition of 'The Key', and after that (finally) I can start with my own episodes and mixing plotlines. Leave a review to tell me how did you see this episode, or send me a PM if you have any idea or question.**


	3. The Key to Victory

**Disclaimer: I own neither the WITCH cartoon-show nor Jackie Chan Adventures; they are the property of their respective creators, writers, and producers.**

 **Author Notes: Many tanks for the reviews last chapter, you guys are all awesome! Having said that, welcome to my rendition of The Key, the third episode of the first season and the last one of said season I will adapt following the line of canon faithfully. Also, yes, this chapter is quite large too, the longest one of the fic as of now if you ask me. For more notes, see end of the chapter.**

* * *

Guardians, Wizards and Kung-Fu Fighters

Episode Three

The Key to Victory

* * *

 **World of Meridian; Throne Room**

Phobos was growing quite unpleased with all these… _surprises_. It was as if the passing of the Heart of Kandrakar to a new generation had put something in motion, as if every power that was part of this war had started to move after their appearance. Then again, that was fairly normal; the rebels had now Kandrakar itself justifying their pathetic attempts of deposing him, so Phobos understood that they were starting to go to lengths where they wouldn't have dared to go years ago, to make moves they would have judged illogical years ago. And now here he was, Phobos Escanor, first of his name, in his Throne Room, looking over Vathek as he had looked over the rebel leader just mere days ago. He still felt angry that them all had escaped, and that one of his Gargoyles had lost an arm into pursuing them; but focusing on past loses wasn't wise. He hadn't come this far by mere mourning.

"Report," he told Raythor and Cedric, both men standing at Vathek's side. The blue Galhot seemed nervous, Phobos noted; nervousness that only increased when Raythor dropped a couple of chains and shackles in front of them.

"My liege," the Captain referred to the Prince in utmost respect. "The search for the escapees continues, the _Amayther_ patrolling the skies day and night; but we aren't here for that only. My men and I have been looking around the prison during the reparations you ordered, and we have found these," he said pointing to the chains. "These are the chains that were used to cage the rebel leader, and of which he set himself free somehow."

"We have also noted that one of the master keys of the dudgeons has gone missing," Cedric intervened, talking in the sweet voice proper of his human form. "The one that was on Vathek's possession, specifically."

Phobos gaze descended upon the blue, bulky Galhot. _Like roaches when you kick a rock, all the traitors reveal themselves now that the Guardians have come in their aid_ ; Phobos thought. _Pathetic… should I execute him? No, not so sudden, the guards may grow discontent; Vathek has very good friends there._

"And you suspect Vathek of treason, Raythor?" Phobos asked the Captain, who bowed in affirmation.

"Yes, my liege;" Raythor said. "There are other proofs, many sergeants said the alarm could have been rang sooner have Vathek been there, and if your grace remembers, the warden wasn't in position of duty when the Guardians and those earthlings attacked the dungeons."

Now, that was pretty convincing. And Vathek's treachery could be an explanation on how the rebel leader was able to sneak around into one of his armories with such an ease. Phobos pondered his options, he wanted to see Vathek pay in agony for his treason, and yet Raythor could… _No_ , thought the Prince. _Raythor is the solution to this_.

"One day," the Prince proclaimed. "One day in order to search for the key, in order to find it. If not," a cruel glint appeared in Phobos' eyes; "you have my permission to dispose of Vathek… via the Abyss of Shadows."

Raythor bowed, satisfied with his Prince's reasoning, while Cedric transformed into his snake form and leaned over the now completely terrified Vathek. "For your own good Vathek," the Shapeshifter hissed over the Galhot. "I hope that the key isssss found."

The Captain and the Lord left the room, dragging Vathek away with them. After several minutes of solitude, the gates of the throne room opened again, and Phobos was greeted with the presence of both Daolon Wong and the Tracker.

"Ah, Archmage," Phobos greeted the old man. "Has your experiment progressed?"

"We are finally in the final stage of the project, my liege;" Wong answered, and then gestured to the undead at his side. "Tracker's continuous supply of specimens has been of great help."

"I exist to hunt" the undead spoke; his voice a low, raspy whisper. "I'm glad that my preys can serve as something more than trophies."

"However, we may need something else in order to test the definite product," Wong stated.

"What do you need?" Phobos asked, in awe at this development.

"A young, pureblooded human being, whose body is still in development;" Wong explained. "Is the only way in which I will be able to see if the product works perfectly and we don't end with more… failures."

"Pureblooded humans are scarce in Meridian, too many Galhot blood runs in those veins;" Phobos said as he rubbed his goatee. _And I surely won't offer myself for your experiments, old man_ ; the Prince thought. "Perhaps we should turn our attention to Earth in this matter too. Will it work, Wong?"

"Of course, my liege;" the old dark chi wizard stated. "And then we will be able to produce artificial Shapeshifters, a legion of beast at your disposal, persecuting and disposing of your enemies. It will be the key to your victory in this war!"

Phobos thought about the current situation. He had too many fronts open, he needed something to put him in the advantage… "Very good, Archmage, you may proceed as you look convenient into your investigations."

With a bow, both dark wizard and undead left the throne room, and then Phobos made a gesture to the ceiling. "Miranda, come here."

The spider Shapeshifter descended in a threat of spider-web and landed graciously in the floor, where she transformed back to her human form, a petite and somehow cute girl of pale skin and raven hair. "My Lord?" the girl said in a sweet tone. Why did all Shapeshifters' human forms have sweet voices and pretty faces? Phobos didn't know.

"It seems Wong is progressing in the right direction," Phobos told the girl. "But my rule will always be challenged until I have the Heart of Meridian. I need to know where my sister is."

"Why do you need me for then?" the girl asked.

"Normally I would ask this of Cedric," Phobos explained. "But he is better here until this entire situation with Vathek has been clarified. I need you to pay a visit to Charles Ludmoore on Earth. Pay him whatever he ask, but find me the location of my sister!"

Miranda nodded and a playful smirk appeared in her face. "As you wish."

* * *

 **Across the Veil; World of Earth**

"These clothes… they are itchy!" Caleb protested as he rubbed his shoulders. The rebel leader had passed the night after their escape from the castle in the basement of the Silver Dragon, and upon awakening and wanting to go out in search of a Portal to return home, he had find his clothes trapped inside something called 'washer', a box-like thing with a circular opening in which insides his clothes were moving round and round… until the Air Guardian took them out clean, wet and smelling to strawberry. So the Air Guardian, who remembered Caleb of those children that couldn't stop moving and playing no matter what; had tasked herself into making him new clothing. And god, it was a weird one. A blue, large t-shirt, strange pants that didn't cover his legs completely, and something that seemed to be a red helmet; but considering how soft it was, it couldn't protect him from anything.

"How can they be itchy?" Hay Lin told him offended. "I made them with silk, it's impossible for them to be itchy!"

"Maybe meridianites don't like those that way," the old and kind voice of Yan Lin fill the basement, making Hay Lin to look up and smile at her grandmother.

"Grandma! You're alright again!" Hay Lin cheered, running to Yan Lin and embracing her into a hug.

"Uf! I may have my energy back, granddaughter, but I'm still a lady in her sixties;" Yan Lin replied. "By the way, shouldn't _you_ be going already?"

Hay Lin looked at her watch, realizing what hour was. "Ah! Guardian class with Jackie and Tohru! I've to go!" she planted a kiss in Yan Lin's cheek. "Bye Grandma!" the Air Guardian cheered before storming out of the basement and the restaurant.

"And you, rebel boy;" Yan Lin said, pointing to Caleb. "Don't think the night sleep comes in free. Come up and give me a little help, I could use such a strong boy doing the chores."

"If you insist…" Caleb said following Yan Lin upstairs. In truth, he thought that this was the least he could do to repair her for offering him a place into which sleep during the night, and also rescuing him from the dungeons. "How is the other elder doing, by the way?"

"Cousin? Oh, he will be alright into a couple of days," Yan Lin explained as they exited the basement. "Gentle Tohru was able to purge all the negative energy that horrible man poured inside of him. Now he only needs rest. Hold these for a second."

"I'm glad that he's well, whoa!" Caleb exclaimed as Yan Lin put a dozen or so tablecloths in his arms. Yan Lin then approached a family of three, a man, a woman and a little kid; the woman and the kid looking incredibly similar to the Water Guardian.

"Tom, Anna!" Yan Lin greeted them. "And little Chris even; how come?"

"Yan Lin," the police officer and father of Irma, Tom Lair, greeted the old Asian woman. "Well, since Irma has a meeting with the rest of the girls this morning, we thought that maybe we could spend some family time taking a little brunch."

"Lovely," Yan Lin said to them. Chris, meanwhile, had focused his attention in Caleb, looking up to the rebel leader.

"Are you the boyfriend of Cornelia my sister told me about?" Chris asked the rebel boy.

"Who?" Caleb asked.

"Cornelia, you know; blond, arrogant…" Chris explained.

 _Wait, does he mean the Earth Guardian?_ ; Caleb thought. "She's not my girlfriend, I barely know her!"

"You like her!" Chris told him, which enraged Caleb slightly.

"Chris!" Anna intervened, reprimanding her son. "Sorry, he just likes to disturb people."

"It was nothing, really;" Caleb told her and saw how the little boy took her mother's hand and the family walked into the restaurant, taking one table. The father cracked some kind of joke, and the other two burst into laughter shortly afterwards, the little conflict before mother and son instantly forgotten. They seemed so… peaceful.

"What's up, rebel boy?" Yan Lin said coming back to him and taking some of the tablecloths. "Lost in your thoughts?"

Caleb directed one last gaze to three members of the Lair family, just to watch the moment in which Tom passed an arm over Chris shoulders, both father and son making a comedic show for the mother. "It's nothing," Caleb said as he followed Yan Lin. "It's just… I think I like this world."

* * *

 ** _Shell Beach_**

"Concentrate, look around you," Jackie told Will as both she and Jade were engaged into a sparring match, his niece doing incredibly good against the transformed Will. "Don't let your opponent to dictate the rhythm of the fight. Act, don't react."

 _Easily said than done_ , Will complained mentally as she tried to hit Jade, just for the other girl to evade her again, getting at her back and deliver a double kick to her. The girl was way faster than the redhead, and she took advantage of being so in order to annoy and tire Will with fast attacks. Will was starting to grow frustrated of not being able to fly, a rule Jackie had established previously, her wings flapping… Wait, her wings flapping, of course! Will started to flap her wings with much more strength, making dust and sand of the shore to rise in a little tornado, blinding Jade. She took the opportunity to grab the other girl and immobilize her.

"Whoa! Nice trick!" Jade congratulated the Keeper of the Heart. Will let her go afterwards, and putting her hands in her hips, she smiled fondly at Jade.

"But I only won with a trick," Will told her. "If not you would've beaten me, even in this form."

"Well, duh; I'm me!" Jade remarked proudly. "But if you aren't able to trick someone in battle, you aren't good to fight."

"Jade is right," Jackie said, stepping in the conversation. "A lot of fights are turned in your favor due to your ability to trick your opponent into growing overconfident, or stepping into the wrong way. Never forget that guile and trickery can be the key to a victory more than strength and speed. Everything considered, great job, both of you;" the archeologist remarked proudly.

As Jackie ended his little lesson, Tohru was trying to teach the girls how to use their elemental powers into a more imaginative way, currently working with Taranee into creating condensed fireballs.

"You don't have to think about fire as a purely offensive element," Tohru told her. "It can be a shield as it is a sword."

Taranee was able to condense the fire into a little ball, which then she proceeded to elongate into a thick shield of flames. "Maybe too literal?"

"No Taranee, it's perfect;" the gentle giant told her. "That's the funny thing about magic; there is more than just one way to look at things. In fact, sensei always says that there are thousands of different ways of casting the same spell. If not, look at Hay Lin."

Looking up, the girls saw how the Air Guardian was flying like a falcon in the air, sometimes rotating over herself and using her air powers to envelop herself in a tornado. That way, she could attack and defend herself at the same time.

"Oh, showoff!" Irma told her flying friend from the ground.

"You're just jealous," Cornelia teased the Water Guardian, who in response approached the sea.

"Oh yeah? Then look at this!" Irma said, raising her arms and making the water of the bay to rise and take a shape. A familiar shape. "I give you, Cornelia!" Irma exclaimed, having giving the water the form of her blonde friend, except for a little detail in the face.

"Thanks for the nose," Cornelia remarked sarcastically, the nose of her water self clearly not adjusting to reality.

"Cornelia with a broken nose!" Irma renamed her work, earning herself a clapping from the other girls, and even a chuckle from Jackie and Tohru. "Thank you, thank you…"

Irma let the water sculpture to be dispelled, but she lamented doing it so abruptly just seconds later, when a torrent of fishes fell over her friends like if they were raining. The girls took cover, while Jade couldn't avoid almost breaking her chest off laughing. Taranee, meanwhile, screamed like a small girl, trying to get rid of the animals that had landed in her body.

Tohru, who had ended with one of them in the mouth, spitted it out. "Puagh! I hate fish…"

* * *

 ** _Silver Dragon_**

As the morning passed and let way to the midday, the girls decided to have a little detail with the Chan Clan, and invited them to the Silver Dragon, even if they had to stay in the basement due to the restaurant being full of people. There in the basement the girls had put a long table and a lot of food over it. It wasn't a party per se, but yes a way of welcoming the Chans and Will fully into their lives. Tohru arrived shortly after the girls and Jackie, Uncle accompanying him. The old man seemed way better than before, his skin having regained color; and at least now he was conscious.

"Hey Hay-Hay, wasn't that Caleb living here?" Irma asked of the Air Guardian.

The Chinese girl looked around, slightly confused. "Well, he was."

"Oh, I sent that boy out with the trash," Yan Lin spoke as she took a spot in the table. "Been quite helpful, that boy."

"Grandma! He's our guest from an alien world!" Hay Lin protested. "And what if he dirtied the clothes I gave him?!"

"Bah, I gave him better ones," Yan Lin told her granddaughter. "He moves better and attracts female customers better that way."

"Ohoho! Heard that Corny?" Irma asked the blonde. "Your boyfriend is in full 'eye-candy' mode."

"He's not my boyfriend!" Cornelia told them. "And could you please stop calling me Corny already?!"

"Well, you were making goo-goo eyes to him all the way back from Meridian," Will said.

"Not you too, Will;" Cornelia pleaded to the redhead.

Not being able to resist the temptation, Jade took Taranee and Hay Lin between her arms and started to sing, an action the two other girls joined shortly afterwards. "Cornelia and Caleb, sitting under a tree..."

"Stop it!" the blonde yelled. "You're worse than my sister!"

The girls laughed afterwards, and the improvised 'welcoming party' continued without any interruption. They ate and drank, and they talked a bit about their training and other things... until they heard fast footsteps coming down the stairs and Caleb appeared right behind the door, carrying Blunk (dressed in Caleb's old clothing, the rebel teen now dressing in a dark brown t-shirt and a pair of pants) of all people in one hand, the Passling struggling to get free. Caleb threw the green dwarf in front of the girls.

"Eh… kinda interrupting something here, you know?" Irma told Caleb.

"Are those the clothes I made?!" Hay Lin exclaimed enraged at the Passling.

"Tell them," Caleb said. "Tell them what you did."

"Ugh… Blunk sorry for stealing the treasures inside the coffer of the alley!" the Passling said sincerely. "But Blunk won't steal, he will trade!"

 _Coffer? Does he mean the dumpster in which we throw the trash of the restaurant?_ ; Hay Lin thought, now not wanting to take back the clothes she had made.

Caleb hit the Passling slightly in the head. "The other thing, you idiot!"

"Oh! Blunk took shiny key too!" the Passling said, showing the aforementioned object to all the people in the room. "But Blunk didn't know that was bad! He took it in exchange of the showing Guardians and people secret passage back in the castle!"

"A passage that didn't work," Jade pointed out. "Remember? It had bars!"

"Details, details…" Blunk grumbled.

"I need to go back to Meridian," Caleb said without paying further attention to the Passling and taking the key from him. "I need to find a Portal; you need to find me a Portal!"

"Whoa, relax there!" Will told Caleb. "Why's that so important, it's just a key."

"It's a master key of the dungeons, and a friend that is infiltrated between Phobos' soldiers gave it to me," Caleb explained. "If I don't return it to him, they will piece things together, and Vathek will be a dead man!"

"And just when I thought we could get a peaceful meal…" Yan Lin said. "Will, bring the map."

"Seriously?" Jade complained. "We're going to help him back to that hell?"

"That _hell_ is my world," Caleb said. "And my friend, my companion, one of my _mentors_ needs me. So find me a Portal."

"Blunk told you already!" the Passling said. "No Portal opened now!"

"I don't trust the likes of you…" Caleb started to say as Will pushed aside the dishes over the table and pulled the map of Heatherfield from her bag and put it over it, moving the Heart above the map so it could show the opened Portals.

"But he's right," the redhead told him. "There's no Portal opened."

"Then what should I do?!" Caleb yelled.

Yan Lin took a hand to her chin, thinking hard. "Of how much time do we dispose?"

"Knowing how Phobos operates, not very much;" Caleb said.

"Then… there may be a way;" Yan Lin said. "There is always an opened Portal in Heatherfield… but it's of private use."

All the people in the basement thought in doubt to what the old lady was referring, all except Caleb, who had caught about what she was talking about since the first moment.

"Oh no, not in a million years;" the rebel leader said. "I'm not turning to ask help of that man."

"What man?" Jackie asked.

"Charles Ludmoore;" Yan Lin answered.

"Isn't that the man who directs the waste treatment and the garbage men?" Cornelia asked. "Dad spoke to me a couple of times of him. Why is he so important? He's just the man of the trash."

"And he is also a meridianite by birth," Yan Lin explained. "A man that knows many things and that owns one of the few, if not the only one; stabilized Portal that exists."

"Mr. Ludmoore is a good man, good with Passlings;" Blunk said. "He cuts deals with us, gives us treasures…"

"And in return they gave him jewels, and sold him secrets of both sides of the war;" Caleb spoke too. "I don't like him; he's just a double-crosser that takes every opportunity to take everything out of your pockets!"

"And he is the only hope your friend has," Yan Lin said, directing herself to the rest of the presents afterwards. "I'm sorry everyone, but we will have to postpone the meal."

"Seriously?" Taranee said. "Can't we catch a break, not even for eating?"

"When duty calls, duty calls;" Jade told the glasses wearing girl. "So, where do we go?"

* * *

Far away from the center of the city, there was a mansion at the top of a cliff that married with the sea. The mansion was surrounded by a garden composed of powerful and beautiful blue roses. Not even in winter, with the snow, the cold and the powerful storms did these blue flowers whiter or their intense blue fade. They would always remain eternal.

These roses shouldn't exist, and in fact, they only bloomed in this exact part of Heatherfield. For many years, they had gathered here curious eyes from simpletons to experts. And no one was able to tell why these impossible flowers were there. Analysis had said that their code was altered centuries ago, but they didn't know _how_ it was altered. Some scientist once made a joke saying that it had must been magic. Neither he nor anyone else knew how right he had been. For this place, these lands colored in eternal blue roses, and the mansion, standing tall and powerful, its walls and façade as black as obsidian… they really were created by the hands of a man of magic. And so, the lands received his name, baptizing them as his legacy in Heatherfield.

Villa Ludmoore was its name; for that was how it had been named after its founder; Jonathan Ludmoore.

"There's something wrong with those roses," Cornelia said as they walked between them. "I don't like them."

"Me neither," Will said, remembering her last experience with weird colored roses.

"Sensei, can you feel that?" Tohru asked to Uncle, the old man also being able to sense what his apprentice was talking about.

"There is... strong magic here, old magic. Of various people, of various generations, poured into those roses... neither evil, nor good."

"Yes, that sentence describes the Ludmoore family very well;" Yan Lin said as they approached the entrance of the mansion, presided by an ornamented gargoyle not so different from the one of churches. Yan Lin raised one hand towards the statue and conjured a small ball of magic; and the gargoyle suddenly looked down at them. "We are here to bargain with your master."

The gargoyle growled, its stone eyes glowing briefly before it returned to its previous position. Then the doors of the mansion opened slowly, welcoming them in. Yan Lin climbed the couple of stairs that lead to it and entered without hesitation; the others following her.

"Are we seriously going inside the spooky mansion with statues that come to life?" Taranee asked.

"Apparently," Hay Lin said, a bit scared too. "Grandma, you sure this is safe, right?"

"Ludmoore won't attack us," Yan Lin explained. "It would be bad for business. Just be careful with what you say and how you say it."

"Who is this Ludmoore guy by the way?" Jade asked. "Because I doubt he's just the man of the trash."

Yan Lin took air in. "Jonathan Ludmoore was once, many centuries ago, a member of Meridian's court. A skilled sorcerer and alchemist, many turned to him for help; be it the Queen, the peasants, or even Kandrakar's congregation. He was of great help, improving the realm and doing a lot of good… but he grew ambitious. He tried to stage a coup not only against the Queen of that time, but against Kandrakar itself. For that, he was quickly subdued and exiled to this world; in where he used his knowledge in order to prosper and he founded a family that has lasted until today. The man we have come to speak with, Charles; is his great-great-great-grandson."

"Christ..." Irma muttered after the explanation. "So, in which side is he?"

"No one," Caleb answered. "And both of them."

"He's neutral?" Jackie asked.

"He's even a bigger smuggler than any Passling. Some even call him King Smuggler back in Meridian;" Caleb told angrily. "He takes advantage of the war to manipulate us in his benefit. The Rebellion could do a lot of good with his help, yet he chooses to stay away from both sides. He's an egotistic man."

 _Just because he isn't in your side doesn't mean that_ ; Jackie thought. _But let's judge after meeting the man;_ he added as they reached the end of the hall they were walking.

Crossing the gate, they found themselves inside a huge circular room, filled with gigantic bookshelves full of thick tomes.

 _A library?_ ; most of them thought, quite impressed by the enormous quantity of books that were there. In the center of the room was a large desk, and behind it, a Portal. But it looked different to the ones they had seen until that moment. It was still circular and blue, but instead of the usual lightning and chaotic sound of the normal ones, this one was as calmed as the surface of a lake in a warm summer day. It was just there, surrounded by an arc made of green stone, with strange symbols all over it. There was a little arrow over it, currently pointing to the symbol at the top of the arc.

 _So, it's basically a Stargate_ ; Jade thought looking at the thing.

However, what surprised them the most was that they weren't alone in the room. Standing next to the desk was a petite girl f raven hair and blue eyes, dressed in a medieval getup that marked her as not a member of royalty, but neither a peasant.

Miranda looked at them as surprised as they were, albeit her expression turned to a arrogant smile shortly after. "Well, isn't this a surprise;" the girl said. "Never thought I would cross paths with you so soon."

"Who are you?" Jackie asked the girl, who in response, made her hair grow and cover her whole body, sprouting four grey massive limbs from it, letting her four shining blue eyes and her spider form to answer for herself.

"Me?" Miranda said, her voice now raspy, and yet retaining the smug tone to it. "I'm the itsy bitsy spider who almost ate that girl there;" she said pointing to Jade.

"Shapeshifter!" Tohru exclaimed, and Caleb rushed towards her, ready to fight even without a weapon.

"Monster! Servant of the tyrant!" Caleb yelled as he headed directly towards Miranda, who just narrowed her eyes upon being called 'monster'.

"Guardians, Uni-!" Will started to say as her hand went to the Heart pending from her neck, but Yan Lin was quick and stopped her; surprising everyone in the room except Miranda.

"Caleb, no!" the Chinese old lady shouted, but it wasn't enough to stop the boy.

However, as Caleb was mere inches from Miranda's face, jumping in order to add gravity to the strength put on his blow; he was stopped in midair, as if there was a force retaining him, and then was pushed back into the other direction, falling to the ground at just in front of Jackie.

"She has magic?!" Jade said, pointing t the Shapeshifter, who rolled her four eyes.

"Of course not you idiot;" Miranda told Jade, who frowned upon being called an idiot. "It wasn't me."

"It was me," a cold, emotionless voice said.

Turning into the direction of the voice, they saw how a new figure crossed another access to the library, carrying a bunch of papers in his arms. It was a thin and really tall man that looked to be in his mid-twenties; with pale skin and a hair even blacker than Miranda's that fell over his shoulders in elegant curls, a toned body dressed in a sharp black suit over a white shirt and a tie around the neck. He had incredibly angular features, like some kind of strange statue; that helped to add even more insensitivity to its already cold demeanor and emotionless expression. In any other circumstance, Cornelia and even Irma would have made a commentary on how beautiful (not hot) he was. However, that thought disappeared quickly when all of them focused in his eyes. The eyes were pitch black, the sclera being the black one instead of the irises, and in each eye's blackness was a small, golden dot that must be the guy's pupil.

"Ah, new clients," the man said in the most monotone of tones as he approached the desk, taking a seat behind it and putting the bunch of papers in the corner of the piece of furniture that was nearer to Miranda, who meanwhile reverted to her human form. "This is such a busy day… Since this is the first time I see," his eyes focused in Yan Lin for a second; "the _majority_ of you here, I will let it go, but let's get something clear here. This house is neutral territory, and I don't approve of fights in here. Unless they are over a product, and are made with tongues, not fists."

"I take you are Charles Ludmoore;" Jackie said.

"In flesh and bone," the man said, not letting any emotion to get through his voice. "If you can excuse me for a second… Lady Miranda, tell Prince Phobos this is all I have been able to found about what he asked for. The rest is up to him."

Miranda took the papers and skimmed through them. "This is… I don't know how the Prince will react to this;" the Shapeshifter said. "Do you really expect for us to pay you for…?"

"If you don't like it, then leave the papers here and keep the payment," Ludmoore answered. "I'm sure I can put them as a plus in the offer these people want to talk with me about."

Miranda grunted and clutched the paper to her chest. Then she pulled a book out of the back of her dress, and let it over the same spot she had taken the papers from. "Thank you very much, Lord Ludmoore."

" _Mister_ Ludmoore, I'm no Lord;" the man said, and for a moment his voice left the smallest of rages to get pass it. "And it has been a pleasure to make business with you, as always. I'll let you by the palace;" Charles said as he made a gesture towards the Portal behind him and the arrow changed its position, pointing to another symbol now.

Miranda bowed slightly, and then headed towards the Portal, not without directing a last glance to the other people in the room; especially towards Jade. "It was nice seeing you again, Guardians. Be careful when stepping into the castle again, we don't want for you to stumble upon a spider-web." And the girl disappeared across the Portal, the arrow returning to its original place.

Ludmoore took air in, and then looked over the people in the room. Having so many in there make him feel uncomfortable. Yet he knew they wouldn't try anything, even with a boy as foolish and rage-driven as Caleb with them. Ludmoore took the book Miranda had left, and after passing a couple of pages, he made it levitate and take a place into one of the bookshelves. In the moment it touched it, Will was sure that she had seen something being pulled from the book and enter the bookshelf. "You have my full attention now, gentlemen and ladies."

"Uh, uh! Hello, Mr. Ludmoore!" Blunk greeted jumping slightly to be seen from under the desk.

"Ah, Blunk the Passling;" Ludmoore spoke. "How is your mother doing these days?"

"Good! Good!" the Passling said friendly. "Friends of Blunk came to make bargain with you! They have offer, for deal!"

At first none of the attendants opened their mouths, some really not knowing what to say and some others a bit discomforted by the man's stare. Then, after a few moments Yan Lin took the lead, and stepping into the front of the conversation, she said. "We need to travel to Meridian. There is no other Portal opened at the moment, so we need to use yours."

"For what reason?" Ludmoore inquired in his usual emotionless tone of voice.

"None of your business," Caleb spat at the man, who changed his cold gaze from Yan Lin to the rebel boy, and the little golden dots brightened for a second. Yan Lin resisted the huge urge of slapping the boy. Seriously, had no one ever taught him to keep his mouth shut?

"On the contrary, it's _all of my business_ ;" Ludmoore spoke, standing up and walking to his Portal. "Tell me, son of Julian, do you know why both sides in your little war fear me so much?"

"Because you have an army of spies and assassins running all around our world;" Caleb answered, a bit displeased by hearing his father's name from that man's lips.

"That's not even half the reason, boy;" Ludmoore said, and for a moment Jade caught into the fact that his mannerisms belonged to someone much older than a man in his middle-twenties. Those eyes didn't belong to any human, was he one of those people that aged slowly? "True, I have spies and assassins in both sides of the war, but they don't act unless I order them directly." Ludmoore continued his speech. "And I'm not referring only to Passlings, or desperate men in need of a couple of coins or a hot meal. I'm referring to soldiers in the Prince's army; I'm referring to men that you eat side by side with in your little Rebellion. But that's not the reason," Ludmoore made a pause and returned to the desk. "It's because I know things and I'm neutral. It's because I work for no side, but myself. None of your sides will risk putting me against them in this war, to turn me at their enemies' arms. But I won't risk putting myself into one side's favor and lose the one of the other. A stabilized Portal it's a rare and powerful weapon in a civil war; if I dropped any of you in the Prince's chambers while he is sleeping and you killed him, surely some of his followers would come after me in order to enact revenge. The same can be said about you rebels." Ludmoore sat down again, and crossed his hands over the desk. "So, for what reason do you want to travel to Meridian, and do it so quickly that you won't wait for a natural Portal to open up? Perhaps is because some blue-skinned Galhot is in line to be send to the Abyss for treason? But what could you have to do with that?"

Silence took hold of the party, and Ludmoore stared at them sinisterly. Reading the man seemed an impossible task, no emotions, no clue of his intentions; nothing could be read in that face, in that voice, in those eyes.

 _Damn it, not the Abyss_ ; Caleb thought in grief. No one escaped the Abyss, no one survived that. _Damn it, I was a fool_. _If I hadn't been so reckless with the key during my escape… If that damned Passling hadn't…! But if I answer, Ludmoore will know that Vathek is a spy and that…_

"We need to rescue that man," Will interrupted. "He's a spy for the Rebellion, and if we don't return the key that he gave to us to escape from the dungeons, he will die."

"What are you doing?!" Caleb said enraged. "Now he can tell that information to the enemy!"

"He won't," Will replied coldly. "If he does, then it will put him in opposition to the Rebellion, and with you here to tell us, what stops us from coming to his house and burning it down? Besides, I doubt he didn't know already if he has people inside the Rebellion."

"The rebels are dedicated to the cause, not to personal gain;" Caleb said to the redhead.

"And yet, how much can you contribute to the cause when I give you weapons, supplies, or information, in exchange of a couple of names?" Charles spoke. "Listen to the Keeper, she seems intelligent."

"That doesn't mean I approve what you do;" Will spat to the man in the black suit. "You take advantage of the suffering around you, just for personal gain. You're a man that just steps aside while a world dies. You're an opportunist."

 _I think I'm starting to love this girl_ ; Jade and Irma thought in unison; while Jackie found himself smiling proudly to the redhead's statement. However, Ludmoore didn't even flinch.

"Dies, or improves. You know, Miss Vandom;" the man continued to speak while Will and the other girls flinched slightly at the fact that he knew their leader's name. "There are very few things that I hate. People that harm my family, people that don't respect my property… But above all else, I hate people that thing that they are more righteous than others."

"You call a war improvement?" Taranee stepped in. "What are you, a Social Darwinist?"

"I'm just remarking that there is more to this war than a mere conflict between an evil tyrant and a bunch of heroic rebellious teenagers. Sometimes, you have to let the line between good and evil to blur in order to get something better;" Ludmoore told the girl. "The woman that wore the Heart before your friend understood that reality perfectly."

"Enough!" Uncle yelled, seeing not only confusion in Will's face upon that sentence, but also uneasiness over Yan Lin's face. "Ludmoore knows about our objective. Now tell Guardians and Uncle if he is going to cooperate! Or does he want a piece of Uncle?!" the old man threatened.

"Your terms are acceptable, I will let you in the streets of the Capital;" Ludmoore answered after a while. "But of course, there is still the issue of the payment."

"We don't have much money…" Hay Lin said, but she got interrupted by Ludmoore.

"Give me the key for a second," the man asked, and Caleb, albeit grudgingly, took the object out of his pocket and put it over the table. Ludmoore took a little box from one of the drawers of his desk, and opening it, he pressed the key against both its sides. "I will take this as payment; a copy of a master key is always something good to have."

He moved his hand towards the Portal, and the arrow changed from symbol once again. "Have a nice trip. I hope this is the start of a new, fructiferous business relationship."

Still a bit angry about the man's coldness, Will raised the Heart, and pronouncing the words 'Guardians Unite!' once again, a flash of energy enveloped all the girls and transformed them into their Guardian forms. Floating slightly over the floor, the five girls, Caleb and Blunk positioned themselves in front of the Portal, some of them still wary of what this situation's outcome could be. Uncle, meanwhile, made a signal to his nephew and his apprentice.

"Jackie, take Tohru and accompany the girls;" the Chinese elder instructed them. "Make sure they don't get hurt."

"Understood, Uncle;" Jackie told the old man, and he and Tohru started to approach the Portal, just to notice Jade doing the same.

"Well, it's time to save some rebel spy ass," Jade said; but Jackie took her and put the girl at Uncle and Yan Lin's side. "What are you doing?"

"Jade, you aren't coming with us;" Jackie told the girl. "You will remain here, with Ms. Lin and Uncle."

"But… but… but…!" Jade protested. "That's not fair! Will and the others are going!"

"Will and the others have magical powers and empowered bodies," Jackie explained. "You don't. I won't risk you getting captured again or something worse; so you stay here."

"Awww, c'mon!" Jade protested, as she crossed her arms and looked sideways.

"Don't worry gal, we'll bring you a souvenir;" Irma told her as the others started to cross the Portal. "Like, I don't know an evil pet dog or something."

Jade smiled at her friend's words and looked how the girls, Caleb, Blunk, Jackie and Tohru crossed the Portal and disappeared in a blinding flash; leaving Uncle, Yan Lin and Jade alone in the room. As the two elders turned around with the intention to leave, however, Jade looked at the stabilized Portal, the arrow having started to change positions once again.

 _He told me to stay with Ms. Lin and Uncle_ ; the little girl thought. _But how do I know he wasn't referring to Hay Lin and himself?_ Thinking that she had avoided Jackie's orders thanks to her usual abuse of loopholes and bending of words, jade rushed towards the Portal, surprising Yan Lin, Uncle and Ludmoore himself.

"Jade, no!" Yan Lin and Uncle yelled in unison, but the girl was too fast and had already jumped towards the Portal, entering it in the exact moment the arrow was between two symbols, disappearing in the blue hole in the Veil and causing a shockwave that threw both elders back with its force. Once the girl had disappeared, Ludmoore rushed to his Portal, checking it out.

"Where did she go?!" Uncle demanded to know.

"It will be difficult to pinpoint her whereabouts now," Ludmoore explained, as cold as iron. "She could have landed anywhere, but considering the two last locations the Portal was connected to… probably in some spot between the Capital and the upper levels of the castle."

Yan Lin and Uncle looked in horror at the swirling circle of blue energy. "You have to send us there!" Yan Lin shouted in concern.

"How?" Ludmoore questioned. "I can't send a person so easily after something like this happens. The Portal will need several hours to be fully operational again."

"Then we will find Portal for ourselves!" Uncle shrieked and he and Yan Lin left the room.

Ludmoore was left alone in his library, and as soon as the two elders disappeared, he checked the runes and symbols around the arc surrounding the Portal. He left a small smile to come to his lips, the first change that he had left to come to his face. _So she landed inside the east wing of the castle, exactly the opposite one Miranda was sent to_ ; Ludmoore thought. He went to his desk and concentrating, he made a thin red book to teleport to his hand. Opening the book, he started to write calmly in it, the letters suddenly disappearing and being replaced by other ones that one of his informants back at Meridian was writing. Informing his confident about Jade's arrival, Ludmoore instructed him to use the girl if he thought of it convenient. _This is such an interesting and surprising change in this game's development_ ; Ludmoore thought. _Finally, after thirteen years, the unpredictable wheels of fate are starting to move. I'm so excited!_

* * *

 ** _Across the Veil; World of Meridian; streets of the Capital_**

Raining, it had to be raining. Meridian was as dark and grim as always, and the rain didn't help to improve the sight of the Capital or the mood of the people that live there. Aldarn, member of the Rebellion, was no exception. His father owned a little forge in the city, and that meant that numerous soldiers of the Prince went to him and his father in order to repair or make weapons, which meant that he could always take a bit of useful information from their chit-chats. Caleb's imprisonment, his escape, Guardians of the Veil; a rumors of a strange man that was able to defeat numerous soldiers bare handed and then stand up to Raythor, a Gargoyle that had lost an arm to the Guardians and that had been sent to Cavigor… and Vathek's coming doom. Aldarn picked into all these, and so deduced that Caleb was free, and that he would surely come to their usual meeting spot. Waiting under the rain, Aldarn's patience was quick to pay off, because Caleb wasn't late to appear after days of his escape, and he didn't come alone. With him were five girls, a Passling, a large man that put Vathek's bulk to shame and another, smaller one; all of them enveloped into cloaks.

"Aldarn, it's good to see you;" Caleb greeted his friend, who shook his hand energetically.

"I thought we have lost you in the other side of the Veil;" Aldarn told his leader. A screeching sound was then heard from the skies, and the son of the blacksmith was quick to indicate to them to take cover at the shadow of a building. "Since your escape and their suspicions about Vathek security has been doubled. They have those damn _Amayther_ creatures patrolling the skies day and night. It looks like Phobos has gone even more paranoid than normal;" Aldarn informed.

"The more paranoid he is, the less control he will have," Caleb stated. "I need to get into the castle; I need to get Vathek out."

"How? Unless you have an army, that's impossible." Aldarn told his friend.

"Not really. I have better than an army;" Caleb said as he pointed to the quintet of girls. "Aldarn; let me introduce you to the Guardians of the Veil."

The five girls took their cloaks off slightly, revealing their unusual uniforms and wings to Aldarn, who felt his inner hope rise like never it had done in too many years. "I'm honored;" Aldarn answered with a bow.

"Oh, you don't have to be like that," Hay Lin answered, blushing slightly.

"The man who gave us the cloaks didn't think meeting us was such an honor," Taranee complained, rubbing her neck. "These are so damn itchy..."

"I can get you inside the Palace, but you must be quick," Aldarn said, gesturing to all of them to follow him. "From what I have heard, Raythor has taken it personally to see Vathek inside the Abyss of shadows."

"Then I will settle things with him too," Caleb retorted angrily as he stepped out, gaining Jackie's attention. As they walked, Caleb approached Aldarn, and whispered practically in his ear. "There are men among the rebels that are in Ludmoore's pocket. Find them, and tell only the Mage, Drake, Rhouglar, Tharquin and Sephiria; no one else."

They all reached an old carriage in the back of an alley eventually, full of chaff. Aldarn's father sued it to move weapons and other materials for his work, and the son used it from time to time to sneak into the castle.

"If you hide here, I can get you in." Aldarn told them.

"It's really necessary?" Cornelia asked. "It's not that I'm afraid of small places, but I think I have enough dirt in me for today with the cloak and all…"

"Don't complain, and let's get in;" Will ordered her and the others, the girls getting inside. Having seen how the girls were mounting in the carriage, and knowing this wasn't really his battle; Blunk took his chance and stepped out of the alley without anyone noticing.

As the girls and Caleb hide, and helped Tohru inside too; Jackie took Aldarn apart for a moment. "Excuse me, Aldarn right?"

"Yes," the young Galhot answered. "Are you perhaps that strange warrior the rumors speak about?"

"Probably," Jackie answered. He was completely sure that this world had never seen martial arts.

"You were the one fighting Raythor?" Aldarn asked in awe. "That's quite a feat!"

"It's of Raythor I want to speak about;" Jackie told him. "What's the story? What happened between him and Caleb?"

A shadow crossed then Aldarn's face and he avoided the man's look for a moment. "Caleb, he... Can I be sincere with you?"

"Yes;" Jackie answered sincerely.

"Until a couple of years ago, Caleb was a high-ranking member of the Rebellion… but not its leader. That was his father's, Julian, role. One day Julian took some men in order to attack a location, a town of the east named Carhaiz, in which the Prince was apparently hiding weaponry… and he was killed."

Jackie gulped. So that was how someone so young had been put in charge of a rebellion. Yet, what kind of people put a teenager in front of an army? The same kind of people that give a bunch of girls magical powers and sends them into fighting a war into a world that isn't theirs, probably. "And what does Raythor have to do with this?" Jackie asked, albeit he suspected the answer already.

"Because it was him;" Aldarn explained. Seeing how the others have finally mounted in the carriage, both of them headed towards it.

"Raythor gave the finishing blow."

* * *

 ** _The castle_**

 _"Put her in the table!"_

 _Dreams. Dreams can be such a strange experience… They can't have logic, or if they do they have a bizarre one. They can be beautiful… and also terrifying. Right now, Jade Chan was having a terrifying dream. She was chained to an iron table, the same green zombie from the throne room keeping watch over her, and a nightmarish bloodhound circling around her. She had always liked dogs, but it was impossible to like this one; looking at her like she was nothing but a piece of meat into which nail his fangs. The undead was no better, as he just stood there, watching over her with the two red slits that were his eyes. Around her, dark purple liquids and other things in flasks were fuming, boiling and bubbling. She was in a chamber that reminded her too much of the set of a Frankenstein movie… and that wasn't very attractive. Shortly after she found that struggling around the chains was useless, the old albino that had defeated Uncle at his own game appeared from behind the table, carrying a vial containing a liquid that didn't stop from changing color. Green, black, red, purple, blue, orange…_

 _"Don't worry child," the old dark wizard said, putting a needle to the vial and bringing it near her. "Think of it as a medicine that will make you better… than anyone."_

And then she woke up.

Jade was starting to get tired of waking up in whacky locations. First that throne room and the dungeons days ago, and now this. Jade had woken up in the middle of a hall that she quickly identified as one inside the castle, her body hurting enormously, especially in the back of her neck.

 _Where did that blasted Portal send me to?_ ; she thought as she rubbed the back of her neck, where she noted she had something similar to a bite of a mosquito, if mosquitoes were incredible big. _Ugh… my head hurts… better find Jackie and the others, they shouldn't be far away. I never had trouble finding him in the past, just follow the battles…_

Jade started to walk down the halls, unable to detect a presence behind her, looking how she went, at first walking slowly and tumbling slightly, but regaining the ability to walk normally after a while. The girl turned around a corner, disappearing out of sight, and leaving Daolon Wong, Tracker, and the undead's dogs Sniffer in the other end of the hall.

"Will she survive the treatment?" the undead asked in his raspy and whisper-like voice.

"Only time will tell," Daolon Wong. "The shock has been so great during the injection of the serum that she doesn't seem to remember any of it. I must admit, we were really lucky to find her here, all of a sudden. How did you know she was here, Tracker?"

Tracker narrowed his eyes slightly for no apparent reason; he seemed to be thinking about something, but the undead patted Sniffer in the head after that, the thoughts gone. "Sniffer informs me immediately if he smells something out of the normal in the castle. We really were lucky that she appeared here. But shouldn't the Guardians be here too if she is?"

"Likely, but we shouldn't inform the Prince. He would kill her, and we still need her alive, so we won't be telling Phobos about this;" Wong told the Tracker. "Just in order to… preserve the specimen and the experiment, of course."

"If you say so," Tracker answered, and the two of them drafted in the shadows of the hall, slowly returning to the Alchemy Laboratory, ready to continue with the production of horrors and living weapons for the Prince.

* * *

Jade regained the ability to run after a couple of minutes, dashing across the halls, evading guards and Lurdens alike with ease. She felt incredibly energetic all of a sudden, and she was able to cross form wing to wing of the castle with ease. After a while of running, she heard something. Screams, yells, the clash of swords… it was the sweet and unmistakable sound of battle.

Turning another corner, Jade was presented with one of the most awesome sights she had seen in her life. A battle was being fought in what seemed to be a dining hall, guards and some of those Lurdens being overpowered by Jackie, Tohru, Caleb and the girls. Jade was impressed with how Cornelia was beating the soldiers, making one of the hall's tables to stand up and fight the enemies like if it was her own private bodyguard. The table didn't last long, but it had knocked out several soldiers, and that was impressive for a mere table. Taranee made a wave of fire to knock out several others, while Will, Jackie, Caleb and Tohru were knocking them either with weaponry like Caleb, or with their bare hands like Jackie and Will. The sumo was just throwing the enemies all around with ease, making them hit the walls and fell down without moving. In the end, Will made a signal to Hay Lin and Irma, who mixed their powers and literally froze the guards and Lurdens, trapping them in ice.

"That was the most one-sided battle I've ever seen," Jade told the redhead, who was now standing next to her.

"Thank you Jade," Will accepted the compliment, just to realize to whom she was speaking to, turn around and look puzzled beyond compression to Jade. "Jade?! What are you doing here?! "How are you here?!"

"With a Portal," Jade answered. "Duh!"

Recognizing his niece's voice, Jackie rushed to her, clearly enraged. "Jade! I told you to… stay with Ms. Lin and Uncle… not to come here with… Hay Lin and your uncle… Agh…"

"See? You give me nothing but confusing orders;" Jade said in a joking tone.

"But how did you come here?" Taranee asked. "The Portal crossed behind us."

"I jumped in it," Jade answered, as if it was the most normal thing in the world. "And it sent me here."

"Be grateful it didn't send you to the other side of the planet;" Caleb told her. "Let's go, the entrance to the Abyss should be around here. Vathek needs us."

Knowing that Jade's presence was now something he could do nothing about, Jackie sighed and followed the rebel leader and the flying girls, all of them heading into one direction. Tohru took jade and put her over his shoulders, the two of them trailing behind the rest of the group.

"You know Jackie just cares about you, right?" Tohru asked the girl. "He just wants you to be safe."

"One thing is keeping me safe, Big-T;" Jade told the sumo. "But he sometimes takes it too far; he makes me feel like a baby. I bet if I had powers he would let me accompany the girls in their missions."

"Jade, you aren't a baby," Tohru said. "But you are still a young girl, and this world is at war. It scares me too to think about you getting hurt and not being seen again."

"Ah, don't worry Tohru," Jade told the gentle giant. "I'm not going anywhere. What could you all do without me?"

* * *

 ** _The Abyss of Shadows_**

Since Meridian's ancient times, there had been an enormous crack in one of the caves under the palace. It had been baptized as Abyss of Shadows due to, or so said the old tales, having no end. No one knew if this was true, but of course, no one has ever returned to tell if what was in the depts. Of that crack were the maws of a beast long forgotten, the gate to another reality, or a mountain of corpses and bones. Once his reign had hardened, and his grip around the throne had strengthened, Phobos had decided to give use to the Abyss of Shadows as no other royal had done in the past. And so, it had been made part of the law that everyone who dared to betray the Prince should be immediately thrown into the Abyss.

Since Vathek had been suspected of treachery, and the three days had ran out without finding the key; Raythor, who usually dispatched traitors into that fate, had taken Vathek and was now standing near the border of the crack, alone with the Galhot.

"My father used to tell me that this place was created during a battle, you know?" Raythor told Vathek, who was laying in the ground, the Captain not even bothering to look at him. "When the first King, Escanor himself, and his very wife Queen Leryn, the first Light of Meridian, battled against an enemy, a Demon King according to his tales. My father said that Queen Leryn imbued the King's sword in pure light, and he used it to strike the Demon down, saving everyone, and creating this never-ending gap in the process;" Raythor told, his voice sounding nostalgic. "Those stupid tales of knights and princesses… sometimes I think they do more harm than good. How many men had been driven to battle by those tales, trying to emulate them?"

"Why did you bring me here alone?" Vathek asked of the Half-breed Captain. "Why tell me that if you are just going to throw me in?"

Raythor breathed deeply, and looked down at the Abyss. Of how many traitors had he disposed in the past doing the same thing? Another one would have forgotten, but not him. "Seven hundred and thirty seven."

"What?" Vathek asked, and now Raythor turned around, eyeing him.

"Seven hundred and thirty seven;" Raythor said again. "I have thrown all those men and women inside this crack. And yet, to all of them I presented the same opportunity. If you desire so, I can grant you a last wish. Family you want to be taken care of, something you want to say to someone you care about… Anything."

Vathek pondered what the captain had told him. Knowing that Raythor wasn't someone to take his word back or pervert an oath, Vathek incorporated slightly, standing at Raythor's eye level. "If I question you, will you answer sincerely?"

"Yes," the Captain answered sincerely.

"Then tell me why Raythor," Vathek said, and his sentence sounded more like a plea than anything else. "You are an honorable man, I have seen enough around here to know as much as that. You care about the men at your service; you treat them a hundred times better than Cedric, that bastard of Wong or Phobos himself does! They believe in you, they admire you! Many of them continue to serve the Prince just because you are here, not for anything else! And yet, yet when you are one of the most noble men I have ever known… why, Raythor? Why do you serve someone like Phobos? Why do you serve someone that only serves himself; a ruthless usurper that drains the very life-force of our world?!"

"Because I made an oath;" Raythor answered sincerely. "Since the moment I was born, the only thing I ever had was my word, my honor. I made an oath to serve Prince Phobos, and I will keep it until I die, he dies; or he tells me to do otherwise."

"Why would you follow a man with no honor with so much?" Vathek asked of the Captain.

"He has no honor?" Raythor asked rhetorically. "How is that? A man's honor is sustained by the maintenance of his oaths and bows. Since the first moment I have served him, Phobos has not raised a finger but against the ones who challenged him, the ones who opposed him openly. Only traitors have been thrown in this pit. Not guard, Lurden or officer has ever earned the wrath of the Prince, if they maintained their loyalty. He has not broken any oath and so he has earned my loyalty."

"Then what about his oath to the people, to the commoners?!" Vathek yelled enraged. "As a royal, what he does to them, the energy he takes from the land, the throne he took from his own parents, the food he takes from the people! Doesn't that count as breaking a sacred oath?!"

"You don't understand, of course the Prince takes;" Raythor explained. "He takes because he is challenged, because he feels himself in danger. Who knows? Maybe if you rebels had not risen against him in arms, he wouldn't have been forced to drain this world."

"You cannot possibly believe that, Raythor;" Vathek said. "That man is nothing but a power hungry maniac, a boy wanting to take what he believes is his, and he believes he owns _everything_! You can't blame the Rebellion for standing against him in favor of the people, for protecting the innocents!"

At that moment a dry and somehow sad laugh escaped Raythor's mouth. "Protecting the innocents? Have you spent so much time between us as a spy that you have forgotten about your side's deeds?"

"What do you mean with that?" Vathek asked offended at the man's apparent accusation. "The Rebellion fights for good, for the better of the people of this world."

"Remember Carhaiz?" Raythor asked. There was something there, in his voice; in the form he had pronounced that place's name. Something indecipherable, like a mix between guilt and anger, but also sorrow.

"That's where you killed Julian," Vathek said in accusation.

"I'm afraid so," Raythor answered, albeit Vathek noted that there was something else behind that statement. "Do you know what Julian was doing there? Why he and those men were there?"

"To destroy a weapon!" answered the voice of Caleb, enraged beyond comprehension. Turning in the direction the voice had come from, Raythor and Vathek were greeted by the sight of the rebel leader, Jackie, Tohru, Jade and the Guardians, all of them standing in the entrance to the cave. "To weaken the tyrannical rule of your master! And what did you do?! You killed him!"

"Weapon? What are you talking…?" Raythor asked, sincerely surprised. "So you really don't know, not even you…" realization hitting him, the man unsheathed his sword. "You came to avenge your father? Come, boy."

"I have come to bring _justice_ for my father!" Caleb yelled, unsheathing his own weapon and rushing towards Raythor, who parried his attack and punched him across the face, sending Caleb to the ground, groaning. In the back, Cornelia was about to made a movement, but Jackie stopped her. This was something between the two of them; they won't intervene until it was necessary. And besides, the Captain didn't seem fighting as seriously as he had during their encounter in the dungeons. Something was fishy here…

"You don't know what the word justice means, boy;" Raythor spat. "In behalf of Prince Phobos, you are all under arrest!" he yelled towards the Guardians and the members of the Chan family, as if he was seriously considering fighting against all of them.

"Phobos holds no authority over me!" Caleb yelled.

"How dare you, rebel scum…!" Raythor questioned offended, but before he could even raise his sword, another voice intervened in the fight.

"He will disappoint you," Tohru told the Captain, who looked back at the sumo.

"What?"

"Phobos," Tohru told him. "He will disappoint you. Now you think that you are doing the right thing; that you are holding to your honor and that only that matters, but when the moment comes, when Phobos acts and you discover how wrong you were… it will be too late. Believe me," a memory of Valmont ordering Tohru to fight Shendu when it was obvious that the sumo didn't have any chance flashed in his mind, alongside with how much it had hurt, with how many bones it had broken. "I know."

The words of the human made Raythor stop his actions. Something seemed to flicker in his eyes, something that resembled a memory, a doubt. But then his face returned to his usual stern look, and Raythor pointed his weapon towards all of them. "It doesn't matter. My honor demands for my obedience towards the Prince."

"I'm done with this!" Will yelled, clearly pissed by the man's pigheadedness, flying into the air and heading directly towards Raythor, hitting him with all the strength she could master. She left the Captain with a blackened eye, and in the ground without any conscience.

The rest approached the now unconscious man, with Vathek leaning over him. "If only…" the blue Galhot muttered. "Thank you for coming in my rescue, Caleb, Guardians… er…"

"Chan Clan," Jade told the blue man. "These are Jackie, Tohru; and I'm Jade. Hello!"

"Hello," Vathek greeted the girl, a small smile forming in his lips. "We should be going; the alarm could be given at any second. We are lucky that Raythor didn't give it already."

"I'm not going anywhere without his head!" Caleb yelled as he approached Raythor's unconscious body, but he was stopped by Jackie. "Get out of my way."

"No," the archeologist told the rebel leader. "Think before acting."

"I am thinking, I'm…" Caleb started to say, but Jackie held a hand over the man's mouth.

"You are taking _revenge_ ," Jackie told the boy, and the way the archeologist pronounced that last word indicated how angry he was. "Your friend told me about what Raythor did to your father, and I'm not trying to tell you to forget it, or to forgive him. But look at you; you say you act on justice when you act on revenge. Isn't that the same that what Raythor did when he talked about honor to defend a tyranny?"

Caleb looked sideways, evading Jackie's gaze. The archeologist continued to speak. "Think about your father; think about what the Rebellion stands for. What would he say if he saw you like this? Tell me, is killing this man so important, that you would see yourself transformed in a man like Phobos for it?"

 _That_ seemed to nail it home. Caleb looked at Jackie again, and too many emotions for the archeologist to know them passed over the teens face _. My God, he's just a boy_ ; Jackie thought. _Just a boy in a world at war, doing God-knows-what_.

After several and really tense minutes, Caleb sheathed his sword, and turned around. "My father wouldn't approve of this. Yes, this is just vengeance, and the Rebellion doesn't stand for petty reasons. It doesn't mean that I will forgive him," he said pointing to Raythor, clear that if Jackie wasn't there the Captain would be dead by now. His tone was too calm to be uttering any truth. Was the rebel boy lying? Probably. The desire of revenge was still burning inside his heart.

 _He hasn't let it go_ , Jackie thought. _Vengeance is too good of a motivation. If I get out now, he will cut this man's head at the first opportunity_.

Caleb then searched into his jacket and pulled the master key out. "Vathek, we brought the key, but…"

"After the words we exchanged and how you left him;" the blue Galhot said referring to Raythor. "I doubt that they are going to let me live. They searched through and through and didn't found the key anyway. My infiltration is ruined."

"Not necessarily," Will said, getting her hands into the key and putting it inside Raythor's uniform.

"What are you…?" Jackie inquired.

"I'm doing what you taught me," Will said. "Guile and trickery can be the key to a victory more than strength and speed. Vathek, call the alarm!"

"What?" the blue Galhot asked confused.

"Eh… Will, I think you are missing something," Irma told the redhead. "See, we are supposed to not let the alarm to be ringed."

"Not this time," Will said. "Come on, yell. Something like 'Guardians are here, help!' or the like."

"Ah… well." Vathek took air in. "The Guardians are here, help! Ring the alarm!" Vathek yelled at the top of his lungs.

"Now lie down, like you are unconscious!" Will told him as they started to hear horns and shouts in the distance, the sign of the enemy approaching. Vathek obeyed, lying over his stomach.

"Oh, I see where she is going;" Jade said. "I like it."

"Now, Hay Lin… I need you to be ready to raise a full tornado of dust when we are ready," Will told the Air Guardian. "The rest, be ready to fly out when we are covered!"

"Ah, I understand," Taranee said, getting into the plan too.

"Care to explain?" Cornelia asked, but there was no time. Lurdens and guards entered in a swarm into the cave, with Cedric, into his full scaled glory, creeping behind them; Lieutenant Lothar following nearby.

"Sssssseize them!" the Snake of Cavigor yelled as he pointed a menacing claw towards the Guardians and the Chans, but then Hay Lin did as Will had instructed her and raised the dust of the cave with her air. When the cloud dissipated, the girls were gone, leaving an enraged Cedric behind. "Search the tunnels!" the Lord commanded the troops, and the majority of them left the cave. Only Cedric and Lothar remained with a handful of men, the Lieutenant quickly into going into his Captain's aid. What none of them were able to notice was that the Guardians, the Chans and Caleb were watching the scene from a little tunnel in the high parts of the cave.

"See?" Will whispered as she saw Lothar and Cedric approaching Raythor. "Now they will see Raythor with the key, and since we left Vathek, there won't be any reason to believe he's the mole. In fact, they will thing that Raythor can be the mole, and Vathek will retain his post."

However, there was a fact with Will hadn't counted; and that was Cedric's own cruelty. The snake was resting over his coils as Raythor and Vathek rose from the ground, the Captain helped by his faithful Lieutenant.

"Captain!" Lothar said worried. "Captain, answer me!"

"The Guardians… and the… rebel leader too;" Raythor said. "They were here, Cedric! Come to aid this traitor!" Raythor said, pointing an accusing finger towards Vathek.

"Then why did they leave him here?" Cedric inquired. "And why has he called the alarm?!"

"Those are quite good questions," the voice of Prince Phobos sounded from the entrance. The tyrant had arrived without making any noise, lurking slowly towards the other three men. "I came to witness the execution of a traitor, and what I found is that he calls for aid against the enemy. It's really strange."

"My Lord;" Raythor said with a bow. "Don't let his tricks to fool you, he's a treacherous scoundrel!"

"Do you really think I can be fooled?" Phobos remarked arrogantly.

"No, my Lord, I…" Raythor started to say, but in the moment he moved, the key fell from his uniform and landed directly at Phobos' feet.

"That's the key we accused Vathek of having taken!" Cedric hissed, which made Phobos scowl slightly to the Captain of his guard.

"Well, it seems you really think I'm a fool, Raythor;" Phobos said then. _Enemies, enemies all around; especially the ones that are nearer to you_ ; his paranoid mind whispered. The Prince raised one hand and elevated Raythor over the Abyss with the use of a beam of magical energy.

"No, my liege!" Raythor yelled. "I have always been loyal! I swear on my honor, I'm innocent!"

"Sadly, Raythor…" Phobos said, considering how many men of the guard were more loyal to Raythor than to him. And Vathek, simpleton Vathek, he was but the perfect scapegoat. "I don't believe you innocent, and my word is Law."

Raythor directed one last glance to Lothar. 'Take care of the men' said that gaze. And then the stream of energy dispelled… and the Captain fell. At first Raythor's screams were heard all around the cave, but as time passed they started to lose power, until they were just a meek whisper coming from the Abyss of Shadows. And then silence. Phobos turned around and left the cave without directing a glance or a word to the men around him. Cedric turned then to Vathek, towering over him.

"Return to your post;" the Snake ordered the Galhot. Then Cedric turned to Lothar, the Lieutenant standing still in the border of the crack, his face a mix of shock and pure hatred. Noticing how much the dead of his commander had affected him, Cedric decided to add more insult to injury. "Congratulations, Lothar;" the Lord hissed mockingly as he put one of his claws over the young officer's shoulders. "You just got promoted to Captain!" Cedric said before creeping out of the cave, following his master. Without Raythor, now he was the only one standing at the top of the chain, the only one that could whisper in the Prince's ear, just like he had envisioned when entering his service. Finally, all had fallen according to plan.

Vathek was confused now. He didn't know if approach Lothar now or just leave. He gave a couple of steps towards the young Lieutenant… no, Captain, he was Captain now. Because Raythor was dead, for a crime he didn't commit. However, Lothar noticed this, and his body tensed up.

"Just go, Vathek;" Lothar said, calmly. _Too_ calmly. "Just go before my hands cannot be contained more, and I gut you like a fish."

The blue Galhot closed his eyes. "I'm sorry;" he said before leaving for his usual spot in the dungeons.

"No you are not sorry," Lothar said, still looking at the Abyss. He wasn't even blinking. "Not yet."

Above them, the Guardians, Caleb and the Chan Clan had witnessed the scene. Caleb was feeling a mix of too many emotions right now. The man he wanted dead was gone now, and not as a martyr, something he could surely had become if killed by his hand; but as traitor to the crown. Yet he didn't feel any better.

"Nice plan!" Jade said sincerely as she patted the redhead Keeper of the Heart in the back, clearly impressed by the fact that the leader of the Guardians had been able to put such a gambit with such little time. Will, however, wasn't thinking the same. Raythor was supposed to be a trusted member of the court, not someone so… dispensable! She was expecting for him to be send to prison, not for… that!

"That's not… that wasn't… I didn't want that;" Will said in whisper.

The sentiment was shared by the majority of her companions, except for Irma, who even if not voicing it, had a very similar opinion to Jade, a reality backed by her calm expression. Tohru was an enigma, his thoughts not being given away by any change in his face. As for Jackie, he felt something inside of him. Something that was now shrieking from the depths of his soul and that was hitting him from under his own skin. His own moral code, built upon years and years of training and the lessons given by Uncle so many years ago. But here he was, helping children fighting a war… and an innocent, no matter how guilty or how wrong in his ways… an innocent had been killed for something he wasn't guilty for.

"Hey, let's go;" Cornelia said, moving Will's shoulder slightly. Her voice had lost all its usual arrogance, and the result was pleasant to both ears and mind. "Let's go, Will, we are done here."

The Guardians, rebel and humans started to leave. Finding a way out and a Portal won't be so hard. As they left, however, they heard Lothar's voice one last time.

"I know you are there," they heard the voice of the Lieutenant-now-Captain, coming from the end of the tunnel they were in. "You think I'm foolish enough to not notice you? Arrogant shits. Have you any idea of what Raythor represented for us, members of the guard? Do you know what will happen now, that Phobos only has Cedric as top commander? I don't know if I will be able to protect the men from his wrath. You have taken our Captain away from us, and we needed him. He believed in us, he believed in me… and you have blamed him, dirtied his honor. And yet I won't ring the alarm, I will let you go. But I will find you; I will hunt you and anyone that sides with you, anyone that ever smiled to you. And you _will die_. So swears Lothar, Captain of the Guard!"

And with that final statement the tunnels and cave around the Abyss of Shadows fell in silence again. And so they returned to their escape, and after quarter an hour of flying, they were back in the streets of the Capital, and in front of a Portal.

* * *

 ** _Earth_**

It had cost hours to the two Chinese cousins to find an opened Portal. It had cost them another hour to prepare all needed to step into Meridian, and when finally ready, both of them had been blocked by seeing how the Portal was crossed by the girls, Jackie, Tohru, the rebel leader, and most importantly, Jade. Although both Yan Lin and Uncle were ready to welcome the heroes and yell at the girl (even if they were glad she was alright) none of them were ready for _how_ they had returned. There were somber looks casted upon their faces; there were flickers of doubt, of guilt in their eyes. But above all else, they looked tired. And so, Yan Lin suggested for all of them to return home, with their families, and have a nice bath, diner and a nap. She understood better than anyone how tiring being a Guardian could be. However, Jackie told them that there would be another meeting tomorrow, this one, unlike the others, in the Silver Dragon. Yan Lin asked why, and when her eyes met with Jackie, the old lady saw… disappointment in them.

"We need to talk," was the archeologist final statement before taking Jade and heading back at the flat they had rented.

* * *

 ** _Ludmoore manor_**

Charles Ludmoore wasn't a man to get surprised very easily. It wasn't that he didn't welcome surprises, thought. He liked surprises, he liked changes, they kept him alert, alive. After all, he considered himself to be a man of change. This night's surprise, coming to him as he was passing some numbers from one notebook to another, was extremely pleasant, due to how unexpected it was. Charles felt how his lips curved into a smile that could put the Cheshire cat to shame, just for the man to conceal it a second after, returning to his faked, cold demeanor. _Remember Charles, for them you are an egoist and cold sociopath; let them think that you are only that kind of manipulator. Emotionless face, emotionless voice…_

"Warden Vathek, am I right?" Charles asked as he turned around and meet with Vathek, who had crossed using the same location Miranda had used and that his Portal connected to. "Does the Prince have another petition? By the way, I heard you were able to keep your position, congratulations."

"I'm not here for the Prince," Vathek told the man. "And I know that you know."

"I specialize in knowing," Ludmoore told the man in his cold voice. "Then tell me, rebel spy, to what I own this visit in the middle of the night? Even people like me need our sleep. If it's an errand for the rebels…"

"No, this is for me and me only;" Vathek said, and Ludmoore made one of his eyebrows raise in surprise. "I will pay what you ask for me, but I need you to get me some information."

"What information?" Ludmoore asked, now genuinely interested.

"Carhaiz;" Vathek said. "I want to know what happened there, and I want to know it as soon as possible, as for the payment…"

"The payment, Warden Vathek;" Charles explained. "The payment will be you. If any time I need a favor, you will pay me with one. Deal?"

"Deal," Vathek answered, and then he returned to the Portal, going back to his world.

Ludmoore was let alone, and sitting back in his desk, he conjured the same red book as before, now accompanied by a blue one. Wanting a more personal conversation than before, and considering the time of the day, Ludmoore casted a spell, and both books floated in the air, opening and silhouettes taking form in the ink inside.

"You are lucky I haven't head to bed yet, Charles;" the silhouette in the blue one said. "I have company this night, you know? I take that something important happened."

"It must," Charles said, the coldness of his voice disappearing and being replaced by a more human tone. "What happened into the castle, exactly?" he asked of the red book.

"Raythor is dead," the one in the red book explained. "Thrown into the Abyss of Shadows in Vathek's place."

"Really?" the one in the blue one asked. "Whoa, Caleb must be in ecstasy! I can't wait to cheer with him!"

"I take this news hadn't reached the Rebellion," Charles stated.

"No, but don't worry. Considering how much of a lapdog Aldarn is, he will come back in order to inform us;" 'Blue' said. "Now, if you can excuse me, there is this whore with the generously big tits that is in my bed…"

"And what about the Guardians?" 'Red' asked. "They were here too, I take they used your Portal, Charles?"

"Indeed," Charles answered. "But they have yet not evolved enough. For now they are just pawns; there is potential, yes, but for now they aren't ready to be players."

"So, just like Phobos;" 'Red' said. "His henchmen, in the other hand…"

"Dangerous, yes;" Charles acknowledged. "But the war continues to be nothing but the prelude of this play, so for now I will maintain my role of King Smuggler, and you two will retain your respective ones. Maintain eyes on the Mage; see how she reacts to Raythor's demise."

"Maintain eyes on the Mage, not a difficult task;" 'Blue' answered. "It's quite impossible not to look at those swinging hips when she walks around here."

"Sometimes I desire to open your head in order to know how its inside works, brother;" 'Red' told him.

"Like you are one to talk!" 'Blue' accused his sibling.

"You two really haven't changed a bit from when we were children," Charles said in a nostalgic manner. "Anyway, everything goes according to our design. Let the Guardians and Phobos to dictate the rhythm of the war, and let's take example of the Mage, and wait in the shadows. Good night, my siblings."

"Good night, big brother. Enjoy your whore, little brother;" 'Red' said before banishing from the book.

"You don't have to tell me twice!" 'Blue' exclaimed, as his silhouette disappeared too.

Charles put both books back in his pocket dimension, and couldn't avoid letting a laugh to escape his mouth. _Well, you can choose your friends, but not your family;_ Ludmoore thought. _I wonder what happened to that other girl, though. There was this strange spark in her eyes…_

* * *

In the flat that the Chans had rented, Jade was having problems to sleep, rolling and rolling over the bed in her room. Every time she closed her eyes, and seemed to be taken by Morpheus, a roar was heard in her mind and she found herself running in her dreams…

 _There was a forest, a dark forest populated by black trees, and enveloped in snow. The black trees were so annoying; they were getting in the way! They were always in the way! And she was running, running as strong and fast as she could. No clothes over her body, she was naked, the snow under her feet not bothering her. Then she heard the roar ¡, and turning her head slightly she saw it. The Black Wolf, following her, it was roaring not so different than any demon, ready to eat her. She wasn't very sure if it really was a wolf, it was too big, the fur too thick, the claws too sharp. The fangs looked like swords, and the eyes, the amber eyes, they were too cunning, too human._

 _Jade tried to run faster, but the animal was too much for her. Four legs and a body genetically predisposed to the hunt in the wild put her human physiology to shame. But she kept running, even when she could feel the breath of the wolf at her back, which meant that the beast's fangs were mere centimeters away from her. Why was she so weak?! Always so weak, always left behind. It was because she was young, because she was small? It was because she couldn't have magic? It was… it was because she had no wings, because she had no augmented strength?_

 _Was it because she was a mere human?_

 _The dark forest opened then, revealing an endless plain; a pure tundra colored in the perfect white of snow with high mountains of marble in the distance. Letting the dark trees behind, she was now able to run more freely. And she glanced above, and the sky was free of pollution; the stars, the full-moon, and even the famous Northern Lights she had just seen in TV adorning and dancing over the obsidian canvas that the sky was. And there, running, the breath of the wolf still close… she felt free. She decreased her running a little, and the Black Wolf reached her. And then Jade found herself running over the tundra even faster, running in all fours. And as she howled in satisfaction to the full-moon, it turned out; she had been the Black Wolf the entire time._

Jade woke up in cold sweat. _What's up with me and weird dreams lately…,_ she thought. Noticing her throat was dry; she exited her bed and stretched her body, from her claws to her tail… Wait, claws? TAIL?! She searched for the nearest mirror, finding herself walking over four paws. Upon reaching the mirror, instead of the usual sight of the human, twelve year old girl wearing a pink nighty that usually she met in the mirror; she was greeted by the sight of an enormous black wolf, maybe bigger than an adult man. She didn't need a lot of time to recognize the amber eyes of the beast as her own. She closed them, and opened again shortly after. No changes. She raised one claw and pinched herself with it. It hurt, god damn it, it hurt!

No more dreams.

 _Oh boy, oh boy, oh boy… this can't be happening_ ; Jade thought in fear. _What I do? What to do?_

Not knowing exactly how to proceed, yet identifying this situation as real, she kept staring at her reflection, at her fur, her claws, her fangs… and she did the only thing she could in order to let stress out.

"Mega-Bad day…" she said, and the voice that escaped her mouth sounded like a mix between hers and the growl of an animal. Then again, she was an animal right now. No, not an animal, she remembered. She knew the words. Changeling, Fair Folk…

"Shapeshifter…"

* * *

 ** _Across the Veil; beneath Meridian_**

Falling…

Falling…

He was falling. For how much had he been falling, for how many hours? Had it been hours? Or maybe had it been days already? If his old father could see him know, he would tell him that this was really a bottomless pit, that he had been right his entire time. He had fought back the need of taking a piss earlier, but now he was just letting it go when nature called.

Raythor wondered how much distance had he travelled in his way down. He also thought how Lothar would do without him. But his Lieutenant was a noble man, mature for how young he was. He hoped that his 'demise' hadn't triggered the Lieutenant (who now hopefully would hold his old position as Captain) into a fit of rage… but no, Lothar was smarter than that. Smarter than him, and that was good. Why hadn't he ringed the alarm? Perhaps the words of the big human man had gotten to him, or maybe Vathek's had… No! He won't be feeling empathy for those rebellious scoundrels! They had… they had forced the Prince to do this, tricked him into punishing him instead of Vathek! Those Guardians, those humans, that rebel boy who knew nothing about what happened there… maybe he should have told him about his father's real whereabouts. No, it could have changed nothing; he was a rebel, after all. And so Raythor, honorable Captain of the guard of Prince Phobos, fell. Without food or drink; he feel for many hours.

 _So, will you let it like that? Your honor, your men, your word... shame, shame upon them all! And because of what? You didn't break your oath; neither had you betrayed your honor. It was them. Those rebels, they shamed you, when you didn't do a thing to shame their honor!_

Raythor wasn't sure if the voice he was hearing was his own reasoning or an hallucination product of the hunger and thirst, but he didn't care. The voice was right. He hadn't done anything that wasn't expected from him as a soldier, he had been loyal to his master, loyal to his code, and he had obeyed. It was them who had used treachery against him!

 _Are you really going to let them go unpunished after what they did? Are you going to leave your Lord behind? Are you going to abandon your men?_

"NO!"

Raythor gripped the hilt of his sword, ripping it apart from his waist, belt and sheath included; unsheathing the weapon afterwards and letting the sheath to fall from it and be lost in the air of the Abyss. Looking at his side and narrowing his eyes, he spotted one of the walls of dirtied rock of the Abyss. Changing his position, Raythor made himself to descend diagonally, getting himself nearer and nearer to the wall of rock with every second that passed. Once he was near enough, he gathered all the strength he had left and delivered a blow towards the wall with the intention of piercing it. Fortunately, the sword must have been caught into a soft part of the wall of rock, probably not even rock itself, but moss or something similar. Unfortunately, Raythor had been falling for too long, and his fall wasn't going to stop just because he had been able to do that. He continued to fall, albeit in a much slower manner. The sword slowed his fall, until it broke; part of the blade in the rock, the other falling alongside the hilt to the Abyss. Alas, it had served its purpose. Now Raythor was falling slowly enough to grab the wall with his bare hands. It hurt, especially in the shoulders, but finally, he had stopped.

He quickly ditched the helmet and any other object completely designated for battle, they would be nothing but dead weight. He retained only the boots and the cape, which he proceeded to envelop his whole body with. It was a good cape, it would maintain him warm in his way upwards. He then noted how something was crawling over his hand. A strange looking millipede, bigger than any he had seen. He quickly took it in a fast hand movement, and bit its head off, devouring the whole insect afterwards. It wouldn't be enough, so he searched for more, finding a strange fruit, product of the moos and the strange environment of the Abyss. The fruit, flower… whatever it was (he was sure he had seen an eye on it); it was better than the millipede, and also it had liquid, so it also calmed his thirst.

He tried to climb the wall next, being extremely careful into how put his feet in order to not slide… which was exactly what happened after his first step, making him fall a couple more meters before stopping again. This was going to be extremely difficult… An image of his enemies passed over his mind then, and Raythor let an animalistic and primal yell to escape his mouth. Was he going to let it like that? No, of course not! The Captain started to climb again, slow but safe, this time nailing his fingers in the moss and the softest parts of the rock. The oath of a soldier continues until said soldier or his master die. And he still lived.

So Raythor climbed, the honorable Captain climbed. He couldn't see the end of the crack, couldn't see nothing but the reddish light that supernaturally seemed to be casted by the depths of the Abyss. And as his nails pealed due to the tension and dirt entered his wounds, a word started to form in his mind as he thought about the scoundrels that had shamed him one last time.

Vengeance

* * *

 _Money, armies, information, power, magic, strength, speed, wits, cunning, manipulations, lies… all of them are weapons used in battle. But to call them the key to victory is foolish! None of them matter if your will cracks as you lower your sword, if doubt troubles your mind in the moment of give your soldiers an order. The key to victory… is Determination!_ Raythor; son of Lieth

* * *

 **Author Notes: It's done! I can't believe it's done! Finally! This was my rendition of the third episode, and from now on, the story will follow into a very different direction from the show. For starters, instead of jumping straight to Will's birthday like in the show, next chapter will be dedicated to the impact that the events of this one have had on all the parties involved in the war. Because, hey, maybe sending teenagers to fight in a war across the universe can have some negative effects on them, like Jackie thinks. Because, hey, Jade's now a Shapeshifter (this is something I wanted to do since the beginning, by the way) and the rebellion has problems with them. Because, hey, maybe disposing of Raythor hasn't been a good idea at all, and maybe it goes back to bite the rebels hard… Having said that, next chapter will surely get a while. I want to get back to Out of the Corner of the Eye, and frankly, the reason I have been writing these looooong chapters so fast was to give enough world building to the protagonists to move in. Yes, Meridian's war is going to be treated like a war, and so, we have decent people in both sides, as we have outright psychopaths; with all the color range in between those two… and most of them are young people, like the Guardians and Jade, which means that their morality is still not fully codified. Contrast this with people like Jackie and Tohru… or even Raythor, who are adults and have their own defined codes, even if they know they aren't perfect. So there you all go. As always, leave a comment or send me a PM in order to comment the chapter or give me any ideas or counsels.**

 **Have a nice day or night, wherever and whoever you are.**


	4. Needed to be done

**Disclaimer: I own neither the WITCH cartoon-show nor Jackie Chan Adventures; they are the property of their respective creators, writers, and producers.**

 **Author Notes: As always, many thanks for the reviews for the latest chapters. Many thanks to fellow WITCH fan, Author Rain on Roses for becoming a new follower of this fic, thank you awesome person! Anyway, here comes the chapter that marks the difference between this fic and the WITCH canon. Enjoy your read, and as always, for more notes, see end of the chapter.**

* * *

Guardians, Wizards and Kung-Fu Fighters

Episode Four

Needed to be done

* * *

 **World of Meridian; Infinite City**

The Infinite City, as its name indicated was, well; infinite. Or at least so it was believed by the majority of not just Meridian's population, but the entirety of the Known Worlds and Kandrakar itself. No one knew from where it had come, just that it was an intricate construct of stairs, tunnels, halls and secret passages built under the surface of Meridian that went in all directions and in no one at all. There had been, in the distant past, people that had quite stupidly tasked themselves with the mission of finding an end or even a path inside the great labyrinth that the City was. Of course, nothing had been heard again of those people, and no one had been able to find any sense to the Infinite City since.

Except for the Mage. The Mage had been the advisor in what entitled any magic related to the Royal family of Escanor since five generations ago. And so, she was usually called Ancient One. When Phobos rose to power, the Mage took the still young Rebellion and guided it around the halls and the passages, successfully giving them a base of operations the Prince couldn't access to. Backed by a figure like the Mage and with the Infinite City of legend as their base, the rebels felt all the more justified in their cause. Little they knew that, for about twenty long years, the Mage hadn't been the Mage. Her place, her name and her face and shape had been long ago taken by a woman with long grey hair, dried wrinkles all around her body, viper-like features, a metallic prosthetic arm replacing her left one and potent green eyes. This woman was named Nerissa Crossnic, former Keeper of the Heart of Kandrakar; and during her life she had been called many things. She had been called friend, leader, visionary, genius, love, traitor, murderer, madwoman, wife, mother, savior… She had been called so many things, yet she would always be Nerissa.

And right now, Nerissa was in the late Mage's workshop, reading a book. She had let the glamour she usually wore in order to make herself look like the Mage to fall, revealing her true identity. If some of those fools that formed the rebellion came to her, she could put in the glamour once again. But they didn't bother her if she didn't want to be bothered. And so, she kept reading. Reading was good, reading was relaxing, and it let her focus on the spell formulas and the potions recipes instead of the reality around her. She was now reading about these Annihilators… uhm, they seemed useful, but their sheer power paled in comparison to the versatility of these other creatures she had read about, these Shadowkhan. Perhaps for another time…

"Raythor is dead! The Captain has fallen! Raythor is dead! The Captain of the guard is gone!"

She almost let the book slip from her hands upon hearing the yell. One thing was clear to the old sorceress, if the blacksmith job turned out to not give enough benefit, then Aldarn could at least became an auctioneer. But this were pleasant news, to say the least, especially considering the situation as of lately. Caleb gets captured, and then rescued by a full new generation of Guardians (a cheap and inferior knockoff of her old team, no doubt). Then Vathek is sentenced to death. And now, Raythor, one of Phobos' most troublesome minions gets killed. It was a pleasant surprise, no doubt; but an unexpected one. She hadn't donned the mantle of Trill, her persona between the walls of the castle, for a long time. Maybe it would be a good idea to pick on it again. But priorities first, Raythor's demise demanded an explanation, and a reassignment of strategies, both hers and the Rebellion's. She got up and glamoured herself as the Mage once again, exiting her workshop via the waterfall that always covered it.

There, in one of the largest chambers of the Infinite City, the rebels that weren't out in missions had made camp; entire families of men, women and children running all around. The Mage looked at them; at how many of them were already cheering and drinking ale from the barrels they had made of the substance. They were clearly happy that Raythor was gone and that they had stricken a victory against Phobos. Some of them cheered for Caleb, some others for the Guardians, some others for the Rebellion in general.

 _Simpleton fools_ , the 'Mage' thought. _You wouldn't have come this far if not for me_. Yes, that was her belief. Yes, she wanted the best for them, but in her eyes the only way to attain that was for all of them to submit to her. Only loyalty to one strong and powerful leader that cared about the wellbeing of an entire population could bring real peace; only loyalty to her, only to Nerissa.

 _This matter needs to be seen with more caution than putting ale in the stomach_ ; the 'Mage' thought. "Call for the Small Council!" she yelled.

* * *

Some had entered the Rebellion thinking that it would not only be a movement dedicated to oppose the Prince entirely, but also a place in which anyone would have the same privileges and a man's voice and will wouldn't weight more than any other. Oh, how wrong they had been. Even if clearly more down to earth than any tyranny or court; a Rebellion needed to be organized if it wanted to be successful. And so, one of the first task the 'Mage' had imposed over herself in the moment of taking the rebels in had been the one of organizing a chain of command. Yet the 'Mage' wasn't the one calling the shots directly. That job had befallen over Julian first, and Caleb second after the former's demise. The 'Mage' maintained the role of advisor, whispering in their ears and commanding the Rebellion without really commanding it. In order to make the chain work she had picked the most loved members among the rebels, the smartest ones, the strongest ones; and she had made a Small Council out of them. Her counsel shaped Caleb's decision, and the others made sure that they were transmitted to the rest of the soldiers. Of course there was tension between them sometimes, and of course there were some in the Small Council that contradicted the others' decisions, or even opposed Caleb's command from time to time. Anyway, it was the best the 'Mage' had; and she had once worked with worse. She would make it work, she always did.

The Small Council was composed of seven individuals from the hundreds that composed the Rebellion, and they usually held meeting around a small round table in an also small chamber; away from the noise and the questions of the Pawns. The 'Mage', the Player, always sat in silence until her voice was needed. At her left, the young Galhot Aldarn sat, the Queen to Caleb's King. There was something in the fact that she thought about Aldarn as Caleb's Queen that made the Nerissa inside the 'Mage' to chuckle. However, her face didn't betray her, always as expressive as a stone. That was one of the good things about a glamour spell. The other four seemed to grow impatient with any second, and the gaze of the sorceress fell slightly over the emptied seventh seat; over the seat of the commander, of the King… of Caleb. She sighed internally.

"Report, Aldarn;" the Mage told him. Yes, in absence of the King, it was the duty of the Player to come down to the arena, with the other pieces. "It seems that some of our friends here seem a bit distrustful of your word about Raythor's demise." _Or at least less in need of the high spirits of victory than their Pawn companions outside_ ; the 'Mage' thought. _God, I can hear them singing those awful songs from even here_.

"Not distrustful, great Mage;" said a man that should be a decade or so older than Caleb. He had a skin free of any scale, and yet his looked rough and hardened by so many nights out in the wild. He had light blond hair and sported a goatee; always clad in light armor and wearing a cape. This was Drake; Drake the Strategist, the voice of reason, the Knight in the chessboard, always jumping over other pieces, always escaping from impossible situations. Blue eyes looked always curiously around, seeking for an explanation to everything. Some say that Cedric had killed his mother in front of him… and they were right about that. "Just concerned and genuinely surprised about the Captain's demise, that's all."

"You must admit, it's quite the feat. To turn his capture by one of the abominations into the opportunity to strike someone as mighty as Raythor, I mean. Especially for our _young_ commander." This voice belonged to an old, Half-breed man of thin constitution. Remnants of what in the past was a mane of auburn that now were white adorned a balding head; and stern and merciless grey eyes looked from a face that seemed to have forced itself into forgetting how to smile by frowning at every person the man crossed in his path. Alistair Tharquin, that was his name; and if hearing this sentence, he could point out that there was a 'Ser' missing in that phrase. Others called him the 'Old Worm'. For the 'Mage', he was the Rough Bishop, the precise and merciless sword of the Rebellion, the old Captain of the exterminated old guard of Queen Weira. Raythor had been given his position, and he felt somehow betrayed that Caleb had been given command over him when Julian was lost. He hated Shapeshifters too, and thus, the fact that Caleb had been able to survive Cedric, kill Raythor and escape of the castle alive was something that insulted his pride.

"But is our Caleb in a good condition, or not?" a soft, sweet female voice cut in. This was the Soft Bishop, the nun, Sephiria. It was clear from a first glance at her body and mannerism that the girl (she shouldn't be older than fourteen) had never been in a battle. She was petite, and had a hair of a silt green color, denoting Galhot ancestry. She wasn't ugly, yet not beautiful in the true meaning of the word. Good for a commoner, bad for a Lord. She was the one in charge of the groups tasked of healing, almost composed of women of the Healing Church, the religious order that Phobos had chastised for condemning his regime. She was meek and obedient, and her crush for the heroic Caleb was clear. That was the main reason the 'Mage' had chosen her as a member. She would always be a vote in Caleb's favor. "Last we heard of him he had travelled across the Veil after being freed… by the Guardians, according to the rumors."

 _Damn those rumors_ ; the 'Mage' thought. It wasn't good for the Rebellion's image that Caleb had to be helped by a bunch of inexperienced girls. Then again, only she knew that they were inexperienced girls…

"Guardians or not, I want to know what happened. How did Raythor fall? Did Caleb butcher him, did he cut his head off?" this ruff voice belonged to a young Galhot with dark green skin that must be just a couple of years older than Caleb, and albeit not as bulky as Vathek, it was clear from is defined musculature that he was the strongest individual at the table, physically speaking. Rhouglar, the Rook, the Mad Dog; yes that was how the guards and the forces of the Prince had nicknamed him, and the 'Mage' had to admit it was appropriate. Why had a man like that entered the Rebellion? Bloodthirsty and sadistic men had much more luck in the side of the Prince, aside from an opportunity to rise quickly in ranks. The 'Mage' knew that this one could become bad news at any second. She had quickly taken notice of the gazes he directed to the women when they walked around him, how some of the sad women that had lost their husbands usually turned to him for 'help'. Let him remain confident of his situation for now, but in the very first moment he tried something, she was going to obliterate him. "Come on, Aldarn, share with us!"

All the eyes directed themselves towards the young blacksmith, and he sighed. "As you all know by now, Caleb and I conducted a small stealth mission in one of the castle's armories. It didn't go well, and Caleb was captured," Aldarn made a pause here, expecting some kind of commentary that never came. "And he was then saved from the Guardians and a mysterious warrior named Jackie Chan."

 _Yan Lin, you moronic fool_ ; the Nerissa inside the 'Mage' thought with anger. _Bringing your damn family into my board… well, I haven't seen her cousin in years. What was his name…?_

"Jackie… Chan?" Tharquin repeated, trying to find sense to the name. "What… who is he?"

"A warrior from Earth that aids the Guardians with a pair of wizards, it seems;" Aldarn explained. "However, in order to help Caleb escape Vathek had to leave behind a master key…"

"And that almost cost him a one way trip to the Abyss of Shadows," Drake ended for him. "We know that, and that Caleb went inside the castle in order to rescue him. Yet you came here saying that Raythor is the one struck down, and Vathek is nowhere to be found. Did Caleb slay Raythor in order to avenge Vathek?"

"No," Aldarn answered and a happy smile appeared in his face. "Vathek is still at the castle, his mission hasn't been compromised. Raythor was the one vanished into the Abyss for treason."

Incredulous eyes looked at Aldarn then, and his smile grew as did his confidence. Tharquin seemed quite stunned, while Sephiria seemed overjoyed that Kandrakar was in their side and Caleb was safe.

"How was that possible?" the 'Mage' asked, genuinely curious.

"Vathek explained it to me," Aldarn declared. "It was the Keeper's idea. See, she changed hid the master key inside Raythor's uniform, and he was blamed for being the spy. Not only we got ridden of an enemy like Raythor, Vathek is able to remain in his post!"

"Well, I suppose that then we are justified in partying…" Tharquin answered.

"Did really the Keeper do that?" the 'Mage' asked again.

"Yes, and apparently, she came up with the plan in the spot!" Aldarn confirmed.

The green in the sorceress' eyes strengthened then, and a small smirk came to her lips. Maybe they weren't a cheap knockoff after all…

"What should our next move be, great Mage?" Drake asked of her respectfully.

The ancient one took a hand to her chin and thought carefully. "We shall wait for the Prince's move first, young Drake. Now that Raythor is out of the equation, there will surely be infighting in the guard. I suppose people like Frost or any other ambitious idiot will want to take the opportunity to usurp the position of Captain, and that's not having in count the treatment they will receive from Cedric now that Raythor is not there to protect them. This will create distrust between the guards and Phobos' elite, thus making easier for us to strike blows against them. For now, we must wait. If nothing more is to be said in this matter, I would like to talk about our envoys to Sonder Hill and their…"

"There is… another issue;" Aldarn spoke again, interrupting her. "When I reunited with Caleb and the Guardians they had come to Meridian using Ludmoore's Portal."

"King Smuggler…" Drake muttered between gritted teeth. Yes, there wasn't any love lost between him and Charles Ludmoore. Apparently, Ludmoore could have saved a bunch of soldiers at his order, but of course, Drake didn't have enough payment. So the men died, and Drake got captured, only saved by Caleb's intervention.

"Apparently, Ludmoore has spies inside the Rebellion," Aldarn explained. "Caleb told me to only tell you all."

 _Of course Ludmoore has spies inside the Rebellion_ ; the 'Mage' thought as she fought back the urge of rolling her eyes. _I have all of them spotted, the majority a bunch of lowborn individuals that work for him in exchange of a hand of gold. Fortunately, my Small Council remains untouched_.

However, it was clear that this matter needed to be discussed. The 'Mage' sighed internally. _This is going to take so long… I wonder how much I'll have to wait until my plan starts unfolding_ ; she thought with disdain, confident in her own planning. And without her notice, one of the members of the Small Council clenched a blue book hidden between body and clothes.

* * *

 ** _The castle_**

 _I knew this wasn't going to end well_ ; Tynar thought as he saw how a fellow guard was being dragged outside the room he and another bunch of guards were currently in. Some idiot had thought a good idea to challenge Lothar for the Guard's leadership. And now said idiot had been dragged out of the room, conscience lost, bones broken, and one less arm. _I wonder how much time the ladies will spend cleaning that puddle of blood…_

Lothar, _Captain_ Lothar, sheathed his sword after running a white hanky over it to clean the weapon out of blood. "Does someone else want to challenge me?!" the young captain yelled with authority. He found no answer, not even from Frost, who was leaning against the wall and actually seemed quite pleased with the turn of events. "Then return to your posts!" Lothar yelled an order that the rest of the guards obeyed without any question.

 _The kid's not right_ ; Tynar though concerned as he adjusted the shoulder pads of his armor as he started to leave. _Raythor meant a lot to him, and now he's gone. He meant a lot for all of us, really. Wonder if it's true what they say about him being a traitor. Maybe he couldn't put up with Phobos' shit? No, he was too honorable for that. Perhaps Cedric organized everything in order to get rid of him?_ Tynar was what you could call 'a good man'. He wasn't a simpleton, but he wasn't really smart. He had his job as a guard in the palace, and he had a family back in the Capital to feed and maintain. Did he believe in the cause? No, he didn't believe in any of them. He had been in the guard his entire life, and he doubted that the Rebellion would take him in. Besides, the Rebellion fought for the Rebellion as much as Phobos fought for Phobos. He had seen a rebel sharing the food their stole from the caravans with the commoners as much as he had saw Cedric having tea parties with little girls. And as the tyrant and the so-called freedom fighters clashed, it was the small-folk who usually paid the price.

"Not you, Tynar;" he heard Lothar at his back. "I want to talk to you."

The soldier was left alone in the room with his commander, and he was able to see the small eye bags that had formed in the young commander's face. Did he have troubles sleeping? Or was he too angry, or with too much pressure over his shoulders in order to sleep peacefully? Tynar didn't know, and didn't want to know.

"I have been reading records about the oldest members of the guard," Lothar said. "You are one of the few that have remained alive, and yet you never asked for a raise in your position, remaining a normal guard."

"I never was someone to aim for the top," Tynar answered sincerely. "I'm just doing my duty, sir."

"Good, because from now on, you are my Lieutenant;" Lothar declared.

"What?" Tynar asked stunned.

"You are a good soldier, and you are a good, honest man and those are the qualities needed in a commander;" the Captain said. "From now on, you are my Lieutenant, you will direct the soldiers for me, you will obey my orders. Understood?"

"Y-yes sir, you honor me;" Tynar answered sincerely. After the complete display of violence he had witnessed, he was grateful that Lothar was being so calm with him.

"Good. Then come with me Lieutenant, we have work to do;" Lothar declared before exiting the room, the soldier following in tow.

"Where are we going?" Tynar asked of the young Captain.

"To Sonder Hill, at the west of the Capital. We have been given information of a small group of rebels stirring the population into openly opposing the Prince, and that riots have broken since. We will go there, put a stop to those riots and capture the rebels."

"And if the commoners oppose us openly?" Tynar asked as they turned a corner of the castle and headed towards the stables, where surely Frost of any other awaited with the Rhinoceros Cavalry. "We could have the whole city against us."

"Then we will raid the city;" Lothar proclaimed. "We will do all that needs to be done to capture the rebel scum."

There was again, the pure anger. Tynar narrowed his eyes slightly, his mind travelling to his house in the Capital, to his family, his little son. _The kid's not right_ ; he thought sadly about Lothar.

* * *

 ** _Across the Veil; World of Earth; Chan apartment_**

"Jade! Jade, wake up!" Jackie Chan called for his niece from the other side of the door. "You are going to be late for school, and you know how Uncle let the bathroom after using it!"

"Uncle doesn't do a thing to the bathroom!" the shrill voice of the elder wizard was heard. "Bathrooms aren't ready for Uncle, that's all!"

Jade opened her eyes slowly. She wasn't in her bed, but cuddling over the wooden planks that composed her room in Heatherfield. She had slept in the floor, just like a dog, how original. She looked herself back in the mirror, just like the night before. At least, she was a human now… but considering that the spider girl could go in and out of her animalistic form; she wasn't going to be less. It had taken her half the night, that was for sure, and yet she didn't feel sleepy. She was hungry though, incredibly hungry. Famishing even. She stood up and headed towards the door, thinking that a shower and a good breakfast could help her. Should she tell Jackie? No, he had enough things in his head right now, better not to worry him with this new thing. And besides, a part of her wanted, for some reason, kept her new abilities hidden. Call it a six sense, or maybe an animal sense now; but she didn't want to tell her uncle ' _Hey uncle Jackie, I'm a werewolf now, with awesome wolf powers; just happens that I've become one of those Shapeshifters that serve the bad guy_ '.

She showered and ate her breakfast in almost silence, which struck Tohru and Jackie as strange. Uncle said something about everyone needing silence from time to time. God damn it, the old man smelled at garlic so strongly… in fact, everything smelled strongly. Everything smelled. Not just the people, but the walls around them, the damn cars in the street… Then again, Jade supposed a wolf's nose should be stronger than a dog's. And then she remembered that Cornelia had started wearing that new super strong perfume a few days ago. This was going to be such a long school day…

* * *

 ** _From Sheffield to the Silver Dragon_**

"Are you… somehow taller?" Irma asked Jade as the six girls walked the streets towards the Silver Dragon after another tiresome day of class. No training for them this time, they had been called to the restaurant's basement by Jackie, who apparently wanted to talk with them.

"Maybe it's one of those 'suddenly growing up in the night' things!" Hay Lin cheered as she raised a finger in order to theorize. "Or puberty finally kicking in…"

"I don't know…" Jade said pinning her orange hoodie down in order to make the clothe piece to cover her midriff entirely, which showed from time to time. She had noticed too, while showering and dressing up. Yes, she was taller, now only a head smaller than Cornelia and the blonde was the tallest of the girls. But that wasn't the only thing. She felt… somehow prettier. Even if she hadn't entered puberty yet, she felt that her body was now far more… accentuated into certain areas. It wasn't that she was going to sprout a front like Irma's from night to day, yet she felt that her muscles were more defined, but instead of making her look like some sort of female brawler, she looked… elegant. Tohru had read something about this in one of those books about Changelings, stating that their human forms were, by default, quite pleasant to the eye. The spider-girl's human form had quite the pretty face, and she supposed that under that medieval dress… no! Stop that thought right there!

"There we are," Taranee said, taking Jade out of her thoughts. They had arrived in front of the Silver Dragon. "Do you think that Jackie and the others are already inside?"

"Surely," Jade answered. "Let's get over this."

"You seem pretty sure this is going to be a reprimand," Cornelia told the girl.

"It's going to be something like that, I know my uncle;" Jade answered the blonde, doing her best efforts to make sure the wind didn't blow into her way from the blonde's direction. Damn the Earth Guardian and her obsession with being older than she really is. "What do you think, Will? Will?"

"Uhm? Oh, dunno;" the redhead answered. She wasn't well, that was clear to all the other girls. Especially to the one that could literally smell her uneasiness. The redhead had been looking down all the day, spending the majority of the hours in class being in what Jade called 'automatic pilot', which was when you were feeling down and let your body to do things automatically, not thinking about it. Instead, she had been thinking about Raythor, about the man that ended thrown inside an endless pit, because of her. She even had have nightmares about it during night. "Hey, Hay Lin, do you think your grandma has sweets inside?"

"Sure," Hay Lin answered sweetly. "I bet she has these small vanilla ones, with little pieces of strawberry. You're going to love them."

"Thank you," Will answered. Man, one look at that girl and everything became brighter.

After that bit of small talk, the girls headed inside. There, Jackie, Tohru, Uncle and Yan Lin were already waiting, alongside the young Rebel Leader in his usual pair of pants and brown t-shirt. Upon meeting them, Jade felt a change in the air, a new odor coming from Cornelia, who was looking… directly at Caleb… with a silly simile and red cheeks.

 _Oh, c'mon!_ ; Jade thought in annoyance. _I can smell lady-boners too?!_

"Let's go down," Jackie declared, heading towards the basement. "We need to talk."

"Hey, grandma," Hay Lin said as she made sure she was the last in line in order to speak with the old lad. "Do we still have those cookies with strawberry?"

"And warm chocolate," the former Air Guardian answered to her granddaughter and successor. "You all seem in need of some sugar, and winter has come."

"You really should stop watching that series, grandma," Hay Lin commented before heading downstairs into the basement, where a couch and some chairs awaited them all… alongside one of the most tense talks of their lives.

* * *

 ** _Across the Veil; World of Meridian; Sonder Hill_**

Frost the Hunter was a violent man. He liked battle, he wasn't shy about it, an the fact that if given the opportunity he would crash an enemy's head with his bare hands in the heat of battle was no secret among the forces of the Prince. Yet even he considered what was happening in front of him as to be a bit too extremist. One thing was killing an enemy on the field, and other very different was to torture a girl with roses. And then there was what was going on in front of him. Lothar and Tynar (who apparently had been ascended to the rank of Lieutenant under the new Captain's command) had taken him and the Rhinoceros Cavalry to Sonder Hill, alongside some guards and Lurdens, where riots had been broken by the Rebellion against the Prince. Turns out, the rebels had fleet days ago when they arrived, and as their forces subdued the rioting citizens, no member of the Rebellion was found, much less captured. And now Lothar had the mayor of Sonder Hill tied to a chair, completely naked; and the young Captain was carrying a lighted torch that he held too near to the man's body.

"Where are the rebels?" the young Captain asked, threatening yet calm. "Where did they go?" Lothar lowered his torch slightly towards the naked body of the mayor, who started to sweat like a pig in a heated summer day.

"I don't know!" the man yelled in fear. "They fled, they fled! They have been gone for days!"

Lothar lowered the torch and made the flames to make contact with the man's naked arm. The mayor screamed and the smell to burned flesh filled the air. When Lothar raised the torch, the man had a very sick burn in his arm, skin gone and meat burned to the point of scorching.

"I swear they fled!" the man wept. "Please..."

"Oh, I believe you there;" Lothar said. "But it strikes me as something strange. Why would they flee when they knew we were coming? They knew we would come if your people started rioting. So why did they flee?"

"I... I don't know!" the mayor said, his sweat increasing. "I... AGH!"

Lothar had lowered the torch again, this time against the man's chest. "I don't believe you in that one. My men found a horse at the back of your house, ready to go. Why instigate a riot if not to remain till the end..." Lothar chuckled sarcastically. "Unless the riot was nothing but bait you were expecting to be stomped by us, thus transforming Sonder Hill in a town of martyrs."

"It... it needed to be done!" the man shrieked. "Phobos is a tyrant, his high taxes and abuse..."

"But Sonder Hill never had higher taxes imposed;" Lothar explained. "Ah... they promised you something, didn't they? Those rebellious scumbags... Was it mere gold or a position in their new order? You sacrificed your townsfolk for that? Petty;" Lothar moved the torch in front of his eyes. "My mentor used to call people like you men that weren't men," the young Captain started to lower his torch towards the man's manhood. "Shall I make that instatement literal?"

"It was gold!" the mayor answered terrified. "The rebels promised me gold, and women! I swear!"

"And thus, you are guilty;" Lothar said, dropping the torch and letting it burn the man's dick. The screams filled the room they were in before dying out, leaving nothing but silence. Lothar turned around and exited the room to a balcony that led him to speak to the masses, all of them gathered below, guards and Lurdens surrounding them. Far behind the rhinoceros waited for the signal, anxious to rush in their attack. Frost awaited behind the

"Citizens of Sonder Hill!" Lothar directed to the masses. "You were stirred into breaking riot against the Prince by the Rebellion! To you I ask; where are the rebels now that I have come to enact justice in them?" The Captain didn't receive any answer. "They are gone, fled from this city days ago, letting you to pay for their crimes, while your mayor, the chief of your village, has sold you all out!"

Shouts of "This cannot be!" and "Lies! Lies!" erupted from the crowd, mainly from sympathizers of the Rebellion; but that did not startle Lothar, who continued his speech.

"I have already punished your mayor, the only real traitor," Lothar said. "And I understand that none of you have any fault in this," expressions of hope lighted in the villagers' faces. "But I still have to make an example of this place, which rebelled against the Prince, even if misguided. So, I will let you all go remaining in one piece. Your city…" Lothar made a signal to Frost, who subsequently made one to the Rhinoceros Cavalry. "Not so much. Level this city to the ground, Frost."

"Yes, Captain;" Frost obeyed with pleasure. "CHARGE!"

While the citizens were being hold back by guards and Lurdens, the brutish animals and their riders charged, Frost jumping from the balcony and landing in his personal rhino, Crimson. Explosives flew through the air, and beasts smashed buildings to the ground; after all, Frost was a violent man. As chaos ensued, Lothar directed himself to the men and women of Sonder Hill one last time.

"And remember, folks of Sonder Hill! Remember, every time that rain falls upon your heads, every time there is no room for your children to be protected from the cold, remember when you have no place to call home, or land to provide food for your families! Remember that it was the rebels who abandoned you!"

Lothar turned around and left the trashing of the village to Frost, his men and the Lurdens. He took then the guards he had brought to the city and reunited with Tynar in its outskirts. Black smoke was started to raise from the smashed buildings, and all of them were sure that soon enough the whole place would be nothing than debris. Lothar, Tynar and his men mounted in their own rhinos, horses, and Hoogongs.

"Have you let the horse of the mayor go, Lieutenant?" Lothar asked Tynar.

"Yes sir, as you ordered;" Tynar answered. "The animal wasn't even running; we should be able to follow it with ease."

"Good," Lothar answered. "I know how the rebels think. They must have tamed the animal to follow a path in order to not tell the mayor their location and avoid been sold out. We will follow the horse, and take those scumbags as prisoners. I want all of them alive, understood?!"

"Yes Captain!" Tynar and the rest of the guards yelled.

"Let's move!"

As they rode, Tynar glanced back at Sonder Hill for the last time. Who was right and wrong, the rebels or Phobos? Who was good or bad? None of them, and both. And as the Rebellion and the Prince struggled for the throne, Tynar was certain of one thing. _Raythor would have never done something as extreme as this_. And so, as the two sides played their game of conquest the small-folk suffered the consequences…

* * *

 ** _Across the Veil; basement of the Silver Dragon_**

If tension were a heavy gas instead of a feeling, Will was sure all the people in the basement right now would be suffocating. They were all sat in a couch and some chairs, just like she had expected. And yet, no one besides Jackie had said a thing. It had passed enough time for Yan Lin to search the sweets, bring them and head out again to prepare chocolate for the girls. As the old lady had put it "nothing better to calm the troubled mind that chocolate". Uncle had the detail of at least exiting the basement in order to help his cousin.

As it turned out, Jackie didn't have a reprimand in mind. He just wanted to talk... about Raythor. Great, because that's exactly about what she wanted to talk, her fuck-up. It didn't seem that the others wanted to talk anyway. Even Caleb, who had every reason to hate Raythor's guts, remained with his mouth shut and drumming his fingers against one of the couch's arms, Cornelia at her side. The redhead wondered if the rebel boy knew about the incredibly obvious crush the blonde had on him, because everyone else did. In the other two seats of the couch Jade and Irma sat. They struck Will as more annoyed than preoccupied about the current situation. Taranee and Hay Lin were in chairs no different from the one Will was sitting in. The Fire Guardian seemed calm and in the waiting of someone else's words. Hay Lin was just... silent too, her usual cheering demeanor so toned down that it seemed just wrong. Tohru was a bit separated from the rest, leaning against one of the basement's walls. The sumo didn't seem to want a part in the conversation, seemingly thinking that this was a matter they needed to discuss in their own.

Will sighed. Well, if someone needed to take the first step, why not her? She was the leader after all, the Keeper of the Heart. Right? "It wasn't what I was intending."

"Will?" Jackie asked, soft and slowly. The redhead was certain that the martial artist didn't have any intention of judging any of them; if that had been the case Jackie would be the only one speaking, and them all receiving like little girls that had broken a plate. But no, that wasn't the intention.

"With Raythor, I mean;" the Keeper of the Heart continued to speak. "It's just… I thought that he wouldn't be… you know, that." Will made a pause, and her eyes focused in her feet. Yes, there they were good, without having to stand glances. " _Executed_ for something he didn't do. I thought he would be sent to a prison, or…"

"It's not your fault;" Jackie interrupted, forcing Will to raise her sight and look at him. "If you haven't acted so fast, Vathek would have been forced to leave his post and blow his cover. Besides, it was Phobos who sent him to that Abyss of Shadows, not you. It's not about you being responsible or not about Raythor's demise; because I know it wasn't your intention. What I want to know is how it makes you feel;" Jackie looked around to the other girls and Caleb. "How it makes you all feel."

"Bad. Guilty;" Will answered. "Even if you said that… I blamed an innocent."

"Raythor was no innocent, he was a servant of the tyrant;" Caleb stated, jumping into the conversation. "You shouldn't feel that way, he…"

"Deserved it?" Taranee ended the phrase for the rebel boy. "Funny, because I think he really went down in Vathek's place."

"Taranee!" Cornelia shouted towards her friend, trying to make the glasses wearing girl to retire her argument, but Taranee didn't even flinch.

"Vathek is a member of the Rebellion, a man who fights for good;" Caleb declared. "Raythor and all the others are just servants of the tyrant. They don't deserve your mercy, Guardians."

"Why?" Hay Lin asked the rebel boy.

"They are the enemy!" Caleb yelled, anger boiling inside of him and finally showing off.

"What does that matter?" Taranee asked. "They are people."

"They are servants of the tyrant, they are evil, and they fight for him; support him and…!" Caleb yelled again, and tension was building in his body, his eyes starting to redden.

"And they fight against you," Jackie sentenced, and then rose from his seat. "Well, I'm going against you now. In fact, I'm now opposing your Rebellion. Does that make me evil?"

"No!" Caleb shouted again, rising from his seat too. "You aren't…"

"I won't try and say that I understand what is to be fighting in a war at your age," Jackie explained. "But I won't let these girls to start killing people indiscriminately with the excuse that they are evil just for standing in their opposite side. I'm not saying that people like Phobos shouldn't be stopped. I'm saying that not everyone in his side is utterly a monster just for standing in that side. Everyone has reasons for fighting and doing what they do. I'm not denying that this Phobos is a power hungry madman, I have seen too many of those to not recognize one. But all his servants must be monsters just because he is one? Tohru was once in a side opposite to mine, and now he is one of my closest friends," Jackie said pointing to the sumo, who acknowledged his friend's statement with a slow and friendly nod. "What about the soldiers? What about those Lurdens, or those Shapeshifters? Are they evil just because they are standing in the opposite side to you?"

"Shapeshifters are abominations that taint our world, they aren't able to do any good;" Caleb answered, failing to notice how Jade's hands turned into fists then, only to return to their original state in mere seconds.

"Have you ever known any other that isn't Cedric or that spider-girl?" Taranee asked him, and this time, there wasn't any response. "Yeah, that's what I thought. I'm with Jackie in this one; you are just letting your personal bias into the matter."

"Don't you dare to go there…" Caleb threatened, knowing that the Fire Guardian was referring to his father. His hands turned into fists too, and his green eyes hardened. "You have no right to go there, none of you have. Who are you? Guardians of the Veil, Guardians of Kandrakar? What have any of you seen of a battlefield? Have any of you even killed in their entire lives? You are nothing but some childish…"

"I have," Jade's voice raised, and utterly surprised gazes shot towards her as she rose from the couch too. "I killed a demon named Shendu once;" she explained a she eyed Caleb furiously. "True, he came back as a spirit, but I wanted to kill him, I wanted him dead; because he was going to burn the whole country my family lives in to ashes;" Jade explained, remembering what transpired that night of Chinese new year. "So I blew him up to shreds when he couldn't lift a finger in defense. That's why, when I saw Will's plan succeeding I thought ' _It's cool, it's what I would've done_ '; but you know what? It's not cool to kill defenseless people, it's not cool to blame people for things they haven't done; and it's horrifying to justify those actions by saying things like ' _they are the enemy_ ', or ' _It needed to be done_ '." Jade's glare hardened upon Caleb. "A hero is supposed to know that difference. You know, rebel _boy_? Maybe you're the childish one."

Silence took hold of the basement and for a moment Caleb neither could say nor could he think of anything. His mind travelled back to his childhood, when he was just a three year old boy, and he and his father lived alone into a small house in the Capital. There his father had raised him, feeding his young mind the tales of the great First King Escanor in his adventures to get the lands rid of all the demons that terrorized the commoners, accompanied by his loyal Four Knights: Hoel, Didier, Grendal and Brandis. The child had wanted to be Grendal, the Hound; the tall, proud and noble warrior that always stood in the closing lines of the King's armies and never let any man behind. That idealistic and hopeful child seemed to have died the moment Phobos had taken the throne, and he had been made a member of the Rebellion, his tales and games replaced by lessons in strategy and training with a sword; when he had killed for the first time at the age of eleven. Only now, spurred by Jade's words, the memory of that moment seemed to come back, when he had been able, more from luck than from sheer skill, to pierce his enemy's throat with his weapon. And then he had seen, in the guard's eyes; he had seen fear, anger, sorrow, despair. The same emotions he was experiencing at the moment of killing him. Did that guard have a family? Did he have dreams, hopes? Had he, for some reason, wanted to be like Grendal too? Now all those questions seemed to appear in his mind ready to haunt him. But a soldier that questioned his purpose and orders was certainly a dead one; that was what the Mage had told him once. Even in these late years, he had still wanted to be Grendal, and he wanted for his rebellion to be the heroes of the story. Only now, away from the war, he had time to think about it, to let it come to the surface after years of burying. He sat down in the couch again, and directed and somehow thankful glare towards the girls, but especially Jade.

"Sorry," the boy said. And for the blink of an eye, there was no rebel leader, not the soldier, or the vengeful son in search of killing his father's killers; just the boy, just Caleb.

This small action seemed to also calm Jade, and she reassumed her previous place in the couch too. Irma then found herself tenderly smiling towards the amber eyed girl, a sign that the Water Guardian approved about what she had said. In fact, all of the girls seemed to be with her in that statement; even Cornelia, who had remained in the rebel's side until that moment.

"Jade's right, and so is Jackie;" Will said, now feeling renovated in spirits thanks to Jade's little speech. "If we were chosen as Guardians to safe Meridian from Phobos, we'll do it, he needs to be stopped. But I don't want to become like him to do that. Being a hero has to mean more than that, more than imply striking down the 'bad guy'."

"I think that's the most rational sentence I've heard in the whole day," Taranee said, indicating her agreement to Will's statement.

Yan Lin and Uncle arrived shortly after, carrying the promised chocolate. Everyone took a cup and the sweet, warm and thick liquid seemed to ease the mood even more. This matter was long from settled and it would surely pick up in the future, that was clear to the Keeper of the Heart. At least, now she could breathe, the tension gone from the air.

* * *

As the Guardians and the Chan Clan drank chocolate and tried to find a solution to their current situation, a Portal swirled in the outskirts of Heatherfield. Then the buzzing sound of the hole in the Veil intensified and a small form crossed it. It was a Passling, but quite different to Blunk. The green of his skin was darker, and he had some locks of white hair falling from the back of his head to his shoulders. The attire he wore was consistently different from the one of Blunk too.

"See, wizard?" the Passling asked into a annoyingly raspy tone of voice. "Jeek promised Portal, and Portal you have! Would wizard be nice and pay Jeek?"

Another individual crossed the Portal then, and so Daolong Wong entered in the realm of Earth from the first time since becoming one of Phobos servants. He breathed deeply, letting the smells in the air to enter his nose. Ah, the stench to technology and civilization; how much he hated it. Humanity's progress had always been a pebble in the shoe of practitioners of the dark arts like him. That was why he preferred worlds like Meridian, which not only were much less advanced, but also more prominent in magic. Daolong Wong hated Earth, with their weapons, and their obsession with equality… but nonetheless, it was good to find research material, or conduct experiments themselves.

Wong handled the Passling named Jeek an emerald the size of his fist. "Here is your payment Passling, as we had agreed."

Jeek took the gem gleefully and headed back to the Portal, while Wong started to walk towards the city's center, searching for the feeling of good chi that Uncle emanated. Where the good wizard was, the child would be. It was time for him to see if his experiment had given any fruit.

* * *

 _ **Across the Veil; World of Meridian; the castle**_

"Wong has gone to Earth?" Phobos asked to Cedric, both of them standing in one of the castle's balconies and the Prince stroking the head of one his Amayther creatures while staring at the glorious storm that always loomed over his palace.

"In pursue of material for hisssss experiments, no doubt;" the Lord hissed as he crept in his snake form behind his liege. "Lothar hasssss returned from Sonder Hill, bringing around twenty captured rebels with him. The city has been made an example of."

"Perfect, that will teach those peasants to not oppose me;" Phobos declared. "Changing subjects, I have been inspecting the documents Miranda bought from Ludmoore. While not stating who my sister is, they have given us information about her whereabouts. Her powers should start manifesting soon… Thirteen years of waiting, Cedric. I am so close to victory."

"But how will we abduct her?" the Snake of Cavigor asked of his master.

"Abduct? No, we must attract her to our side so I can make sure that none of those rebels or Kandrakar whores has a chance of turning her against me," Phobos explained. "A Heart needs to be given freely, and even if I can take the Heart of Meridian by force due to my heritage, it would be much easier if I have my sister on my side until her power blooms completely." Phobos hated that part; he would be forced to play 'nice brother' to his sister until her body reached the stage in which the Heart had matured too. Why couldn't the ancient people of Meridian put the world's Heart in an object, like Zamballa or Kandrakar did? Yet he needed to get a hold of his sister first… "It's unlikely that anyone has told her about who she really is. With the proper spell, and the proper approach… Cedric," Phobos directed himself to the Shapeshifter behind him, who knowing what his master was about to propose, let his scaled lips to turn into a smile. "I have a mission from which you will need to pass as human in Earth."

Thirteen years, thirteen years of civil war, of waiting, of assassins in the night, of draining the kingdom of its life in order to get power to defend himself… finally were going to pay off. And then Phobos Escanor would reign supreme; even if it was at the expense of his little sister's life. His destined throne awaited him, and he would have it… no matter what needed to be done!

* * *

 _Let's imagine for a minute that you are presented with the opportunity to safe millions of people by killing a thousand; that by sacrifying some pawns in your side of the board, you would be able to win the match without losing any important piece. Good pawns, with family and dreams… but pawns anyway. Would you be able to look at the bigger picture? Would you have the courage to do what needs to be done? I would. I will._ Nerissa Crossnic.

* * *

 **A/N: Small chapter in comparison with the other three, but after those it was nice to dedicate a complete chapter to world building and people talking. The girls showed up very little in this one, mainly to talk and more or less define their moral code and course of action thanks to Jackie. Also, I really wanted to show how Raythor's disappearance from the board had affected the chess game of both rebels and… how are Phobos' forces named? Loyalist? Whatever…**

 **To my dear and usual Guest Reviewer Matt, thank you for your words. One of my favorite episodes of WITCH is actually A is for Anonymous. As for Red and Blue's identities, wait and see.**

 **That was all. Net chapter, Wong and the Guardians and Uncle have a little rematch, Jade goes wolf in battle for the first time, and Ye Olde Book Shop opens its doors!**

 **Bye, bye!**


	5. The Howling of Magic

**Disclaimer: I own neither the WITCH cartoon-show nor Jackie Chan Adventures; they are the property of their respective creators, writers, and producers.**

 **Author Notes: So, I publish chapter four of this thing, and then BOOM!; new reviewers, favs and followers appear out of the blue! Many thanks to all of you for liking this story, y'all are awesome. Having said that; enjoy this chapter; and to see more notes, wait till the end.**

* * *

Guardians, Wizards and Kung-Fu Fighters

Episode Five

The Howling of Magic

* * *

 ** _World of Meridian; Throne room_**

There were some things around Phobos' castle and especially inside the Throne Room that were a constant. Gigantic vines siphoning energy from the land, Phobos sitting in the Thorn Throne taking said energy into his body (albeit some knew that he had a especial pond dedicated entirely to the task of siphoning energy while bathing), and Cedric, always Cedric. The Lord was always standing three steps behind the Prince's throne, either in his human form or in his bestial one. So, imagine Lothar and Tynar's surprise when, at the moment of their return from their attack in Sonder Hill the day before, Cedric was gone, and the one standing in the room with the Prince was no other than Vathek, carrying a long war axe in order to deal with any attack if it were to happen. Lothar shot an angry glare towards the blue and bulky Galhot upon entering, and the big man couldn't avoid taking his own sight to the floor.

"Captain Lothar," Phobos addressed the new top commander of his guards. "How did things unravel in Sonder Hill?"

"My liege," Lothar directed himself to Phobos while kneeling in front of him. Behind the Captain, Tynar did as well. "We have been able to suppress the riots in Sonder Hill, and also bring justice to the one responsible for stirring them. Apparently, the rebels had promised gold and women to the mayor in order for him to rise the masses against you. For that, he was killed immediately."

"And the rest of Sonder Hill's population?" Phobos asked.

"I ordered Frost and the Rhinoceros Cavalry to make an example of their home," Lothar explained. "Now there is no more Sonder Hill. They are now wandering in the wild, without a home," Lothar explained. "It's most likely that the ones with some sympathies towards the rebels will join them; but the rest won't. They will blame the Rebellion as much as they will blame us, and the fear of losing their homes will ensure that other villages don't raise a finger against your regime, my liege. Also, we captured the rebels responsible for bribing the mayor of Sonder Hill; they are currently in the dungeons, ready to be punished."

Phobos clapped his hands three times then, his face changing into one showing joy, a rare phenomenon. "Magnificent job, Captain Lothar. So little time in your new position and you have already accomplished so much. Perhaps we should have dispensed of Raythor in your favor sooner!" Lothar flinched slightly upon the mention of his former mentor, but he didn't voice what was crossing his mind right now. "Stand, my Captain. A member of the court doesn't have to kneel if not needed."

Lothar rose to his feet, looking at Phobos in gratitude. "Thank you, my Prince. You honor this humble servant."

Phobos nodded, acknowledging the man's obedience. "Dispose of the captured rebels as you see convenient, Captain. A public execution should suffice in order to remind their fellow traitors of whom they are dealing with."

 _Fool_ , Vathek thought. _A public execution will only strengthen the Rebellion's volition. And someone as noble as Lothar would never…_

"A splendid idea, my liege;" Lothar answered, to the extreme surprise of the blue Galhot. "In fact, I was thinking that Vathek should carry out the execution, since he is already the warden of the dungeons, and he has proven his loyalty."

Vathek's eyes widened in horror, and for a moment, for a desperate and incredibly long moment, he looked at Phobos expecting disagreement, expecting the Prince to voice a different course of action. But the tyrant was smiling, pleased to the extreme with the young Half-breed's idea. Vathek knew why Lothar was doing this, why he was pleading to the Prince's natural cruelty. _He knows I work for the rebels and that Raythor was blamed in my stead,_ Vathek thought. _Instead of revealing my real colors, he intends to_ …

"Very well," Phobos answered. "The execution will be carried out at dawn; and Vathek shall be the one holding the axe. You are dismissed, Captain, Lieutenant. You too, Vathek, I wish to be alone."

The three men left the room, leaving Phobos to his own biding. Only then Miranda appeared, hanging from the ceiling with the help of a string made of his spider-web and in her animalistic form; just behind Phobos' throne. The Prince didn't even bother to look at her, and the pleasant smile had disappeared from his face.

"I asked for Wong's presence," the Prince said, slightly angered. "Where is he?"

"According to some of the Lurdens he has gone to Earth," Miranda informed. "Probably in search of some of those ' _resources_ ' for his experiments."

"Shame," Phobos declared, relaxing now that he knew where Wong was. "I could have given him some of the rebels that Lothar has captured." Phobos took a finger to his goatee. "It is most likely that he will clash with the Guardians… Fortunately Cedric has already gone to Earth in order to make preparations for his new mission. If Wong needs assistance, he should be able to provide it."

"I still don't know why you maintain that decrepit old man around," Miranda said. "If you wanted new creatures, you could make them yourself, like you did with that Sandpit monster back at Torus Filney."

"It's true that my magical might is quite superior to Wong's, and that I enjoy the thrill of experimentation and creation of new life;" Phobos admitted, "but sometimes Chi Magic and its versatility can be more useful than Raw Magic and its sheer potency. While the type of magic I specialize in is without a doubt much more destructive than Wong's, spell-casting is much more complex and limited. Chi Magic, in the other hand, is way weaker in terms of sheer offensive and defensive capability, but it compensates by offering a much more varied spectrum of spells. And besides, it's not the duty of a Prince to dirty his hands with the work of his assistants. _That_ is the reason why Wong is useful for me." _For now_ ; the Prince added in his thoughts. _Who knows? Maybe when I have the Heart of Meridian all for myself, I will strip that old man of his power and add it to my own. Wouldn't that be an appropriate end for Daolon Wong, mightiest of Earth's Dark Wizards, to end his days powerless?_

"If you say so…" Miranda said, narrowing her four eyes. "Speaking about Torus Filney and people useful to the court, Viscount Servantis has arrived and is currently waiting in one of the halls."

"Ah yes, gentle Roderick;" Phobos said, remembering he had agreed to see him in order to discuss some matters. "Very well Miranda; make him come."

Miranda emitted an inaudible hiss upon the Prince's request, but obediently returned to the ceiling and crawled out of the room, heading directly to inform the Viscount that the Prince was ready to receive him. _Foolish Prince Phobos_ , Miranda thought as she crawled over the ceiling of the halls. _You just wait; in the moment dear Cedric makes his move… we will see who gives the orders then!_

Meanwhile, Phobos reclined in his throne and poured a bit more of energy inside his body. What a weakness, to have to come back again and again to this very throne in order to recharge. Once he had this world's Heart, this stupid necessity will finally be suppressed. He wondered when Cedric would communicate with him in order to report about his mission… and also what were Wong's intentions in that wrenched world.

* * *

 ** _Across the Veil; Heatherfield at dawn_**

 _Where are you, Good Wizard?_ ; Daolon Wong wondered while wandering around Heatherfield's streets, the sun appearing right over the horizon. The entire night he had been searching for the trail of good magic that surely the other elder spell-caster left around just with his very presence, but he had found nothing. He hit his twisted root a couple of times, as if that could accomplish something. _I should be able to locate him easily… but there is too much energy around this pathetic town! How strange, I adapted my spells to the presence of the Guardians and Phobos' lost sister, but there is more power than I predicted!_ Wong turned around a corner and entered an alley. He took some materials and prepared potions he had carried with him from Meridian in order to start preparing a proper locator spell. He still felt bothered by the feeling of intense magical presence that surrounded the whole place.

 _If it wasn't impossible, I would swear there is a third Heart in this Heatherfield…_ the Dark Wizard thought, and then laughed. _But that's ridiculous; there has not been a holder of the Heart of Earth for centuries._

* * *

"Cornelia... Cornelia..." someone whispered.

In an apartment in one of the buildings around Heatherfield's center, there was a room. And in that room there was bed, inside which Cornelia Hale was currently sleeping pleasantly. The blonde snorted slightly, and rolled inside her bed, muttering incompressible words. It was clear that she was in deep sleep, and thus she didn't notice the door of her room opening slightly and being crossed by a small, blond five year old girl. Lillian Hale, that was the child's name, approached her older sister's bed, where the older blonde continued to roll, speaking in her dreams.

"Oh Caleb..." the older blonde muttered as a silly smile appeared in her face. "You're such a gentleman... of course I'll take the last meatball in the plate."

Lillian watched her sister sleep, tilting her head slightly at her sibling's last sentence. Their mother had put 'The Lady and the Tramp' in the TV last night, Cornelia and her watching it together, but to be quoting it in dreams? That was a bit extreme. And who was Caleb? Grinning, Lillian raised her little arms over Cornelia and clenched her little fists.

"Oh, and now we must eat the same spaghetti and kiss..." Cornelia continued to speak in dreams. "Oh, Caleb the whole plate has fallen over your abs now. Here, let me clean you..."

"Cornelia, Cornelia, Cornelia, Cornelia!" Lillian yelled while hitting her older sister with her tiny fists, waking up the blonde.

"WHOA!" Cornelia shouted while practically jumping out of her bed. "Lillian?! What do you think you're doing?!" Cornelia's eyes focused in her alarm clock, which still marked 7:30 AM. "You woke me up half an hour sooner, pipsqueak!"

"Mom says that you've to take me to the daycare," Lillian declared, grinning like a little devil. "So no more sleeping for you."

"WHAT?!" Cornelia yelled. "MOM!"

The head of Elizabeth Hale, the two girls' mother, appeared at the opened door, glasses over her eyes while she brushed her hair. "I'm sorry honey, but your father and I are in a rush to meet this businessman. I left breakfast done for the both of you in the kitchen. Be nice with Lillian and hurry! Bye, love you!"

"Yeah Cornelia, you've to be nice to me!" Lillian cheered, delighted by the current situation.

"But moooooom!" Cornelia complained, but she didn't receive any retort, as Elizabeth Hale had ended brushing her hair and exited the apartment in the company of her husband, Harold. Cornelia hated when these things happened, when some rich man appeared to make some deal with the bank his father worked for. Harold would always bring Elizabeth to those meetings, something about selling 'the image of the company' or whatever it was called. That left Cornelia to deal with Lillian by herself... a task the older sister hated, and that the younger one loved just for the thrill of annoying the older one.

"Okay pipsqueak," Cornelia said, getting out of bed and lifting her room's blinds. "Let's get breakfast, and don't you dare to do anything stupid."

"Yay! I bet mom left pancakes for us!" Lillian cheered, but her mood didn't stick to Cornelia.

"Mom always leaves pancakes when she and dad do this," Cornelia muttered, walking out of the room with her sister in tow. They went straight to the kitchen, where effectively, pancakes were waiting for them. Cornelia put two bowls of hot milk in the table and then proceeded to sit down and eat her breakfast without paying more attention than needed to Lillian.

"So, who's Caleb?" Lillian asked suddenly, making her sister to choke over a bite of her pancakes.

"What?" Cornelia asked; confused and drinking milk in order to calm her throat.

"Caleb," Lillian repeated the name. "You were saying that in dreams. Is he your boyfriend? You've a boyfriend? You've to tell me!"

"Lillian, he's not my boyfriend!" _He's a handsome, cute, awesome rebel from another world who doesn't know about the crush I've in him_ ; the Earth Guardian thought.

"Tell me, tell me, tell me, tell me!" Lillian continued to yell, drumming her fists against the table and making the breakfast tremble. Cornelia sighed in exasperation of her younger sibling's behavior. This was going to be the longest of mornings.

* * *

 ** _Sheffield Institute, after class_**

Will, Irma, Taranee, Cornelia, Hay Lin and Jade had designated the gates of Sheffield as the spot where they usually met after class. Since they had different classes and schedules, some of them normally arrived and waited for the others until the six of them were reunited. However, today was an especial day, since this afternoon they were going to the mall and they were going to be eight.

To the usual group of six had joined two other girls, named Alchemy Ethel, a young redheaded girl dressed in green and that was around the others' age but that was a grade below them (in fact, Jade remembered her from speaking with her in clash) and Elyon Brown, a girl with straw blonde hair in two ponytails that fell over her shoulders and that was wearing a purple outfit composed of a sweater, a skirt and a pair of socks, all of the same color. Irma had presented them to Jade and Will as the other two parts of Cornelia's 'fashion squad', but much to the redhead's and Jade's joy, they were exactly the opposite that the two of them were imagining. While Cornelia had soft center you had to, as Irma put it, 'drill and drill until reaching it'. These two, however, seemed like the nicest people around. Especially Elyon, who supposedly was Cornelia's best friend; she seemed like one of those people that thought about others always first.

 _Maybe this is one of those situations in which opposites complement each other?_ ; Will thought as she and the other girls walked towards the mall.

"I still don't understand why all of us have to go to the mall," Jade said then, walking between Irma and Alchemy, pulling her usual hoodie down her navel in order to cover it.

"Maybe is because you aren't able to buy new clothing after your sudden grown up?" Irma teased the other girl, who blushed slightly.

"Well, it's not very easy to bring the subject when you live with three men. And I can understand Cornelia, Elyon and Alchemy wanting to come," Jade said, addressing the three girls. "But why everyone else?"

"'Cause I don't wanna lose the moment you've to deal with Corny choosing clothes for you," Irma answered, smirking devilishly.

"I actually need to buy a new swimsuit for my swimming practice," answered Will.

"I want to check out a couple of new books in the mall's bookstore," Taranee said after the redhead.

"I had the most annoying of mornings," Cornelia said next. "I want to relax, and there's nothing more relaxing than shopping."

"I just want to know you and Will better," Alchemy continued. "You seem like lot of fun!"

"I want popcorn!" Hay Lin said.

"And I've to protect all of you from Cornelia's compulsive shopping," Elyon explained, earning a smirk and a quick glare from the other blonde.

"Okay, but nothing girly, understood?" Jade said, pulling her hoodie down again. "I hate girly. You hear me, Cornelia?"

"Yes, yes;" the blonde said in a tone of voice that seemed to rest importance to the matter. "Nothing girly."

"Cornelia! I'm serious!" Jade shouted, making the other girls laugh. "I swear, if I see a goddamned skirt…"

 _This is the same girl that was able to make an epic speech yesterday, making the leader of Meridian's Rebellion to eat his words_ , Will thought as she smiled towards Jade. _Speaking of whom, I wonder how he's doing._

* * *

 ** _Silver Dragon_**

"Are you sure you have everything, boy?" Yan Lin asked Caleb who, now back into his meridianite clothing, was packing things in a bag in order to bring them to Meridian.

"I think so," Caleb answered, tying the last string in order to close the bag. "Thank you again for giving me these goods, Lady Lin."

"It's just Yan Lin, we people of Earth don't have any use for those titles," the old Chinese woman answered. "And that's just some food cans we had in the back of the restaurant, nothing very serious."

"Even a small gesture like this is enough, really;" Caleb said sincerely, taking the bag to his back. "I'm really grateful for the time you let me spent here, but I must go back to my world now, the Rebellion shouldn't pass more time without its leader. After… what happened in the Abyss of Shadows Phobos should have loosened the grip around the Capital a bit; his minions won't be searching for me as thoroughly as they did before."

Yan Lin nodded. "Very well, rebel boy. It was funny having you here, anyway;" the former Air Guardian admitted as she and her temporal tenant exited the restaurant's basement and headed to the street. There Yan Lin watched as the teen adjusted the bag in his back and stretched his legs a bit. "But how exactly are you going to find a Portal?"

"Well…" Caleb said, making a sign to the alley at the restaurant's side. From it, Yan Lin started to hear strange noises, as if scrap was clashing against the ground. After a couple of minutes, Blunk the Passling emerged from the alley, carrying his own bag, this one full of junk instead of food. And he smelled worse than ever. "He's kind of going to help me with that issue."

"Yes! Blunk help, Blunk help Caleb," the Passling said, nodding quick and repeatedly. "Blunk's way of apologizing for key. Blunk's very sorry!"

"I believe you," Yan Lin said, taking a hand to her nose and trying to fight the odor. "Then have a nice trip, Caleb;" she said.

"Farewell, Lady Lin," Caleb answered with a small, respectful bow of his head. Oh, Meridian and the old ways! A part of Yan Lin wished those manners hadn't died alongside the rest of the Dark Ages. "And thank you, for everything."

The Chinese old lady watched as the rebel boy and the Passling started to walk down the street, turning a corner shortly after and disappearing out of her sight. Then, she breathed deeply and waved her hand in front of her nose. _Good grief! Passlings may be a bunch of nice fellows, but their smell is so awful!_ ; the elder thought before heading inside again. She went to the kitchen, where she found her daughter-in-law, Joan Lin; already preparing all the necessary to launch the menus at the right hour.

"Good morning Yan Lin," the woman said, greeting the elder with a warm smile. "How's the day treating you?"

"Fair enough," Yan Lin answered as she took a knife herself and started to cut onions, garlic, carrots, a lettuce and other vegetables. "How are you? Need more hands?"

"I'm actually doing pretty well," Joan answered. "And you already took a knife, so…"

"Sorry, it's a habit hard to let go," Yan Lin said, chuckling a bit. "Where is my son?"

"In the dining hall, putting things in order with that cousin of his," Joan Lin answered. "Take a look."

Yan Lin did as suggested, peeping over the small overture that connected the restaurant's big dining hall with the kitchen. There, preparing the tables for the customers, where Chen Lin, Yan's son; and Jackie, who had actually come this morning to help a bit in the restaurant while Tohru and Uncle where 'searching for fresh ingredients', something that Yan Lin interpreted as wander all the strange shops around Heatherfield in order to find something that had leaked from an unknown body part of an almost extinct animal. She sometimes wondered from where her cousin was able to gather the money necessary for those acquisitions.

"And then she just wanted to go to an art exposition," Chen said as he and Jackie put cutlery and plates over the largest of the dining tables. "In the middle of the night! I told Hay Lin it was dangerous, but she said…"

"That it was going to be an adventure?" Jackie wondered, recalling a similar situation with Jade a couple of months ago, albeit she had wanted to go and see a boxing match instead of an art exposition.

"Exactly!" Chen cheered into a not very different manner than his daughter.

"I passed for something similar with Jade," Jackie said. "And then Uncle just rubbed it off saying that…"

"It was things that youngsters do!" Chen finished his relative's sentence. "My mother said exactly the same!"

"Finally someone that understands!" Jackie cheered too, grateful to finally find a parent that shared his views about education. Meanwhile, in the kitchen, Joan Lin shook her head while Yan Lin chuckled in order to fight her laughs down her throat.

"Seriously, Yan;" Joan said. "Should I be careful that these two don't become some kind of obsessive mother duo? The girls have just gone to the mall, for everything's shake."

Unable to fight back anymore, Yan Lin broke into a full on laughter.

* * *

 ** _The mall_**

"You mean you don't have more copies about ' _Greek Myths and Legends_ ' around?" a disappointed Taranee asked the thirty-something librarian woman that handled the mall's bookstore. Wandering around, Hay Lin was eating a small bag of popcorn while looking at the other books, trying to found someone that resulted 'cute' in her eyes. "Why?"

"I'm sorry," the woman answered to Taranee with an apologizing smile. "But we had to handle some of our goods to a new partner that is going to open a new bookstore in the center of the city. That includes the copies of that book you're looking for."

"Oh man," Taranee answered. "I so wanted that one. Can you give me the address of the new bookstore?"

"You can ask the owner himself," the woman said, pointing to a tall, handsome, blue eyed and blonde man with his hair tied in a ponytail that fell at his back and wearing a pair of grey pants with a grey sweater; that was writing down a list while checking some books in boxes, to then proceed to close said boxes. "Mr. Hoffman!" the woman called, making signs to the man in order for him to approach them.

Cedric reacted to the name he had chosen in order to infiltrate within the society of modern Heatherfield. Rick Hoffman, he had chosen. It was a good name, even if he didn't remember from exactly where he had picked it up. He hadn't come back to this city in decades, but he found pleasant that some things, just like the lust of the common women of Earth for pretty men like his human form, hadn't changed a bit. Still, the owner of this ridiculous excuse of a bookstore (seriously, there were DVDs in sell here!) wasn't exactly his type. Too old. Yet she had proven useful to his desire when she had helped him with material for his own bookstore… and now calling him to speak with no other with what he interpreted as the human forms of the Air and Fire Guardians. He had noted them when they had entered the store, yet he hadn't moved a single muscle of his body. He had learned to maintain control of these situations, and since none of the Guardians, let alone the rebel leader, had never seen him in human form, advantage was his here.

"Good morning," Cedric greeted while approaching the trio of women "May I help you?"

"These two lovely ladies were looking for a book I just handed to you," the thirty-something woman explained, pointing to Taranee and Hay Lin. "' _Greek Myths and Legends_ ', I believe."

"Yeah, that one;" Taranee said. "I just need it for a coming school project; I hope it's not a problem, Mr.… Hoffman, right?"

"No way it's a problem," Cedric answered, faking a polite smile. "And it's Rick Hoffman, yes. I'm sorry for having taken the book you wanted, it's currently inside that box," the Shapeshifter explained while pointing to one of the boxes he had filled with books. "If you want it…" he took a small card out of his pocket and handed it to the girls. "This is the address to ' _Ye Olde Book Shop_ '; opening tomorrow."

"Whoa!" Taranee exclaimed. "Thank you very much, Mr. Hoffman!"

"Why?" Cedric faked a joking tone. "For bringing clients to my new shop? Yes, you clearly are the one who has to thank me for that."

Hay Lin giggled slightly at that comment, and after thanking him again, the Guardians of Fire and Air exited the bookstore, leaving the tall, blond man behind, smirking as he was pleased with the current development of events.

 _It seems Lady Luck is on my side, after all_ ; Cedric thought with malice. _If I bribe them into a trap and I can get them out of the board… no, I must concentrate in the task Phobos has given me, rescind my duties to find the lost Princess so she can go back to her sweet home_. "Thank you very much for the books, Arianna;" he thanked the woman.

"It's nothing, Rick, really;" the woman said sincerely. "So, my turn ends in a couple of minutes… Uh, want to go to take a coffee?"

"Why not?" Cedric answered, thinking that he hadn't tasted coffee in ages. "I'll be pleased to accompany you."

This world seemed to have forgotten the notion of chivalry as someone forgets the name of a whore. Cedric hoped to not have to spend a lot of time here. Even if this world was his birthplace, he liked Meridian much more. Even when he had been forced to play as the Snake of Cavigor, he had enjoyed the world's wildness. And none of the women back here had anything on Miranda's prettiness. But who knows? Maybe he could find a secret jewel back here… Sheffield was always opened to pick a girl of two.

* * *

"What do you mean you met a cute boy?" Cornelia asked to Taranee and Hay Lin after the two girls had arrived to the clothing store the others were currently in. The Air and Fire Guardians found their friends around the fitting rooms, Irma, Cornelia, Elyon and Alchemy outside while Jade and Will were inside, changing their clothes. "Why didn't you text us?"

"Believe it or not," Taranee said, while taking some popcorn from Hay Lin's bag, which she was pretty sure the bubbling girl had refilled in their way here… somehow. "Texting you all so you can ogle a cute boy it's not the first thing that passes over my head when I met one."

"And he was a cute _man_ ," Hay Lin corrected. "All mature, and tall, and blond, and pretty…"

"I bet he was a total hunk!" Alchemy cheered, fantasizing about an imaginary image she made about Cedric.

"We lost the opportunity to see a blonde hunk?" Elyon asked, faking rage. "You're just mean."

"Okay, 'Horny Teenager Squad', that's enough;" Irma said. "Jesus; buy a magazine or search for a computer, Corny."

"I don't do those kinds of things!" the blonde protested, blushing like a tomato.

"Everyone does," Irma said, smirking, but before Cornelia could retort, Taranee broke in.

"If you're so interested, here;" she said handing the card with the address to the blonde. "That's his shop's address."

"Really? ' _Ye Olde Book Shop_ '?" Alchemy asked, peeping over Cornelia's shoulder.

"I like it," Hay Lin commented. "It sounds… magical and mysterious."

"Guys?" Will's voice came from one of the fitting rooms, preventing anyone from pointing out to Hay Lin that a bookstore didn't have anything about magical or mysterious. "I'm ready, can I go out?"

"Sure!" Elyon said, and the redhead exited the fitting room, sporting a dark blue swimsuit that completely covered her body at exception of her arms and legs. "Cute."

"You sure?" giving a pair of turns over herself. "I don't want anything too flashy."

"No, really;" Alchemy said, approaching her fellow redhead. "You look pretty well."

"Well, it's not supposed to look pretty," Will explained. "It's supposed to help me swim."

"Doesn't mean you have to swim without style;" Cornelia said, congratulating the redhead into her choice of outfit.

"Jade, what about you?" Irma asked into another of the fitting rooms' direction, earning nothing but silence at first. "Jade?"

"I'm not putting on these," Jade's voice came from the fitting room.

"What?" Irma asked. "C'mon, they are cute!"

"I said that nothing girly, Irma!" Jade yelled.

"Oh, for Christ's sake!" Irma yelled too, and entered the room.

"What's she talking about?" Taranee asked aloud, and the other girls a exception of Hay Lin shared a strange look and a couple of smirks.

"Well, while Cornelia was the one to chose Jade's new clothes," Alchemy explained. "Irma was the one to choose more… intimate clothing."

 _Jade let Irma to choose her panties?_ ; Taranee thought. _That poor, innocent girl…_

"Irma! What the hell are you doing entering here?!" Jade's voice sounded again, and Irma's came next with the answer.

"You're taking too much time!" there was a pause then, and Irma's voice lost some energy. "Why aren't you wearing a bra?"

"My mom never taught me to put into one! I never had any need for it before days ago!

"Let me…"

"Irma, stop…!"

"WHOA!" both girls shouted in unison as they stumbled out of the fitting room, falling to the floor, Jade on top of Irma. While the Water Guardian was fully dressed, Jade was, to the other girls' amusement, almost naked, wearing just an unbuttoned bra and a pair of pink panties with small butterflies on them. As the two girls in the floor fought to come to their feet, the others didn't know of laugh or help their friends.

"Well, they really are cute panties!" Hay Lin said.

"You aren't helping, Hay-Hay…" Irma whispered from below. "You aren't helping at all."

* * *

"So Blunk was offering the best deal, yet this Galhot choose Penk's offer over Blunk's!" the Passling explained to Caleb as the two of them walked around Heatherfield in search of a Portal. Blunk had brought up the option of heading to Villa Ludmoore and asking Charles to let them use his, but Caleb had declined the idea. One deal with the King Smuggler was enough for a lifetime. However, this time until they found a hole in the Veil was proven quite entertaining. Who could have thought that he would find the tales about the green dwarf's deals and misfortunes as entertaining?

"So Blunk decided to search for new business material," Blunk continued his speech. "Tried to sneak material from the castle, and then they got Blunk, those mean Lurdens!"

"So that's how you ended in the oubliette," Caleb said, earning an affirmative nod from Blunk. "Kinda like me, I was trying to steal cannon powder from an armory."

"Blunk knows!" the Passling said while laughing. "Big boom! Everyone running!"

"For a smuggler, you have the mind of a rebel," Caleb said, making Blunk to put his hairy hands in his hips.

"Businessman!" Blunk shouted. "Blunk's a businessman! And Rebellion is good for business!"

"How?" Caleb asked. He knew that men like Ludmoore could take advantage of the war Meridian was currently in, but he didn't know why a Passling found the Rebellion as 'good for business'.

"Prince Phobos takes Passling-folk and enslaves them;" Blunk said, and for a moment his usual cheery demeanor fell, revealing a somber look over Blunk's face. "He makes good Passlings to work in order to detect Portals; he makes them to serve as experiments for the Bad Wizard; in order to mine in those filthy Underwater Mines until they die of effort! If he traded for services, that would be good, but he doesn't trade! He just takes, and takes! Trade's sacred for Passling-folk! You must give as much as you take."

Caleb spent the next minutes of their little walk in silence. So that was it, eh? Not a smuggler but a man following his people's code. Man, that speech of that girl, that Jade, the day before had really gotten to him, as had the words of that Jackie Chan back in the Abyss of Shadows. Perhaps he really was the childish one…

"Wait, stop!" Blunk said, halting Caleb and smelling the air. "This stench… Caleb, follow Blunk!" the Passling said before grabbing the boy's hand and dragging him into an alley where their bodies were covered by shadows.

"Blunk, what's gotten into you?" Caleb asked, but the Passling just pointed onwards with his finger, sniffing the air even more.

"Bad Wizard… Smell of death." Blunk whispered, and then Caleb followed the Passling's finger to find that he was pointing to none other than Daolon Wong, walking in the streets, the twisted root he had as a staff lighted in dark purplish energy. The Dark chi Wizard halted and pointed his staff around, as if searching for something. He then noted how the purplish light of it brightened upon pointing it into the appropriate direction, and smirking, he walked into that one.

"Phobos' Archmage?" Caleb wondered into a whisper. What's he doing here? It doesn't matter, someone as powerful as him out of the castle and in Earth can only mean problems. "Blunk, can you smell the Guardians?"

"Nice girls?" the Passling wondered. "Blunk can track them, no problem."

"We need to get to them," Caleb explained.

"But what about Portal?" the Passling asked. "Caleb's very close to it!"

"I will go back to Meridian when I know what Wong is doing here;" Caleb told the green dwarf. "Let's go, hurry!"

"Right!" Blunk said to then proceed to sniff the air. "Guardians this way!"

Both rebel and Passling started to run, and from time to time, they looked back at Wong, and to their horror, even if considerably slower due to his unnaturally advanced age; the Archmage of Meridian was heading into their exact same direction. Heatherfield's shopping mall.

* * *

"See? Was it so difficult?" Jade asked as she raised her arms to the sky, showing her new outfit while she and the girls exited to the Mall's parking lot, where supposedly, Jackie had to pick them up at this hour. Elyon and Alchemy, however, had decided to 'excuse themselves' and spent a bit more of time in the mall. Jade didn't know if it was to really buy something or to search for the blond guy they had heard about from Taranee and Hay Lin. Nonetheless, Jade was completely pleased with her new outfit, composed of a bigger version of her dear orange hoodie, a pair of black jeans and black boots. Now this was the kind of clothing that befitted her! "Nothing girly, all awesome!"

"But you're still wearing the panties Irma choose for you," Hay Lin told her, making the other girl frown.

"Thanks for reminding me," Jade commented.

"So, where's your uncle?" Cornelia asked. "Because if he's going to be late I'm going back inside."

"I thought that Ely was exaggerating, but you really have a problem with shopping, don't you?" Irma asked, genuinely shocked.

"It's just a problem if I run out of money," Cornelia said, crossing her arms over hes chest.

"That's..." Will commented, not knowing if the blonde was joking or not. "I don't want to think about what that means."

"Corny, don't waste your family's cash into pretty dresses;" Irma told the blonde, who frowned.

"Stop calling me Corny, damn it!" the Earth Guardian said, now clearly pissed. "My name is...!"

"Guardians!"

Turning around, the girls saw Caleb and Blunk running towards them, both of them carrying backpacks. Reaching them, Caleb bended over himself, panting. "Guardians...! You...! I... we must...!"

"Whoa there, valiant rebel leader;" Irma said, patting the man slightly in the back. "We breathe, and then we speak."

"Right," Caleb said, breathing in and out a couple of times. "Sorry. But, you need to transform, now."

"Why?" Jade asked the rebel. Frankly, after their little chat yesterday she wasn't pretty much in the mood to be friendly to the rebel teenager. Especially after his comments about Shapeshifters, a species she was part of now. Granted, she hadn't trying nothing about her new form out of transforming in and out; but she felt much more accustomed to her new self. She could even control her smell sense! But the last thing that she needed now was for her new friends to find out she was a giant wolf, and that was not counting Jackie into the equation.

"Because Phobos' Archmage, Daolon Wong, is coming right towards here;" Caleb explained, much to the girls' displeasure.

"Ugh, that creepy old guy?" Taranee asked, remembering their brief encounter with the Dark Wizard back in the castle's dungeons. "What's he doing here?"

"Don't know," Caleb said. "But it can't be anything good. And he's heading straight to this point. I think that he knows where to find you."

"What?!" the five Guardians asked in unison, while Jade facepalmed.

"Of course," Jade said. "Locator spell!"

"Loca-what?" Irma asked.

"A chi spell designed to locate people or things;" Jade explained. "Uncle uses it to find some magic shenanigans... though he once told me that it's easier to find things that already have magic instead of random people or objects."

"But we've a ton of magic!" Ha Lin shouted. "Grandma said that a Heart is..."

"A world's source of mystical energy," Will ended the phrase for her. The redhead took the Heart of Kandrakar out from under her shirt, holding it high. "We can't let him reach the mall. If he wants the Guardians, we'll give him exactly what he wants. Guardians, Unite!"

There was a blinding flash of pink, and then the five girls were gone, replaced by the five young women that composed the Guardians. They started to fly away, heading towards any spot where they could confront Wong without getting innocent bystanders in the way.

"Jade, wait for Jackie and tell him about where we are!" Will telled from the sky. "Tell him to bring Uncle, I don't know how we will do against Wong by ourselves!"

"Got it!" Jade answered. _She really sounds like a totally different person with that Heart on. If she could just have that confidence regularly…_

"Wait, what do I do?" Caleb inquired, raising his arms.

Cornelia pointed to a couple of shopping bags in the ground, near him. "Protect our shopping!"

"You mean _your_ shopping," Irma criticized the blonde.

"Yeah, how did you end with the more shopping bags when we came here for clothes for Jade and Will?" Taranee asked, but Cornelia didn't answer.

Instead, the five Guardians flew away, leaving Jade, Caleb and Blunk behind; the Passling curiously peeping inside the Earth Guardian's bags.

* * *

 _Changing route?_ ; Daolon Wong wondered in his mind while his twisted staff stopped from pointing north and changed to east instead. _Have they detected me? Not very surprising_ ; the Dark Wizard thought bitterly, looking to his sides. Some bystanders, mainly youngsters, were looking at him as if he were some short of bizarre phenomenon out of some freakshow. This was the exact same reason he hated modernity, and this decaying world. Magic had withered away, and with it the respect for Wizards, Sorcerers, Witches or even Alchemists.

In the days of his youth, when magic was still fairly present in Earth, Wong had been a respected man in China, a venerable and wise elder to look up to. Then the practitioners of Light Chi Magic had started to put their power to the service of the rabble, and started to call themselves 'Good Wizards', wielders of 'Good' magic. Wong had let them to use that title, if he had to be an 'Evil Wizard' in order to wield chi magic as it was supposed to be wield, so be it. And so, with the passing of his four centuries of existence he had seen himself as being chastised by his own peers, finding the company of demons more pleasurable than the one of humans. His body had twisted and his appearance had been deformed by the forbidden spells he had poured onto it. Evil, they had called him, Monster, Killer, they had called him. Ha! Visionary, innovative, genius; those were what he really was. Look at what he had gained from kneeling before Phobos; he was now in the verge of bringing the members of the Fair Folk, the Changelings, the glorious children of Titania and Oberon to life again! And they called him 'Evil'… why? Because of ambition, because having a cause, because wanting to use magic for more than maintaining a puny species like humanity was, in a pedestal they didn't belong to? Good! Then he was the most Evil Wizard in all creation!

 _They are heading out of the main core of the city_ , Wong thought as he changed his route too, following the Guardians' trail. Locating them had been quite easy; just create a spell that tracked elemental magic bounded to a huge amount of Raw Magic. It would point him either to a Guardian… or a Demon Sorcerer; but Wong doubted those were still around. Last one got turned into a stone nine centuries ago, the idiotic dragon. _Probably want to fight me head on without having to bother about harming the rabble. So be it, first I will take out these novices, and then take my experiment back! Prepare yourselves, Guardians; today you learn the difference that experience makes in battle_!

* * *

"Sorryhavetocatchanevilwizardapologizelater!" Jackie said across the window of his car as he passed too fast at the side of a fellow driver, who answered his imprudence with a loud sound of his car's horn. _And this is a rented car… I hope nothing happens to it_.

"Turn here, here!" Blunk the Passling said while sitting in the co-pilot seat, sticking his head out of the window as if he was some kind of dog. "Blunk smells Guardians in this direction!"

"Duh! I told you already in which direction they went!" Jade answered from the backseat of the car, where she and Caleb were sitting since Jackie had appeared in the parking lot with his new rented car and had picked them up, not without first putting the shopping bags in the car's trunk. _Seriously, how can be so difficult to find five flying girls dressed in brilliant pink and blue?! But Tohru told me something about this once; that people see what they want to see_ ; Jade thought. _I suppose that's the reason no one noted how a humanoid dragon raised a palace out of dust_ …

"So how do these… ' _Cars_ ' function?" Caleb asked to Jade as he sat next to her, maybe a bit too amazed from the ride. She had only needed five mere minutes, but the girl thought that she finally understood this Caleb guy. There was two of him, living in the same body. One was the stern and angry rebel leader, the man that wanted the civil war won by the Rebellion and that shouted at you if you went against his orders. The same man that had wanted Raythor dead in the Abyss f Shadows. Then there was the teenager, the boy that marveled himself with Earth's technology and that was as idiotic as any other boy of his age. Sometimes the one in control was the rebel leader and some other times the teenager was… and there were the rare times that the two seemed to be in control. Right now, fortunately, she seemed to be speaking with the teenager. The teenager was tolerable, even in his clumsiness about Earth.

"With an engine and horsepower," Jade answered flatly, confusing the teen even more.

"Horsepower?" Caleb asked aloud, looking around the car. "Must be invisible ones."

Jade fought back a laugh. She knew it was bad to laugh at the boy's clumsiness, but then she remembered his last sentence. He fought the laugh back again… and the words keep coming to her mind. In the end, she laughed her ass off.

"There! There!" she heard Blunk then, and also noted how the car took a corner and decrease its speed. "Guardians!"

The car reached a zone that looked like a building lot with no more than a couple of small edifications and a bunch of building machines all scattered around. The five members of the Guardians were there too, all waiting in the ground. Jackie parked his rented car a bit too away from them, probably because he wanted the vehicle to be safe and away from the action.

"Girls!" Jackie yelled at them as he and the other three occupants of the vehicle exited it, approaching the quintet of magical protectors of Kandrakar.

"Jackie, did you call your Uncle here?" Will asked of the martial artist, who just nodded, having called the elder wizard before even exiting the parking lot of the mall.

"Yes, don't worry;" Jackie answered. "Any news about Wong?"

"He hasn't arrived yet," Cornelia answered, crossing her arms over her chest. "I feel a bit bad we've to let Ely and Alchemy by themselves in the mall," she commented.

"Hey, if we've been at the mall that old creep would have gone all magical beams in their asses," Irma told her friend. "That could've been a disaster, for them and the business. Imagine it, Corny, no more stores for you."

"Idiot," the blonde told the brunette while pocking at her head with a finger. Then she looked at Caleb, and realized that he was empty handed. "Wait, where is our shopping?"

"In Jackie's car, you Prima Dona," Jade answered before the rebel boy could say a thing. "Don't worry; your girly things are safe."

"Yeah Cornelia," Taranee entered in the conversation too. "An evil wizard from another dimension is attacking us; I think that your clothes can pass to a second plane of the story."

"Can we please focus before…?" Will started to say, but her words were cut short when she looked at the border of the building lot and saw Wong, walking slowly towards them as if he was floating over the ground, a ghost under the sun of the morning. He seemed a bit tired, not out of the physical effort, but out of the fact that he had lasted so long in reaching them.

 _It's a shame I never tried to learn the form of teleportation that Raw Magic specializes in_ , the Dark Wizard thought. _While much less risky, my own teleportation only let's me to jump to points I have already marked with a spell. Oh well, I suppose it's a thing to look to in another moment, now…_

"Guardians of Kandrakar," Wong greeted them respectfully. The fact that they had survived two incursions inside the castle was proof that, at least, they deserved that. "And others," he said directing himself to Jackie, Caleb and Blunk; then his eyes spotted Jade, and for a moment they lighted in delight and flaming energy. Alive, she was alive! If she had survived for this long… then she must be able to transform! Did she even know what she was now? Too many possibilities, he wouldn't know if his formula had been successful until he had her, but first things first… "I suppose that ordering you to surrender the Heart of Kandrakar peacefully to the Prince would fall in deaf ears, won't it?"

"I suppose that ordering you to surrender to the Rebellion and Kandrakar in order to answer for your crimes would too;" Caleb said, his right hand automatically gripping the air around his waist. Damn it, he needed a weapon, and he needed it now!

Wong laughed at that sentence, for some odd reason. "Yes, yes it will. In fact it has. Gan, Ren, Chui!" the wrinkled old wizard shouted, and at his command, his three Dark Chi Warriors materialized from thin air in clouds of smoke, each one already carrying a weapon. "Attack!"

The trio of orange-skinned demonic henchmen launched themselves towards the Guardians, who flew into the air in order to avoid the incoming attack. As per usual for him, Blunk took cover away from the main action, and if he was forced to intervene he would wait for an opportunity to strike against the enemy; Caleb was running around, avoiding strikes from Ren's flying Fuma Shuriken as he searched for something around the building lot that he could use as weaponry, but he wasn't finding anything. As for Jade, she readied for battle and prepared to jump and deliver a kick towards Gan, who was trying to strike Hay Lin with his sanjiegun; but was stopped in midair by Jackie, who grabbed her by the shoulders and then dragged her out of the battle zone, bringing her directly to near the car.

"Jackie! What're you doing?!" the girl demanded to know.

"Jade, you have to stay out of this," Jackie said, while looking back at the battle and seeing how Wong blasted beam after beam of dark chi in order to strike the girls down. Cornelia tried to counterattack by wrapping him in vines, but Wong just laughed at her display, generating a sphere of energy from within his body that freed him. "It's too dangerous!"

"But the girls are fighting too!" Jade protested.

"The girls have magic, they have strength," Jackie aid, a part of his heart wrenching upon seeing the sad expression in his niece's face upon being called weak. "I'm sorry, but I won't let you to get hurt," he sentenced, and headed back to fight, leaving Jade behind, fighting back a couple of tears.

"But I'm strong too," she said in a sad tone. "And I have magic, I do now."

* * *

 _I cannot even head back to my new store in peace, can I?_ ; Cedric thought as he watched Daolon Wong clashing with the Guardians, leaning against the side of a van he had brought to the mall in order to take the boxes full of books for ' _Ye Olde Book Shop_ '. He had taken a different road hopping to get some extra time, and instead he had passed a few streets away from the building lot where the so-called Archmage was fighting the Guardians of the Veil. Seeing the blasts of dark energy and the elements clash with each other, Cedric forced himself to park his vehicle and look at the show in the distance. He had even enjoyed the coffee with Arianna, even if he had noted a pair of young girls peeping at him from two tables away in the coffee shop. Well, at least they were more enjoyable to the eye than Arianna herself. But now he stumbled upon this. What was Wong doing in Earth? A mission from Phobos? Or maybe the old wizard had his own agenda, as Cedric did? Well, better to take an opportunity than to let it pass.

"Don't worry, my little treasures," Cedric said, patting the van full of books. "I will be back." He then roared, and in a flash of lighting, he transformed into his bestial form, and headed into the battle's direction. He hoped that his and Wong's combined forces were enough to take the Guardians out of the scene… albeit a part of him wondered if he wanted them dead. They were still useful to strengthen the Prince's paranoia...

* * *

" _This_ is what you call power over Wind?!" Wong exclaimed as he blocked a gust created by Hay Lin by raising a chi shield in front of him. "I will show you power over the Wind! Protect me, my warriors!"

The trio of warrior puppets put themselves in front of Wong, protecting him from any harm and throwing their weapons towards the quintet of girls, making them levitate and follow them in the air, the Guardians forced to scatter once more.

"And you two," Wong said as he noted how Jackie and Caleb tried to attack him physically, raising his right hand and making them levitate with a simple telekinetic spell while his left hand was moving his staff and producing runes in the air. "You two don't understand. Magic must defeat magic, and the rabble has no place in a clash between us gifted!" Wong exclaimed while sending them flying against one of the trucks stationed around the building lot. He then finished from casting the runes, creating a circle full of Cantonese symbols in front of him.

 _That looks a lot like Bai Tza's spell_ , Jackie thought remembering their clash with the Water Demon in San Francisco's subway. And in truth, it looked exactly the same, except the symbol for 'Water' had been replaced by the one of 'Wind'. _Oh no…_

"Lost Art of the Great Demon Frog number 37! Cì lóngjuǎnfēng!" Wong exclaimed, generating a dark purple tornado from the incantation circle. Hay Lin tried to fight it with her own power over wind, but in the end Wong's spell proved too strong, and the girls were sending flying and against the ground.

"He can use powers like ours too?" Taranee asked aloud, getting back to her feet just in the right moment to avoid Chui's sledgehammer and counterattack with a fireball that the orange humanoid being blocked with the end of his weapon.

"I don't know!" Will said, starting to fly again, blocking Gan's sanjiegun with some of the moves Jackie had taught her.

 _The Prince was right, the existence of the Veil has really weakened them_ ; Wong thought. _The Keeper cannot even call upon the power of Quintessence!_ Wong then felt a sudden tiredness pulling into his body. _Damn these demonic spells… I'm not as young as I was_.

Taking notice that Wong's warrior puppets had jumped again to fight against the Guardians and that the old wizard didn't seem to be in shape to cast that type of spell against them anymore, Caleb rushed towards him again. "He's tiring out, Guardians! Keep fighting!"

"I'm not tiring out," Wong said, firing another dark chi beam towards Caleb, successfully striking the rebel leader, albeit noting how this attack had been considerably weaker than before. _Damn it, I really am tiring!_

"Keep pressing him!" Will told her teammates. "Caleb's right, he's beginning to weaken!"

 _And damn to all creation these users of Raw Magic_! Wong yelled into his own mind. _Perhaps I was reckless coming here all by myself, these five are still attached to the Heart of Kandrakar, Veil weakening them or not… and I had lost track of the girl!_

Wong raised his staff and generated another shield, this one in time to bloke a torrent of flames created by Taranee. This time, however, the shield cracked and broke, sending Wong flying backwards.

"Irma, Cornelia! With me against his minions! Taranee, Hay Lin, offense!" Will ordered his companions, who obeyed instantaneously, the Earth and Water Guardians aiding her leader against the trio, while Taranee and Hay Lin combined their elements against Wong, who this time had to put his entire effort in his sphere of energy in order to survive.

 _No time to conjure another spell of the Demon Sorcerers..._ ; Wong thought as he started to sweat under the storm of flames. _Or to regain some stamina…_ ; he looked in the direction of his three dark chi warriors, still fresh and fighting the other three Guardians. _They haven't spent enough time out… just another minute…_

The storm of flames dissipated, Taranee and Hay Lin a bit tired too. Wong was still on his feet, but he was sweating and panting over the ground, his tiredness clearly visible. _Damn it… Damn it all!_ , the dark Wizard thought.

"We got him, everyone!" Will said. "Cornelia, wrap him-!"

"Will! Careful!" the blonde yelled at her, just in time for the redhead to evade a falling concrete mixer that fell to the ground instead of crushing her.

"What the-?!" Irma yelled, just to be answered to her not phrased question by the sound of a thundering roar in the distance. Looking to the border of the building lot, everyone of the presence looked in horror at how Lord Cedric entered in the zone, having already declared his intentions with the throwing of that machine towards the Guardians. "Great, the giant snake monster, just what we needed."

"Take out Wong; don't let them to join forces!" Will commanded, but it was too late. The dark Chi Warriors had spent enough time out of the pocket dimension Wong kept them in. Time was up for the three warriors, and on for Daolon Wong.

"Come back!" Wong yelled, and the trio of humanoid warriors went poof, their smoke going back inside Wong's staff. Instantaneously, Wong's body was enveloped in a dark aura, and then his skin changed color, as did his eyes, his tattoos lighting in purplish light as they had done in their battle in the dungeons. The Dark Wizard floated over the ground slightly, stretching his limbs, tiredness completely gone. " ** _Much better! Lord Cedric! Wrap them around; I will reduce them to ashes!_** " Wong didn't know exactly why the Lord was here, but he wasn't going to miss the opportunity to have a little aid. Cedric was no Tracker, the old wizard was sure of that, but at least they could collaborate. And unfortunately for the girls, Jackie and Caleb, the Snake of Cavigor thought exactly the same about the Archmage.

Cedric roared again and swung his tail against his foes, effectively striking Jackie and Caleb down. As Will and Cornelia lowered themselves to ground level in order to help them, the other three girls tried to land some blows into Cedric, but their attacks just disappeared once they hit his scales. The Lord swung his claws around, just for them the girls to evade them. Then he swung his tail again, effectively taking the girls to the ground. "Wong!" the Lord yelled. As Cedric had been dealing with the girls, Wong had started to cast another conjuration circle, this one with a symbol Jackie recognized as the one of 'Fire' instead of 'Wind'.

 _Oh no, don't tell me…_ , Jackie thought, but it was too late to find cover, Wong had ended the casting of his spell.

" ** _Lost Art of the Great Demon Dragon number 53! Ránshāo dì dìyù!_** " Wong shouted, and from the circle a torrent of dark purple flames even greater than the flame storm than Taranee and Hay Lin had created shot towards the Guardians and the two human males. Everyone closed their eyes, awaiting the hit… that didn't come. Instead, Jackie and the rest heard the chant of ' _Yu Mo Gui Gwai Fai Di Zao_ ' across the air, and found themselves surrounded by a thick green bubble made of pure energy that had protected them from the attack. Once it stopped, Wong and Cedric looked dumbfounded at their still living enemies.

" ** _What?!_** " Wong shrieked, and Cedric pointed towards a spot in the building lot, where Uncle and Tohru stood over one leg, holding each one a bell enveloped in the usual green color of their chi magic, chanting in order to cast the shield.

" ** _Xiao Tong's_** ** _Defense of Three Pillars?!_** " Wong questioned, albeit a part of him wasn't very surprised that the apprentice of the deceased Chi Master Fong was able to cast such a complicated spell.

"Daolon Wong is not only one that has studied ancient spells!" Uncle yelled towards the other elder. "Jackie! Why did you rush to battle without Uncle! Magic must defeat magic! You only trouuuuuuubled Guardians! One more thing! Why didn't you tell Uncle that Daolon Wong knew ancient spells of Demon Sorcerers! One more thing! Evade attack of snake Changeling!"

Jackie, Caleb and the girls took notice of Cedric's incoming tail, and the two humans ran out of its way while the Guardians flew and started to attack Cedric.

"Ice! Wrap him in ice!" Taranee yelled, hoping that, like any other reptile, Cedric was coldblooded. Irma shot a torrent of water towards the Snake of Cavigor, and in the following moment Hay Lin raised a current of cold air towards the Lord, freezing him. It didn't last long, as in mere seconds Cedric flexed his muscled and shattered the ice trapping him, looking more annoyed than damaged.

"How tough is this guy?!" Irma complained.

Cedric roared once again, swinging his tail against the five Guardians, who had started to maintain a distance from the Lord, attacking him from where his tail couldn't reach them. Cornelia wrapped him in vines from the ground, and Taranee, Hay Lin and Irma started to blast him with their own magic. It proved rather futile though, as Cedric scales seemed to be as thick and resilient as steel.

Meanwhile, as Tohru approached and helped Jackie and Caleb up, Uncle readied for another duel against the still transformed Wong, who waited for him grinning like a madman.

" ** _I'm sure you remember our last encounter while I was in this form_** ;" Wong told the other wizard, who quietly readied his blowfish.

"Oh, Uncle remembers. Painfully even," the Chinese elder said while rubbing the back of his neck, earning a grin from Wong. In his current estate the Archmage of Phobos' court looked more like a demonic entity than a human being. "The real question is, does Daolon Wong remember?"

" ** _What does that mean?_** " Wong asked, his grin slowly being replaced by a frown.

"Oh, don't you want to find out?" Uncle asked, the grin now being his.

" ** _Arrogant fool!_** " Wong shrieked, pointing his staff towards Uncle and charging a spell. " ** _Do you remember this? Fǔxiǔ de shìjiè!_** "

The black beam shot from the old wizard's staff, but instead of trying to block it like he did last time, Uncle pointed his blowfish to the ground, and shot a powerful and green beam of chi from it. Uncle elevated himself in the air with that, letting Wong's to pass him and lose itself in the distance. In the air, Uncle amassed chi in his blowfish and shot it towards Wong, striking him and sending him a few meters back, fuming from the impact. But the old Chan didn't finish there, instead shooting a new gust of smaller blasts while falling to the ground, forcing Wong to stay on the defense and lose even more ground.

"Of course Uncle remembers," the old man told Wong. "But he has learned from that encounter. If Wong's magic can't reach Uncle it won't work, no matter how strong it is. One more thing! Wong can't use that spell repeatedly, even in that form," Uncle then blasted Wong again. "One more thing! That form is only temporal!"

" ** _What?!_** " Wong shrieked once again. _How does he know?!_

"No magic grants a human that power without a complicated casting!" Uncle explained, having perfectly deduced how Wong's alternate form worked. "Wong always calls upon his warriors to transform! But he doesn't do it immediately, not even when he's losing! Conclusion!" Uncle evaded another of Wong's attacks; this one, a rather simple, even if overcharged, magic beam. "Wong can only last in that form as much time as his Dark chi Warriors had spent fighting in the material world!"

" ** _Impudent novice…_** " Wong hatefully muttered through gritted teeth. " ** _You won't defeat me! I am the Archmage of Meridian; I am the pinnacle of Earth's Chi Magic! I know spells that had been lost for entire millennia! I won't lose to a paltry excuse of a wizard that kneeled in front of the rabble!_** "

"Rabble?" Uncle asked. "Is that how Wong thinks about the people of Earth just because Magic has changed with it? Would Daolon Wong see the world crumble to the Dark Ages just for regaining his place in it?"

" ** _The Dark Ages were pretty brilliant for the likes of us,_** " Wong declared proudly, while Uncle just shook his head sadly.

"No, they were dark for everyone," Uncle declared. "Magic must evolve with the people that use it. It doesn't matter how powerful you are or how much you can extend your own life. If you don't change, you will see yourself as the only remnant of an age long forgotten. New generations must take the place of the old in order for all of us to evolve together."

" ** _Ha! Don't tell me you really believe that, you pathetic fool!_** " Wong spat venomously. " ** _How can you prove that?!_** "

"Oh, apprentice! I you will be so kind…" Uncle called, and then Wong heard the chant of ' _Yu Mo Gui Gwai Fai Di Zao_ ' once again, just for being hit by one of Tohru's chi beams next.

" ** _Argh!_** " Wong exclaimed. " ** _You will have to do better than…!_** " before the Dark Wizard could answer, the fists of both Caleb and Jackie came directly to his face, hitting him and sending him flying.

"And one more thing! Daolon Wong seems to gain magical might with that form, but no physical strength!" Uncle took his hands to his back and shook his head comically, mocking Wong. "Even Uncle still trains from time to time… and you will be lucky if you can last two seconds against my apprentice in a physical confrontation!"

"Get a hold of yourssssssself, Wong!" Cedric hissed while continuing his fight against the Guardians, but then an enormous pillar of rock shot from the round, hitting him in the chin and sending the Snake of Cavigor to the ground too, the taste of fresh blood filling his mouth as a few lines of the red liquid fell from between his fangs and lips. He spat blood on the ground, and narrowed his eyes to the Guardians, hissing with anger.

"That's for ruining my shopping day with my friends!" Cornelia declared as she and the other Guardians landed at the side of the three men of the Chan Clan and Caleb.

"We… we made it!" Taranee said in pure awe. "We're winning!"

 _Maybe this is the time for a withdrawal_ , Cedric thought as he glanced to Wong, who seemed to have fallen into a state of perpetual frowning. _This is not my mission, anyway_.

" ** _Shìfàng nèibù de lìliàng_** ," the Dark Wizard muttered then. " ** _Yídòng xīngxīng!_** " he yelled as he nailed his staff in the ground and started to cast another conjuration circle, this one with both hands. The circle grew and casted itself over the guardians, the three members of the Chan Clan and Caleb. " ** _You think that your 'new' is better than my 'old', Good Wizard?! Let's hear that claim after this!_** "

"Uncle?" Jackie called the old man for help, but the elder wizard just stared in fear to the runes over them. The symbol for 'Moon' appeared over their heads as quick as a flash of lighting.

"Take cover!" Uncle yelled, but it was too late.

" ** _Useless!_** " Wong yelled as he laughed madly. " ** _Lost Art of the Great Demon Emperor of the Moon! Number 99! Final Art!_** "

" **Qiūjì** "

There was a sudden burst of energy from the conjuration circle, and the gravity itself pledged to Wong's will, crushing the area around the Dark Wizard's foes. Guardians, wizards, Kung-Fu fighter and rebel fell to the ground, unable to move or even breathe under the pressure the gravitons were inflecting upon them. When the spell ended the specific area of the building lot they had been standing moments ago seemed to have been hit by a meteor, leaving them plastered to the ground in a crater. Wong returned to his regular form slowly, clearly tired to the extreme, decades since his last serious duel, when he had killed Fong. Yet he was clearly delighted by the turn of events, not only he was going to be able to retrieve his 'Patient Zero', but he was going to get rid of two rival Wizards, the rebel leader, and the Guardians! Though he suspected that Cedric was going to take the merit about that last one; since the Lord was now approaching the fallen girls, taking the Water Guardian in one of his claws and holding her in front of his face, fangs showing in a sadistic smile.

"Never in my entire life I thought that I could eat a Guardian!" the Snake of Cavigor remarked gleefully, opening his jaw and making Irma approach it. Jackie and the rest tried to come to their feet, but they felt as if their bodies weighted five tons. Tso Lan had been probably the most powerful Demon Sorcerer in terms of sheer destruction capability and reach of element. Fire, Thunder? Tso Lan controlled _gravity_ , and Jackie never had thought how dangerous that could make anyone with that power. Tso Lan could move the moon out of its orbit, and Wong had access to one of his spells. A part of Jackie felt lucky that the Moon Demon never thought about using his powers to turn him inside out. But he had to move now, a girl, a girl no older than Jade was going to be eaten by a monster! Jade… Jade, where was Jade?

"Any last wordsssss, Guardian?" Cedric asked to Irma, who felt incredibly weak right now.

"I… hope I give you diarrhea…" Irma joked weakly. If this was going to be her last sentence, she wanted it to be a joke, she had always wanted for her last sentence to be a joke. She found that cool, for some reason. However, as she found herself mere centimeters away from Cedric's mouth, the Lord decided to stop his meal suddenly, instead opting for starting to sniff the air.

"What now Cedric?" Wong inquired. "If you are not going to eat her, at least crush her in your claws."

"This smell…" Cedric hissed, sniffing the air even more.

"It's probably a Passling," Wong commented. "I saw one when entering…"

"No, that's not it," Cedric remarked. "This smells like… mammal?"

What followed happened in the timeframe of a minute. Irma saw something jumping from behind her, from behind the whole group actually. At first she only saw something similar to a black blur, and she heard a howl across the skies. Next thing she knew was that she was in the ground again, Cedric having released her from his grip. Then she heard the Snake of Cavigor roar in what sounded like pain… and another roar answering it, even more feral, more ferocious. And then another howl cut the silence. She raised her head slightly from the ground, as did all her companions and friends.

And she saw a wolf. Or what she supposed was a wolf. It was too big to be a normal one, the fur too thick and black, the fangs too sharp, and the claws too long, nailing in the nude rock of the ground. And the eyes, the gold-like amber eyes… that seemed familiar?

"Another Shapeshifter…" Caleb said in the back of the lines, despise upon saying that last word. Yet there was something strange here, because as he focused his sight upon Cedric, he saw how one of his forearms had been bitted by the wolf, and was now dripping blood all over the ground. The fangs of the mammal best had been slightly painted in red. _It broke through Cedric's scales? More important, it seems…_

"Is he on our side?" Hay Lin asked, still recuperating from the headache that the crushing gravity of the Dark Wizard had left over her.

"I'm not a 'he'," the wolf answered, the voice of the Shapeshifter a mix between a growl and a childlike voice… that all the present knew all too well. "Now, you two stay away from them!"

"That's you, isn't it?" Wong inquired, inspecting the new arrival. "It worked. My formula worked! I created an artificial Shapeshifter! I'm a GENIUS!"

"You did this to me?!" the wolf demanded to know, her sentence an angry bark.

"Of course," Wong said. "And you are so glorious! The first of a legion to come!"

"You gave them a mammal Shapeshifter?!" Cedric shrieked. "Don't you know what mammalsssss are able to do?!"

"Well, I didn't know what she would turn out to be when injected with the formula…" Wong admitted sincerely.

"We will talk about thissssss when we are back at court, wizard;" Cedric declared, already thinking of what effect this affair would have upon Phobos' already deranged mind.

"Jade?"

Turning back, the girl transformed into a wolf looked at Jackie. He was looking at her with an expression that mixed surprise, sadness, worry, fear and another range of emotions she couldn't identify. The expression of Uncle and Tohru weren't much different. The girls wore similar expressions, albeit much more simple ones than the ones of her uncles and Tohru. Irma and Hay Lin seemed even delighted to see her friend transformed into a giant wolf. The rebel leader was showing surprise, pure utter shock. She didn't know what to say in this kind of situation, so she turned for the usual.

"Hi Jackie. Hi girls."

 _This has complicated beyond my expectations…_ ; Cedric thought, narrowing his eyes at the new foe. He glanced towards his wounded arm, the regenerative abilities of his bestial form already taking care of his wounds, albeit not as fast as he would like. He knew that if he shifted back to human form he would surely regenerate, but he didn't want to reveal his mask to them. This new Shapeshifter seemed to be in the same stage of her growth as Miranda was, thus her bestial form was bigger than any man, but not as massive as Cedric's. There were some times in which he wondered how large and strong Miranda would get to be when reaching adulthood, and she was just an arachnid. This one was a mammal, a wolf! She had wounded him, HIM! With little more than a bite, no less! _I'm clearly tired from this fight…_ "Wong! We must retreat!"

"Nonsense!" Wong said, raising his staff and lighting it in dark energy. "She is coming back with us to my laboratory!" Wong yelled while shooting a beam of dark chi towards Jade, taking advantage of her being distracted. The beam struck Jade, making her loved ones to wide their eyes in horror. However, the atream shattered against her fur.

"Tch! You'll have to do better than, old ass!" the wolf Shapeshifter yelled towards Wong, and rushed towards him. More motivated by instinct than by any desire to protect his companion, Cedric tried to intercept Jade's attack, meeting her head on. The two beasts roared, and Cedric caught Jade between his arms and chest, trying to squeeze her with his sheer strength. However, Jade moved and struggle to get free, finally being able to move one of her hands and slash the Lord across the face, making him roar in pain again and dirty his vision with the blood from the wound. Jade used this opportunity to free herself from the grip and bounce back to the ground, where she eyed Wong with feral fury.

"Like said," Jade growled as her face became a snarl. She instinctively licked the remaining blood over her fangs. "You'll have to do better, old man."

"Oh, I can do better," Wong said, readying the few magic power he had left in his body. "The question is, can you?"

This shot didn't head towards Jade, instead targeting the injured and still recovering Guardians. The wolf jumped back towards them, and put her body in the way of the attack, shielding them with her own body.

"Jade!" Jackie yelled with concern, his eyes bulging. "Stop it!"

"Don't worry Jackie," Jade told her uncle. "I'll…" she said as Wong fired more beams in pure glee, witnessing how his creation was resisting against him, but also noting how she had started to struggle. "I'll protect you…"

Wong charged the strongest chi beam he could call on in his current condition. Sometimes, the simplest spells were the most useful ones. "Let's see how you handle this, little wolf!" Wong said as he shot with all his power. Instead of trying to avoid it, Jade met the blast head on trying to dissipate it with her body. This wasn't proving as easy as the others. This one hurt, it was hurting a lot.

"Jade!" Jackie shouted in concern once again, gathering enough strength to come to his feet, and then heading towards his transformed niece. Jade saw this, and concern burned inside her heart too. He shouldn't do that, this was dangerous! She was the one with a super-strong wolf form now, not him. She didn't want him hurt; she didn't want any of them hurt! She howled once again. And this time it wasn't worry that burned within her soul… but pure rage and anger towards Wong.

" ** _I'LL PROTECT YOU ALL!_** "

There was the sound of something cracking, like thunder breaking the start of a storm, and a sudden change in the air, and then there was an explosion that sent Jackie flying backwards and to the ground. Everyone in of the people there looked how Jade's black-furred body started to be enveloped by a white aura, an aura the grew and grew until it literally crashed Wong's beam of dark chi into oblivion. Jade raised her head to the blue skies of Heatherfield and howled again, but this time her howl was much stronger and sonorous, even cracking the ground beneath her. Her eyes flashing in pure animalistic wrath, the black wolf roared in feral, animalistic anger towards the Dark Wizard, and rushed towards him with her fangs opened.

Fear. Now Daolon Wong felt fear, the unmistakable emotion crawling in the back of his skull. This wasn't something that any Shapeshifter could do, or at least that he knew. Wong's face paled even more (if that was even possible) due to the prospect of being hit by the incoming howling, out of control beast. So naturally, he raised an spherical defense barrier around himself. A barrier that was shattered to pieces once Jade clashed with it. No, not shattered, Wong noted. Just... erased; eaten away by the white aura surrounding the black-furred wolf.

 _Chi degradation?!_ ; Wong thought with pure fear, realizing both what and who he was facing. To whom he had granted shapeshifting abilities. _Ben-Shui?! Impossible!_

Jade's roar was deafening, and her left claw moved fast, slashing Wong across the chest and sending him both flying and bleeding. Jade howled again and licked her lips, pleased by having struck her enemy... her prey, she remarked in her head, down.

"Wong, you fool!" Cedric roared; a claw over his face, which wound had almost healed now. Wong wasn't lucky, still bleeding from Jade's attack. "I'm still your superior, and I'm ordering our retreat! Take ussss out of here!"

Wong pulled a small flask full of purple liquid out of his pocket and smashed it against the floor, purple smoke enveloping him and the Snake of Cavigor, teleporting them away to the Portal Wong had come from.

That action left Jade alone in the battlefield, and her friends and family looking at her, not knowing exactly what to do, say, or even thought. Only Uncle seemed to understand what had happened, and that fact probably make him feel even more worried than the rest. _No, it's too soon_ , the elder thought with concern. _Too soon..._

Meanwhile Jade, or rather the black wolf, howled again and licked the blood over her claws. The white aura dissipated from around her body and she started to clean her paws and claws in the ground.

"Jade?"

Looking up, Jade saw Jackie approaching her, the Guardians near him. Their faces showed merely concern, but then she focused in Caleb, who behind them still maintained a combat position. Who did he believed he was, doing that, looking at her with those eyes? The wolf growled between greeted teeth, then the claws scratched ground.

"Jade, it's us. We're your friends, remember?" Will said in a friendly voice.

The wolf tilted her head. Will? Will was... important, yes. And Irma, and Taranee, and Hay Lin and Cornelia... yes, those were important. Those... those and...

"Uncle... Jackie?" Jade asked, instead of the wolf.

"Yes, it's me;" Jackie told her.

Jade tilted her head again, and closed her eyes. Then her body contorted, and the wolf became a ball of black fur that decreased in size until it receded to be nothing but the girl's usual black bangs of hair. However, her human form had retained the blood over both her hands and mouth. Only now Jade seemed to realize the estate she was in. She looked at her hands, and tasted the flavor of the now almost dried liquid in her mouth. The flavor and sight of a blood that wasn't hers.

"Did I..." the girl asked weakly. "Did I kill someone?"

"No!" Irma denied at the top of her lungs. "No, you saved us. You saved me."

Jade smiled, that was really good news. Yet she felt a ton of weight over her shoulders now. Not knowing any other course of action, Jade let her body to decide. And the world turned to darkness.

Jackie rushed towards her, and took her head before it hit the ground. The five Guardians, Uncle and Tohru approached the scene; the elder automatically kneeled before her and checked her vitals.

"Caleb!" the rebel leader heard the Passling calling for him, reaching to his side. "Did Guardians won?"

Caleb looked around, the zone completely trashed, and then his eyes focused in the girl covered in blood in the arms of her uncle. "I don't know."

* * *

 ** _Hours later; Silver Dragon_**

Jade was sleeping now. Good, that was good. However, everyone could see that this wasn't a normal sleeping. She was lying over a small mattress over the floor of the basement of Yan Lin's restaurant, clad in her pajamas; and surrounding her was a circle of runes that Uncle and Tohru had drawn around her that was lighting in green chi from time to time. Night was starting to fall, and yet the five girls that composed the Guardians (now back into their civilian forms) hadn't moved an inch from Jade's side since their return from the building lot. They had even asked permission to their families to spend the night here keeping company to Jade by lying about having a small sleepover. Of course, their mothers had accepted, after all there was nothing wrong with spending a night with one's friends; and neither had minded Jackie. A part of him was incredibly glad that Jade had made friends with these girls so fast. Back in San Francisco she never was a girl to have too many friends of her age, mainly due to her claims about Magic being real. Here… Here that wasn't the case. And for that very same reason he had decided that remaining in Heatherfield was the best for her. Another art of him… just saw the state she was in through his eyes and called him a fool from within his head.

"How is she?" the archeologist asked his elderly Uncle, who stood silently over the sleeping girl, supervising the circle of runes.

"Stable," Uncle answered. "Runes in circle mimic an ancient ritual. They should make her able to stabilize herself. Until that happens, she will remain sleep, dreaming. Circle of runes must not be touched under any circumstance."

"Understood," Taranee answered, being more or less the only one of the girls beside Cornelia that wasn't too driven by concern to not being able to speak. Speaking of the blonde, she had headed outside with Caleb; the rebel leader having said that he was going back to his room now that everything here had been settled. More or less.

"Sensei," Tohru broke into the conversation, and the elder knew exactly what his apprentice was going to ask. "That white aura… that white _chi_ , what was that? These runes that we have drawn, they are part of a ritual, an ancient one. You know what that was."

"Uncle?" Jackie asked, but the elder continued in silence, just looking at the face of the young, unconscious girl. "Uncle?!"

"The white aura that we saw earlier was surely part of a skill called 'Chi degradation'. It is... part of a school of magic practiced by Ben-Shui Monks that specializes in completely nullifying the effects of dark chi… or any form of Chi Magic, for that matter."

"How… how can Jade do that, Sensei?" Tohru asked. "How do you know about that?"

"In order to guarantee that his knowledge wasn't lost in time and that the battle against the forces of evil could continue," Uncle explained. "Ben-Shui himself, the founder of the order, made a deal with the Heart of Earth of that time… and she supposedly granted his spirit the ability to reincarnate once he died. And so, since centuries ago, in the moment the current leader of the order dies, the monks search for the next incarnation in order to awaken the memories and powers of previous incarnitons within him… or her."

"Oh please, tell me you are joking, Uncle;" Jackie pleaded, but his elder's face was incredibly serious. "Oh God, you aren't."

"Monks contacted Uncle almost a year ago," Uncle explained. "Told me that they had felt next incarnation of their founder within our home. It couldn't have been neither Uncle or Jackie, we are too old… and since Tohru was still being in the service of the evil British-man the only one around at that time that met all requisites was…"

"Jade," Jackie ended the phrase for Uncle, but then his face turned into a furious frown. "Wait, that means you have known this for months! Why didn't you tell me?!"

"Because no one was ready! Every reincarnation must choose a Champion in order to defend him or her!" Uncle yelled. "Nephew wasn't ready, Tohru wasn't ready, and Uncle's too old! And she!" he said pointing at Jade. "She wasn't ready to bear that burden!"

"Then why now?" Tohru asked.

"Whatever Daolon Wong did to transform niece into a Changeling," Uncle said, kneeling beside the circle of runes and checking it, the energy within flowing appropriately. "It also forced the awakening of her abilities as the current incarnation of the Ben-Shui Chosen One."

"And you can't… just cure her of it?" Jackie asked, and for a moment Uncle seemed in the verge of dope slapping him, but he stopped, realizing that Jackie had asked just out of concern.

"No," Uncle answered. "Her new state as a Changeling is now bound to her chi, even empowered by her awakening as the new incarnation of the wise Ben-Shui. There is no cure, not going back. Jade must now face her past incarnations, come to understand and accept her role in the design of the cosmos… and of course learn how to use her powers properly."

"So Jade's basically Aang now," Irma commented. "Wonder if we'll cross paths with a lightning shooter evil genius girl…"

Jackie looked at Will, the redhead practically not blinking upon watching Jade. "Will… Will, thank you for staying here with her during night."

"Uhm?" the redhead inquired, needing various seconds to focus on Jackie. "It's nothing really; she would do the same for any of us."

"And she's family," Hay Lin said. "Grandma says that family cares about each other."

At that sentence, Jackie couldn't avoid a smile.

* * *

Up the stairs and out in the streets, Cornelia was seeing Caleb packing things again, while Blunk moved around, sniffing in order to find a Portal. The rebel leader had given the blonde her shopping bags back, and now was putting his own bag at his back.

"So you really are going," Cornelia commented, leaning against the frame of the door of the restaurant. The rebel leader noticed her presence, and looked back at her.

"I have to go back," Caleb answered. "Meridian will need all the help it can get if Phobos is going to have an army of Shapeshifters at his disposal, and after Wong and Cedric's defeat, the court will surely be a mess. The rebellion…"

"The Rebellion must take advantage of that, yes;" Cornelia ended for him, surprising him slightly. "Read about in one of dad's history books. Have a good trip."

"Thank you," Caleb said, and turned around. However, Cornelia's voice came shortly afterwards, stopping him.

"Caleb, wait…" the Earth Guardian called for him. "How… how are Shapeshifters viewed within the Rebellion?"

Caleb froze for a second before turning and looking back at the blonde, ready to answer sincerely. "That… that depends to who you ask. Shapeshifters are viewed rather badly within the Rebellion. But I know that there are people within the rebels that tolerate them, or that directly don't care about that. One of our commanders, Rhouglar, is an example of that. Others like Drake, who had his own mother killed in front of him by Cedric, openly said that there should be no difference between Shapeshifters and the rest of the meridianites," Caleb explained. _And I'm starting to think that I should pay more attention to what that man says_ , he added in his thoughts. "I myself haven't held them in what you would call a pedestal; mainly because of Cedric's existence… and it's true that even in the times of Queen Weira they were view as second-class citizens." _And then there is Tharquin, calling them abominations in his speeches… and what the rumors say he does to the ones he captures. I doubt Sephiria and her faith are much better regarding Shapeshifters, and now we have one in our side._

Cornelia heard the explanation of the rebel boy silently, her face showing the range of emotions that had passed over her after each word. "Thank you for explaining me that," she thanked the rebel leader, the man she still had a crush upon, albeit now that feeling was considerably mitigated, buried under the imposing weight of her worry for Jade.

"It's nothing," the rebel told her. "I should be leaving now, I'm certain Blunk must have found a Portal already."

"Caleb," Cornelia said one last time, and her voice sounded serious now, threatening even. "If some of your rebels ever try to do something to Jade, if only one of them tries to touch a single hair of her hair in some bad way…" Cornelia turned around, and the ground cracked slightly as she passed over it. "I'll bury them alive." And with that last sentence, Cornelia Hale disappeared across the door of the Silver Dragon, leaving Caleb to part in the company of Blunk towards the Portal.

"Has Caleb told blonde girl he loves her?" Blunk asked the boy after a while, almost making him tumble and fall to the ground.

"What?"

"The Earth girl," the Passling said. "Caleb likes her, Blunk knows!"

"That's not it," Caleb told his small, green companion. _But you liked her when she hit Cedric with that big rock, didn't you?_ A voice said in his head. True, women in Meridian, especially the ones who possessed some type of magic didn't take part in direct confrontation. It was part of Meridian's own culture, mainly because of the influence the Queens of Escanor that ruled with immense magical power have had over the culture of their realm. Men were supposed to wield the iron in battle, women to use magic as healers, guides, rulers… or the three of them. The Guardians had proven an exception, as they had magic, but they fought as much (if not more) than him. And today he had seen Cornelia knocking Cedric, something that no other rebel had been able to do, and that had made him to look at her… in a different light. He had thought that she looked radiant in that moment. Perhaps there was some feeling? No, it must be just thankfulness and admiration.

"Don't be stupid Blunk," Caleb told the green dwarf. "Let's go back to Meridian; the Portal must be around here." _I wonder how the court and the Prince would react to Wong's actions…_

Before crossing the swirling blue hole in the Veil that Blunk had located, however, a final thought, a memory actually; passed over Caleb's mind. It had been years ago, when both the Rebellion and him were still young. He and his father had passed over one of Ser Tharquin's speeches. ' _Abominations! Horrors of an unnatural provenance! Those and more are the Shapeshifters!_ '; he had heard the Old Worm yell, gaining some nods from the crowd around. A part of him, having been told about Cedric's deeds in the battlefield, had agreed too. But now, now a voice came to his head while remembering about the speech.

 _That's not an abomination_ ; said the voice, strangely similar to his father's, he noted. _That's just a girl_.

* * *

 ** _Across the Veil, World of Meridian, Throne Room_**

"YOU GAVE MY ENEMIES A SHAPESHIFTER?!"

Phobos' scream echoed across the throne room, almost shaking the structure of the castle due to the amount of power he had siphoned inside his body. Raising from is throne and flanked by Lothar and another middle aged man dressed in dark bluish robes with short auburn hair and a trimmed beard of the same color adorning his jaw; Phobos materialized a scepter full of energy in his left hand. In the center of the throne room, Daolon Wong, his torso already bandaged and treated, awaited kneeled for the his penitence, albeit he tried to excuse his actions.

"But my Prince Phobos," Wong stated. "It was necessary, without that my formula…"

"EXCUSES!" Phobos screamed, and pointed the scepter towards Wong, shooting a yellowish lightning towards the wizard and electrocuting him. "EXCUSES, EXCUSES ALL OF THEM!"

"My Prince…!" Wong yelled in pain. "But I succeeded, succeeded!"

"My Lord," the man at Phobos right, the one in the dark bluish robes, spoke. For the way he said those words and how he directed to the Prince, it was clear that he was a noble of some kind. "Please, this is unnecessary. Wong only had the best interests of the court in mind."

Phobos let the words to sink into him, and slowly calmed down; stopped the stream of yellow lightning and teleported the scepter away. "Yes! Yes… thank you, Viscount Servantis. Once again your counsel is appreciated."

"I live to serve the crown," the noble, the Viscount, said with a respectful and small bow of his head.

"As for you Wong," Phobos declared, referring to the wizard in the center of the room, still recuperating from the lightning that had gone through his body. "You will return to your work, at least take something favorable from the fact that you have given my enemies a weapon!"

"Yes, my liege, my lord…" Wong said, getting to his feet. "But, I will need young…"

"Take the sons and daughters of the villagers that refused to pay the taxes to the crown," Phobos ordered. "Open pregnant mothers alive and take the children from inside them if necessary, but give me my Shapeshifter army!"

"Yes…" Wong said, withdrawing from the throne room, shamed by his current condition and previous defeat. "Yes, my prince Phobos." Wong said, albeit in his words was clear that there was less respect in them for the Prince than before.

"I should go too, my liege;" Lothar addressed Phobos. "Preparations for tomorrow's execution should be done; with your permission, of course."

Phobos started to descend the stairs that leaded to his throne; and he made a gesture of approval with his hand. "You may go, Captain. Viscount, let's end discussing matters about Torus Filney while having dinner."

Lothar bowed in respect and headed out of the room, while Servantis followed Phobos to one of the room's side doors, crossing it and acceding to the Prince's private dining chamber. There, a table had already been prepared; food all over it ready to be served and eaten. Phobos had also made the servants to bring a bottle of wine for each of them, because even if he didn't know about the Viscount, he needed a drink after today.

"My Prince, about Torus Filney…" Viscount Servantis started to say in the moment him and Phobos took their seats and started to eat.

Phobos chuckled while serving himself a drink. "Always direct to the point, Roderick. I would lie if I said I don't like that fact about you. How much I have hoped for the other members of the nobility to be like you."

"My Lord; that may be an exaggeration, you know the nobility has always been in your side," Servantis explained. _At least the part that didn't side with your mother_ , he added in his thoughts. "As for me, you know I always have the best of the realm in mind." _Because someone has to_ , Roderick added in his thoughts again. _In total opposite sides, but your mother and you have been the same for us. As for the Rebellion… humpf! As dangerous as you or your foolish progenitor, I must add._

"Let's speak then, Viscount. How does your little project at Torus Filney progress?" the Prince inquired.

"Adequately," the Viscount answered. "The great city you let me and my peers build there has been done in a record time, and you granting us permission to build our main defense systems around the existence of Sandpit has been a total blessing. Many members of the smallfolk already see the sand creature as a protector of the city."

"I suppose that's some good news," Phobos said as he practically took the whole cup of wine in one gulp. "I hope this doesn't turn out like what happened back in Carhaiz."

"It won't," Roderick Servantis said with all his conviction. "The rebels won't be as lucky as they were back there, I swear. Changing the subject, about that girl the Archmage granted Shapeshifting abilities…"

"What about her?" Phobos said as he emptied the bottle of wine he had for himself. Servantis hadn't even touched his!

"The Rebellion has… _problems_ with Shapeshifters;" Servantis explained. "The fact that the Guardians of Kandrakar had now one of them between their lines could play to our advantage; generate discord between them and the rebels. Those peasants won't be able to fight much more without their aid, and in the moment we found their base…"

"They will be wiped out," Phobos said, smiling at the prospect of finally getting rid of that problem. "Excellent idea, Viscount. More wine!"

The Prince and the Viscount continued their dinner in peace as they discussed about the kingdom and the situation the war was in. From time to time, a chubby woman with brown hair approached the table either to bring more wine for the two attendants, or serve another plate and take the ones that had been emptied. This woman, Trill, was really o other than Nerissa Crossnic, concealing her appearance with a glamour spell and spying in the Prince by herself. After Vathek's almost banishment she knew that the blue Galhot won't be able to move as freely as before. The coming execution Lothar had organized was proof of it. As she entered the chamber once again with a plate full of small fruits that resembled green apples covered in some kind of sweet marmalade of some kind; she noticed that someone was missing at the table. In fact, she had noticed that Lord Cedric haven't been seen at the castle in the entire day, and there were no news about him taking on a platoon and heading towards the battle field of some poor village. That only could mean…

 _Ah, so the little Prince has opted to send the Snake to tempt the Princess and bring her home_ , Nerissa thought with glee and awe. _Finally, my plan is starting to come into fruition. Eat and gloat as you can, Phobos. And enjoy your new role as much as you can, my dear little Guardians. Because in the moment the dust settles, the only one that will stand victorious will be me. Only Nerissa_.

* * *

 ** _Across the Veil, Heatherfield, Ye Olde Book Shop_**

"And… Tolkien goes here. Have sweet dreams, Professor;" Cedric said to a tome of the _Silmarillion_ as he put it in a bookshelf. Those were becoming incredibly popular s of lately, something to do with an upcoming movie, or TV series, or something… whatever, it meant people buying the book. The Shapeshifter looked around and sighed over the fact that other three fourths of the books he had brought with him were still in their boxes, and that he was opening tomorrow. Great, just what he needed! Why was he so compulsive to do things this way? Well, mother had taught him in hat matter. After all, his two greatest passions had always been literature and the subtle art of deception. He supposed he could let the organizing of the store for tomorrow… he really wasn't in the mood for this now. He picked one of the books from one of the boxes and sat in a couch in the back of the shop. He had read it already… but he supposed it was good for a relaxing night. If he had to pick any book personally now, he could choose…

A buzzing sound was heard across the shop then, accompanied by the greenish light characteristic of any teleportation. Ah, as punctual as always. _Like a clock_ ; Cedric thought as he sat up and headed to the entrance. "Hello, big brother."

"Hello Cedric," Charles Ludmoore, recently teleported to the shop said, leaving a book over the main table of the shop. "It seems you had a very busy day. One of my flying gargoyles surveyed the fight you and Wong had with the Guardians."

"So you know about the wolf," Cedric said. "Well, you save me from an explanation that way."

"It's an interesting development," Charles said as he looked around and checked the books that Cedric had in his boxes. "I never thought that could happen when she landed in the castle. Speaking of Meridian, who has the Red Book I gave you now?"

"I gave it to Miranda," Cedric explained as he approached the table and checked in the book his big brother had carried there, getting the glimpse of an M. "She will be the one to inform you about Phobos' movements until I return there with the Princess. Marlowe?"

"Milton," Charles answered. "Paradise Lost."

"A classic," Cedric said, taking the book. "I always liked this one."

"Please, mother used to read it to us three before sleeping;" Charles reminded him. "Are you sure that Miranda of yours is trustworthy enough?" the man asked, returning to the main subject, the little golden dot that his pupil was in his black eyes glimmering slightly.

"Ah, don't worry Charles, she drinks the winds for me;" Cedric explained. "It's one of the most favorable outcomes of saving a scared girl from certain death and then having her falling in love with you."

"I suppose it wouldn't be bad to have her in the family, we clearly could use some feminine touch again," Charles admitted. "Very well, but try not to… rush things with her or any other girl around here before our plan comes in motion, understood?"

"I don't rush things…" Cedric started to say, but then Charles looked at him with a quirked eyebrow, and both of them burst into laughter. "Well, I do that, sometimes."

"Oh dear, remember when we used to bring girls home? Mother and father were so angry at us!" Charles commented while laughing.

"Oh, they weren't worried about the girls," Cedric said, recalling too. "Father hated that we… dirtied the rooms, and mother was worried that we would poison our baby brother's mind."

"Ah… good times," Charles admitted. "So for now you must just search for the lost Princess?"

"Yes, Phobos handed that task to me, that idiot;" Cedric explained. "That Prince is so self-centered that if you kneel in front of him and say that you believe him a god he will let you do as you please, even if that means run his own kingdom. He didn't even check when I ordered the tax collectors to raise the taxes to villages like Sonder Hill."

"Our brother wrote me with the Blue Book earlier," Charles explained. "Apparently, that village has been wiped out of the map, and some of its villagers have joined the rebels, albeit not as much as the Mage expected."

"I know," Cedric said. "So we will still maintain ourselves in the shadows in order to feed the conflict."

"For now," Charles explained. "We won't start moving for real until the Princess is back in her home world, and if we need to take direct action, I will send our associate. Until then, we are better where we are."

"And the Guardians?" Cedric inquired, reflexively brushing his lower jaw, remembering the attack from the Earth Guardian.

"Let them be, brother;" Charles said. "We members of the Ludmoore family are men of change," Charles raised his hand and in an instant and a glow of magi after, all the books in the boxes were in their respective bookshelves. "While the Guardians are women of Magic."

Charles then teleported away, leaving his brother to his own biding, Cedric Ludmoore returning to his previous seat in the company of Paradise Lost. The Shapeshifter smirked upon his older brother's last sentence; he used to say that so much that cedric knew how the sentence exactly ended.

"And nothing brings more Change than Magic."

* * *

 _Magic is alive. It's part of us, part of everything that surrounds us. The animal, the river, the sky… and every living being that populates this vast, beautiful universe. And so, Magic, be it Chi or raw, changes and evolves, breathes and grows… and corrupts and can be corrupted. And also redeem and be redeemed. Magic is a force of nature that you can't expect to understand fully, because then it surprises you with something new. It's like an animal that dashes in an unending plain, howling in pure freedom_.  Chi Master Fong.

* * *

 **Author's Notes: Oh no, Cedric is the Mole inside Phobos' court, who could see that coming? Probably a lot of you… and while Blue's identity will remain a secret the coming chapters, Red was Cedric. So, pretty long chapter, this one, eh? Better to leave a long one for all of you, and albeit next chapter will be a reaction one like the previous one… next ones will probably be as large. Don't know where I will update again either, so here you are largest chapter in the story so far. I hope you enjoyed it, and please leave a review to tell me how you see it. Bye, Bye!**

 **Glossary** **:**

 **Cì lóngjuǎnfēng** **: Chinese for 'Piercing Tornado'.**

 **Ránshāo dì dìyù** **: Chinese for 'Blazing Inferno'.**

 **Fǔxiǔ de shìjiè** **: As mentioned, Chinese for 'Decaying World'.**

 **Shìfàng nèibù de lìliàng** **and Yídòng xīngxīng: Chinese for 'Unleash the power within' and 'Move the stars', respectively.**

 **Qiūjì** **: Chinese for 'Fall'.**


	6. Conflict and Doubt

**Disclaimer: I own neither the WITCH cartoon-show nor Jackie Chan Adventures; they are the property of their respective creators, writers, and producers.**

 **Author Notes: As per usual, many thanks to all the people that took their time to read this and share their thoughts and opinions in their reviews. Having said that, I hope you enjoy this chapter, and as always, more notes at the end. Read and enjoy, folks.**

* * *

Guardians, Wizards and Kung-Fu Fighters

Episode Six

Conflict and Doubt

* * *

 ** _Dreaming…_**

White. And also golden. The majority was red, red as blood. And a bit of black too…

Jade woke up while floating in that endless painting of chaotic multiple colors. She felt light as a cloud, sweetly coming to her senses thanks to the a gentle sound in the distance, a sound that her ears perceived as... something like an animal's bellow? Something that sounded like a cow, or a bull, or maybe a...?

"A yak?" Jade asked, stunned as she opened her eyes.

Indeed it was a yak. A glorious, big, brown furred yak. And the animal wasn't alone. At the yak's side was a man around Uncle's age, albeit where Uncle was scrawny, this man was rather well built, and sported a long, thick white beard that fell from his face down to his knees, a fact accentuated by his perfectly shaved head. He was dressed in what seemed to be a tunic of light green, with golden flowers in it as decoration. He had a slightly wrinkled face, and seemed to be in a state of deep meditation, as his eyes were closed and his head was looking down; legs crossed in a typical Lotus position. However, as the yak approached him and licked his bald head, the man snorted and mumbled something, Jade came to the conclusion that, instead of meditating the man was likely sleeping.

The yak licked the man's bald head again, this time adding a friendly and small head butt. The old man awoke then, grumbling and stretching himself, opening his eyes. Only Jade saw that they were purely white. The man was blind.

He cracked his neck next, patting the yak in his side while doing so, the animal pleased by that fact. His blind eyes then focused on Jade, a fact that she found a bit creepy, blind as he was.

"Hum... hum... is that you?" the elder asked.

"Pardon?" Jade asked. She didn't want to get questions. She wanted answers. Where was she? Who was this man? What was going on?

"I mean if that's you," the man said again. "The You; the complete you, the one who knows, the one who understands. You seem young... _too_ young;" the man rubbed his beard again. "Hum... hum... perhaps an interference? Everything seems to be in its place now... or starting to fall in it, anyway."

 _I so much hate geezers that talk in riddles_ ; Jade thought, surprisingly earning a curious expression from the man.

"Geezer? I'm familiar with that word... because you are. It is not a good word;" the old man mumbled, making Jade's jaw drop. "And before you ask; no, I didn't read your thoughts. There are no thoughts in here, because we are thoughts. And also spirits. This is the inside of your own self, the depths of your own soul. In summary, we are inside you."

"Inside..." Jade said while taking a finger to her chest. "Me?" the girl was even more confused now.

"My name is Ben-Shui," the old man said, trying to start an explanation for her. "Centuries ago, I was a sage and a powerful and skilled wizard versed in the arts of Chi Magic. I founded an order that bestowed upon itself my name, and we started to spread around the world to protect humanity from the many atrocities that threatened it. We were successful some times, and some others not… but we did an overall good job. But then we grew old, and I started to fear death. Who would be there to protect the people, to guide the new generations? A woman called Freya, from the northern parts of the world, came to me, having heard about my actions. She was the living holder of the Heart of Earth, and not wanting for the knowledge and wisdom of my order to fade away, she granted my spirit the ability to reincarnate, thus creating the cycle of the Ben-Shui Chosen One."

"And you are telling me this, because?" Jade asked.

"Isn't it obvious?" said then a joyful female voice that irradiated energy. "He said it because you are the next Chosen One!"

At the side of the old man and his yak had appeared a Japanese woman dressed in a purple kimono, with long, blackish wavy hair at her back and slightly darkened skin had appeared out of thin air, making pirouettes over her left foot until she stopped, looking at her with a big, child-like grin.

"Murasaki, you here too?" Ben-Shui asked to the newcomer woman, who put her hands ant her sides and bowed in the usual Japanese way.

"Hai!" the woman answered. Seriously, how old she was? No younger than thirty, that was for sure, and yet she seemed to act like a child. "I wanted to meet her soooooo much!"

"Eh… excuse me?" Jade asked. "I think that you need to explain to me all that about being a reincarnation of some man with a yak and all."

"Don't be so dense, _baka_!" the woman supposedly named Murasaki said in what seemed to be her usual enthusiastic tone; approaching Jade and patting her in the head. She reminded Jade a bit about Hay Lin. "It means all of us live inside you now! I thought that we would meet when you were older, though!"

"Murasaki… you aren't helping;" Ben-Shui said again. "She being this young is not normal."

"Eh… hello!" Jade said again, trying to get the others' attention. "It's rude to talk about people when they are in front of you?"

"My deepest apologies," Ben-Shui said.

"Gomenasai!" Murasaki said.

"Oh, they have always been like this," said then a deep, male voice. "When I discovered that I was the Chosen One, they went at this for entire hours…"

"I'm not surprised you came too, Mad Monk," Ben-Shui addressed this _other_ newcomer.

Entering the scene was another man, this one in the end of is forties, or maybe the start of his fifties, with dark hair over his head and a thick beard of the same color in his face, albeit it wasn't as long as the one of the older man. He was dressed into a black uniform that reminded Jade of those Orthodox Christian priests she had seen in photos, albeit he lacked anything that identified him as one of them. He looked incredibly intelligent, though; in the same vein Jade was guile.

"In summary, you are now the next Chosen one of the Ben-Shui order;" the man explained, his deep voice resonating with strength. "You are now the holder of a great power, may it serve you well."

"Oi! That is not what she is supposed to learn from us!" Murasaki told the man, an angry scold in her face.

"Albeit I don't agree with Murasaki in all her ideas, neither I agree with yours, Mad Monk;" Ben-Shui stated calmly. " _Our_ power is here to serve others, not one's goals."

The other man snorted. "Yet she is an individual, and in the end the final decision is hers, as much it was mine in the past, or Vladimir's… or even lady Báthory's."

"Such good examples, one a warmonger and the other a murderer lusting to be an immortal," Murasaki said in total despise. "That's not different than you, anyway."

"It isn't?" the man asked sarcastically "I just tried to tie our Order to a government and royal line, just like many Hearts do over the Infinite Dimensions. It wasn't my problem that they weren't ready…" the man said while rubbing his chest. He then looked again at Jade, who seemed even more confused than before.

"Child, mark my words;" the man told her. "This power belongs to you and you alone. What you do with it, only you can decide, and history will be the one to judge your actions and their repercussions."

"Who… who're you?" Jade asked to the man, who leaned over her, smiled in a way that Jade couldn't identify as sinister or pleasant, and spoke.

"Grigori Yefímovich."

The world of colors around Jade started to twirl, mix and fade then, the three figures that had come and explained to her that she was basically an Avatar right now going away as everything turned black. She didn't know what to say, or if saying something was really necessary or useful for that matter.

"It seems you are waking up," Ben-Shui said. "The flow of your chi seems to have been stabilized. That Uncle of yours must be very skilled. Anyway, child; if you feel in need to talk to any of us, just concentrate before sleeping, and we will come."

The world of colors faded away completely, and Jade lost conscience of time, space and herself. And while waking up in the conscious world, she started to feel asleep in the world of her dreams.

"You have numerous trials ahead of you, child. Be prepared."

* * *

 ** _The Silver Dragon_**

Jade woke up slowly, finding herself over a mattress in the basement of Yan Lin's restaurant. Looking at one of the basement's windows, she saw how it was still night. Maybe not even three or four in the morning? She felt tired, incredibly tired. And then images started to come back to her mind. She saw a building lot, Jackie, the girls, Daolong Wong, Cedric and she taking the shape of a wolf. And blood, blood in her mouth and her claws, of both the old wizard and the other Shapeshifter… And finally the memory of falling unconscious in Jackie's arms.

She looked around, noticing the weird circle around her improvised bed. But that wasn't what took the majority of her attention, no. What took it was the sight of the quintet of the Guardians of the Veil, all over the ground in their human forms, either inside of sleeping bags, or simple sheets over the ground, like Irma and Will's case. Jade couldn't avoid smiling over the fact that the five of them had remained here with her. However, it didn't last long until tiredness caught to her again, and she fell asleep once more; calm.

Opening the door of the basement slightly, Yan Lin peeped in, and saw how Jade come back to her senses before going to sleep again; the circle of chi magic her cousin had casted around her losing its green light and disappearing. Good, everything was in place. Time to get to send a call to cousin and go to sleep herself.

* * *

 ** _A building's roof; Middle of the night_**

Jackie Chan was a man of habits, and there was no habit more instilled in him than the one of training. Hone your skills, breathe, feel your muscles moving under your skin, the bones under them... breathe again, feel your strength and...

"HA!" Jackie roared as he punched an imaginary foe. The cold air of the night filled his lungs as he breathed in after the shout. He stopped for a bit and lowered both his extended leg and arms. This wasn't the same as training in a closed room, neither to punch a training dummy. But neither was it a normal training session nor he was the same as usual. Erratic, confused, angered... This wasn't training. This was a distraction, a way to blow stress off. Not wanting to let his thoughts to catch him, he started his routine again, practicing movements and hitting enemies that weren't really there.

 _That was your little niece who was bathed in blood, you know?_

Jackie punched the air, delivering pair of fast kicks afterwards.

 _And those were just five ordinary girls that a wizard almost crushed to death_.

"HA!" Jackie yelled again as he hit with both fists. He then started to spin over himself and deliver a chain of kicks.

 _You are an archeologist, you know about these situations, you have read and studied about them. You know what happens in those. How much time you think will pass until they are forced to kill someone? How much until one of them dies?_

Jackie stopped his spinning and jumped in the air, raising one leg as he started to descent, ready to deliver a descending kick.

 _And you threw them directly into that war! Aren't you just pathetic?!_

"HA!" Jackie yelled as he hit the ground, his foot stomping over it and producing a small impact sound. He then recoiled into his starting position, and lowered his arms to his sides. He breathed in and out, and found that maybe training at these hours in the night wasn't a good idea. And yet it was a better idea than to head back to sleep; every time that he closed his eyes he could only see Jade taking in that wolf's form, her fangs and her claws painted in red. And the worst part was that he couldn't do a thing. Now that he couldn't think of it, he never was able to do a thing about this kind of things, was he? He just brought a shield from Bavaria and then he was fighting international criminals, a dragon, shadow ninjas, more demons… and now an entire army at the service of a magical tyrant. No matter what he tried to do, those things always came back to challenge him. That was the reason he had decided to follow the flow and not to question the bizarre things that life always threw at him. Now he really doubted if that had been the wisest course of action.

"Nephew couldn't sleep?" Jackie heard Uncle's voice at his back. Turning around he saw the elder wizard exiting to the rooftop of the building using the door that led to the emergency stairs. "Too worried?"

"Yes," Jackie answered bluntly. "Do we know something?"

"Cousin just called," Uncle explained. "Circle for ritual deactivated automatically, so niece's chi must be balanced again. Yan Lin told Uncle that Jade woke up a bit before going to sleep again."

"I suppose everything's good now, right?" Jackie asked, but Uncle shook his head slowly.

"Jade has now an enormous amount of power at her disposal," Uncle explained. "Right now, she is possibly the being with strongest chi-force in the whole planet. That puts her in the same threat level as the Guardians…"

"And that means they will target her," Jackie ended the phrase for his elder. "Damn it."

"When sun rises we will go and check on her. Tohru made tea for us," Uncle said. "Nephew should come inside and took a cup to warm his body."

"Uncle," Jackie said, not moving from where he was. "Tell me, what happened with Yan Lin's companions? With the former Guardians?"

"Cousin came back here and founded a family," Uncle said quickly, trying to get over the explanation as soon as he could, Jackie noted. "Halinor, the former Guardian of Fire, remained in Kandrakar and became a sage. As for Kadma, former Guardian of Earth; she became the holder of the Heart of a world called Zamballa after the three of them defended that world from Phobos' attack a decade or so ago."

"And Irma and Will's predecessors?" Jackie asked.

Uncle remained in silence for a few seconds before answering, while Jackie kept staring at the mantle of stars that Heatherfield's lights casted in the night. The cold air kept him awake even if his body was begging for a break.

"Gone;" the elder answered and crossed the door, heading back inside. "Both of them."

* * *

 ** _Across the veil; Meridian; Infinite City_**

 _This is starting to become more complicated than expected_ ; Nerissa Crossnic thought while posing as the Mage in one of the Infinite City's rooms, where she had called her Small Council for a meeting after Caleb's return a few hours ago. Albeit Caleb had come bearing good news about his prolonged stay on Earth, the Mage perceived it as a pyrrhic victory more than anything else. The Guardians and those wizards of Yan Lin's metonymy relatives had defeated Wong and Cedric in battle. In the end, it seemed that the Guardians would be a proper weapon to use against the Prince (for the moment) and that their presence and the fact that they were fighting for the rebels would surely booster their confidence and belief in their cause. Except that, according to Caleb, their victory hadn't been thanks to the Guardians per se. No, they have won thanks to a Shapeshifter.

"The Guardians work with one of the abominations?" Alistair Tharquin asked in his usual dry, cold tone. The Old Worm had remained in his usual demeanor during Caleb's entire tale, his face only showing the slightest of alterations upon his leader's mention of the girl who could transform into a black wolf. "What is Kandrakar thinking by allying themselves to a sinful Beast?"

"Weren't you listening to Caleb's explanation?" Aldarn broke in. "She is just a little girl, Tharquin. Not an abomination. Don't put someone who has just saved our leader's life at the same level as Cedric."

"Shapeshifters are naturally inclined to deception, boy;" Tharquin spoke up. "To be fooled by their words and appearance is a novice's failure, which is something that these new Guardians are. She could be just playing with them in the Prince's stead."

"Or the exact opposite. This could mean that Shapeshifters have started to oppose Phobos directly," Drake interrupted, resting his blond head over his right hand. "Having them on our side would be a great advantage, if you were able to let your personal crusade aside, Ser Tharquin."

"None of you are right," Caleb said before Tharquin could retort and this escalated into something it wasn't meant to be. "And if you want to discuss with the sword instead of the tongue, then go outside."

Both men calmed down and sunk a bit in their seats. Drake extended his arm and took a small bottle of wine from the table, serving himself a cup and sipping from it. Tharquin fell in complete silence, not saying a thing. It wasn't in the old knight's nature to shout a protest, or even drink. Not when he wasn't in any of his sermons; the roars of the crowd were more invigorating for the Old Worm than any wine, ale or liquor.

"What do you mean that they are both wrong, Caleb?" Sephiria asked to her leader in her usual meek tone.

"Phobos' Archmage said that he had given her that power," Caleb explained. "And she was with the Guardians before and didn't display any shifting ability. Plus, her family is composed of normal human beings. She wasn't a Shapeshifter before, and now she is. Somehow."

 _Wong succeeded then, how interesting_ ; the 'Mage' thought. "Then this confirms what I feared. Daolon Wong has been able to produce an artificial Shapeshifter. I couldn't believe it when Vathek sent word about it, but this proves it true."

"But... but this means that Phobos could have an entire army of Beasts at his disposal!" Sephiria said horrified.

"If he had, we would know already," Drake said as he emptied his cup of wine, his calmness not breaking upon the news. "But why use that Earth girl?"

"An adult won't answer to the treatment as well as someone young," the 'Mage' said. "I suppose Wong used her as a test more than anything else. Anyway, the Shapeshifters he will be able to create will be children taken from their mothers' arms. They won't fight for the Prince as efficiently as Cedric or mere guards, if they even fight at all."

That seemed to mostly calm the lot. Still, it would be something to look into... later; now there were more important details to attend to.

"What about Sonder Hill, Rhouglar?" Caleb asked. "What about the operation your men conducted there?"

The dark skinned and muscular Galhot, who had remained in silence until then, leaned over the table and sighed half out of frustration and half out of boredom. "A total failure. Lothar and Frost leveled the town to the ground, and yet little more than a hundred people joined us. Those scumbags of Phobos' top enforcers even got my boys!" Rhouglar said, pounding the table in anger. "I swear, in the moment I got my hands on them, I'll run my axe over their heads!"

"So Sonder Hill won't join us in its entirety," Caleb summed up. "It would have made things easier for what we have planned for Torus Filney... At least, I'm sure that we will count with the Guardians' help for that one."

Another calming fact. If the Guardians were at their side, their probabilities of their success increased exponentially. But of course, the bad news didn't end there.

"It gets worse," the 'Mage' said then. "I have made contact with one of our old friends inside the castle, Trill."

 _Oh yes, that lovely lady of the kitchens_ , Caleb thought. _She was really helpful when we still didn't have Vathek inside the castle. And she used to give me sweets when I was a child._

"The men that got captured," the 'Mage' continued her explanation. "They are going to be executed at dawn. And the one carrying the axe will be Vathek."

"What?!" Caleb yelled in shock.

"Are you sure of that, great Mage?" Sephiria asked respectfully.

The 'Mage' nodded. "Sadly. Apparently Lothar set it up. It seems that he must know about Vathek being an infiltrate within the castle. But since he can't prove it..."

"He has decided to put him in a compromised situation," Caleb ended the phrase for him. "Damn it, if he doesn't carry the execution out, then they will find about him!"

"Couldn't we just take him out?" Aldarn stepped into the conversation. "Since we have that Trill inside?"

"It could be a trap," Drake said. "Lothar may be expecting us to rescue Vathek and stop the execution."

"Perhaps sacrificing those men could be an advantage," Tharquin spoke. "It could reinforce Vathek's image of a loyalist within the Prince's forces."

"Those are my men you're speaking about, old man!" Rhouglar roared, pounding the table so hard that it cracked.

"Is that a threat, boy?" Tharquin asked in his usual dry tone, his hand having descended slowly towards the hilt of his sword as he spoke.

"Enough!" Caleb yelled. "A small group will accompany me and Aldarn. We will be within the crowd, and see how things unravel. If we can take Vathek out and save the prisoners, we will."

"And if not?" the 'Mage' inquired, actually curious of what the boy was going to say.

Deep thoughts passed over Caleb's face, showing how conflicted he was about what he was going to say. "Then we will go with Ser Tharquin's plan."

"WHAT?!" Rhouglar shrieked. "You can't be serious!"

"As much as it pains all in this council," Drake said next. "I must admit it is a choice we must make in order to secure Vathek's position within the enemy's lines."

"Then it is settled," Caleb said. "Dismissed."

* * *

 ** _The castle; Alchemical Laboratory_**

"Failures, failures! Nothing but failures! Pathetic all of them!" Daolon shrieked as he hit one of the tables of his laboratory, sending all the vials and flasks containing boiling liquids to the floor, the liquids mixing over it and starting to dissolve the stone the floor was made of slightly.

 _The great Archmage of Meridian_ , Miranda thought as she stood a few meters away from Wong. _He looks like a child throwing a tantrum. And he had to give the enemy a mammal Shapeshifter of all things._ Cedric had always insisted that Miranda learnt about the three major variants of Shapeshifters: Insectoids, Reptilians and Mammals. She belonged to the first group, characterized by their unusual abilities and tricks. Her wall-crawling and spider-web were proof of that. Reptilians like Cedric were known by their high-speed regeneration, and Mammals were characterized by their sheer strength and brutality. And now the Guardians had one of them in their side, the girl she had trying to ate once, even. Great, that was just great. But for now she needed to focus in Wong.

Since the moment he had gotten back from Earth and he had gotten his hands into some pureblooded human children, Wong had started immediately to inject them with his serum, expecting them to turn out just like Jade had. Miranda had been instructed with aiding the dark chi wizard, and train the new breed of Shapeshifters he was going to create. However, the results had been less than pleasant, horrific even.

"Why?!" Wong yelled again, his eyes flaring in dark chi. "Why won't any of them survive?!" Wong walked a bit over the place, one of his hands over his mouth. _If I fail into creating new Beasts, then Phobos will see me as nothing but a liability, and then kill me!_ "What is the secret?! How did that human girl survive?!" _Wong asked aloud again. Could it be due to the power of the Ben-Shui order? If I could only get my hands on her… no, draining the chi of a reincarnation circle would surely get me killed…_

"Maybe your success with the earthling girl was pure chance?" Miranda inquired, making Wong to glare at her.

"Perhaps they lack motivation?" asked then a voice belonging to a third person. Looking into the laboratory's gates, both Wong and Miranda saw a boy no older than thirteen years old, white hair over his head and amber eyes adorning a pale face. He was dressed like a servant, a fact that denoted him as one of the errand boys of the kitchens.

"Who are you, boy?" Wong asked, offended by the boy's mere presence in his laboratory, a place the dark wizard considered his own sanctum. "Why are you here? Did the Prince send you with a message?"

"No," the boy answered. Miranda raised an eyebrow upon the boy's bravery… or was it foolishness? No mere peasant talked to Wong like that and survived. "No, it wasn't our Prince; I came by myself. I heard rumors in the kitchens; that you take children and try to transform them into weapons to kill rebels."

"Yes, that is my intention;" Wong said, he also intrigued by this boy's presence. "Why so interested? Perhaps you intend to be a volunteer?"

"If I become one of your weapons, wizard," the boy said while looking at Wong. Miranda saw something in there, a gleam of hatred in those eyes, not very different from Phobos' or hers. "Do I get to kill rebels?"

"Yes," Wong answered bluntly again.

"Then I present myself as volunteer," the boy told him. "Inject me, destroy my body and remake it once again. But give me enough power to kill a hundred of those rebels."

"Who are you, child?" Wong asked with a much more polite tone, clearly pleased by the newcomer's determination.

"My name is Tristan, son of Ban;" the boy answered. "And I'm a survivor of Carhaiz."

* * *

 ** _The castle; dungeons. One hour before dawn._**

"Come on, stupid bars!" one of the three rebels that had bribed the mayor of Sonder Hill into stirring the riots, a Galhot slightly older than Aldarn, said as he pulled from the bars of the cell he and his two companions had been thrown in.

"Ya' been doin' that for three hours!" one of the other two rebels, this one an old half-breed named Kalith, told him. "Ya' ain't breakin' those!"

"I can keep trying!" the first man yelled back.

"Stop it, Claudas;" a third one, a human in his thirties named Tarion said. "You are only embarrassing yourself. Try to enjoy your last moments; you heard the guards, once the sun rises, we are doomed."

The man, Claudas, stopped his struggle and sat down in the wet, cold floor of the cell. He took a small piece of bread that the guards had left as their last feast and that felt like a rock and bit it strongly. As it turned out, it tasted like a rock too.

"Can't believe we ended in all this shit for that damned mayor!" Claudas yelled as he spat the horrid bread to the ground. Tarion tossed him a small water bottle. Claudas took a pair of sips from it. At least the water was good. And it helped the bread down his throat.

"Ya' should've killed that shit horse!" Kalith yelled. "Now we all goin' to die!"

"If there was a mistake," Tarion said; "that was following Rhouglar into all this mess. We were better as thieves. That crazy bastard got us into all this business with the Rebellion..."

"Hey! That's the boss ya' talkin' shit about!" Kalith yelled in anger.

"Just shut your mouth, old man;" Tarion said again. "I followed Rhouglar because he promised me gold and wet women. Maybe the daughter of some nobleman or even a highborn lady..." he said while fantasizing about a noble woman's tits. He always had thought that those would be better to bite than a common whore's.

"I just wanted gold... and glory, just a bit. It couldn't have hurt to hear some folks cheering my name. Just for once;" Claudas stated. "Rhouglar just wanted to hear screams."

"At least the boss' gettin' what he wanted," Kalith said, almost whispering.

"And we are rotting in a cell," Claudas stated. "How equitable."

"It could be worse," said then a deep voice that all of them knew too well. "It will when your throats are cut. I think these will ease things."

A sack full of apples appeared between the bars, falling in the cell's floor and letting the three prisoners to see the reddish fruits inside. Their hands moved on their own, spurred by the hunger they felt. As they ate, Vathek appeared at the other side of the bars, narrowing his eyes slightly at the three prisoners.

"Vathek!" Claudas said in pure joy. "Quick, get our asses out of this cell!" he said, almost in a plea. But Vathek remained where he was, a couple of steps away from the cell.

"He can't, you idiot;" Tarion spoke as he ate his second apple. "If he lets us go, they will know it was him. And I bet that he can't send another man to the Abyss for him again." Tarion spat the apple's small seeds to the floor, took another fruit and devoured it with the same anxiety.

"It's true?" Vathek asked, his voice somehow sorrowful.

"What da ya' mean?" Kalith asked as he ate.

"I mean if it's true that you bribed the mayor of Sonder Hill in order to break those riots against the Prince," Vathek cleared.

"Yes," Tarion answered blatantly, his small word making Vathek's face to change momentarily to one of surprise, then sadness, to which a bit if shame followed, only to return to his usual visage after that. Then the blue and bulky Galhot turned around and left.

"Wait! Vathek!" Claudas called. "We are friends!"

"Silence Claudas," Tarion told her companion. "We played, we lost."

"I'm not dying here!" Claudas yelled. "Vathek! Vathek, please!"

But Vathek continued walking, not even directing a last glance towards them. _I'm a member of the Rebellion_ , he thought. _I do what it needs to be done. I need to remain here. I need to do my job. For the Rebellion, for the wellbeing of the realm_.

And yet as he walked doubt started to be born and grown inside of him. A part of him was telling him that what he was doing was bad, and another part was telling him that what those three men had done had been worse.

"Vathek!" he heard Claudas' cry for help one last time before abandoning the dungeons. "We are friends!"

* * *

 ** _The Capital; minutes before the execution_**

The sun was slowly rising in the horizon, its light giving the usually dark Capital a yellowish tonality, more befitting for a desert than the capital of a kingdom. As the sun rose and the smallfolk exited their houses in order to initiate their daily lives, two figures walked between them, trying to not be noticed. Caleb had to admit, if some members of the Guard put as much endeavor in their search and persecution of the rebels as they put in organizing executions the Rebellion could probably had already been annihilated years ago. Not that he complained about that, anyway. As per usual, the execution was going to be carried out in the central plaza of the Capital, where a platform had been built years ago, when Phobos had started to ' _impart justice_ ' into his enemies publicly; a proper stage that the Prince had decided to built in order to sent to his followers the image that his regime had something resembling justice, and to his enemies the promise that anything done against him would had consequences.

Dressed in hooded robes in order to conceal their identities behind the image of beggars, Caleb and Aldarn walked between the people that formed the crowd that had gathered around the stage. Be it out of cruel glee, fear or actual care for the executed; smallfolk always gathered around when there was an execution announced by the Prince's court. The kind of faces some of the bystanders were making, sporting cruel smiles that showed nothing but delight, make the rebel leader's stomach to feel worse than when drinking an entire barrel of bad ale.

"I can't believe they actually enjoy this," Caleb whispered just enough for Aldarn to heard it.

"They are just afraid, Caleb;" Aldarn whispered too. "Remember that many of us rebels are smallfolk. They just take glee in other's suffering to soften their own. It's pitiful."

"Pitifully cruel," Caleb said; "but cruel nonetheless. Here we are."

Both men had reached the third line of the crowd. Not too away for not to see a thing, but not near enough to be seen under the beggar disguises; perfect. Looking around, Caleb saw some members of the rebellion within the crowd, bending in with the smallfolk and taking strategic positions. The right movement from his hand and they all would initiate an attack in order to create confusion and take Vathek out, Aldarn firing the first arrow using the bow that they had taken that fateful day they had decided to attack one of the castle armories. Caleb was really struggling with himself about letting them start or not. One movement of his hand; that was everything that it was needed to change everything. One movement and three lives would be saved; one movement and years of work from Vathek and Raythor's frame up would be as useful as smoke.

"And here they come," Aldarn said, getting Caleb out of his thoughts.

A man, a nobleman judging by his choice of clothes; walked up to the stage flanked by Lothar and another man that Caleb didn't know. Another group of guards, composed of five individuals, put themselves between the crowd of the smallfolk and the stage. The nobleman approached the verge of the platform and put his hands at his back. Caleb had seen a lot of noblemen, but none of them irradiated such a sensation of confidence than this one.

"Citizens!" the nobleman spoke, his voice strong and confidant. "A day ago, we captured a trio of members of the Rebellion that had spurred riots in Sonder Hill against the Prince by bribing the town's mayor! In order to protect the security and peace of Meridian, these three criminals will be punished immediately! I, Viscount Servantis, will be presiding in Prince Phobos' stead," _because that fool and that snake of his must be doing something so important that they don't have time for these things… again_ ; he bitterly added in his thoughts. "Bring the criminals and the executioner!"

 _So that is Servantis_ , Caleb thought as he watched and memorized the guise of the nobleman that he knew in charge of Torus Filney. _Seems more capable than the average nobleman…_ ; Caleb's eyes shifted then to the side of the platform, where three men were being escorted by a couple of guards, followed by Vathek himself, who was carrying an enormous axe specially designed that way in order to carry out the executions. _And there you are, my friend, again in a situation you never were meant to be._

The rebel leader saw how Aldarn's body tensed under his robes, his second in command surely gripping the bow that he hid in them, no doubt. Caleb directed a soft glare towards him, indicating that he needed to calm down. After a while, Aldarn's body relaxed and his grip over the bow disappeared.

"They are going to start..." the young Galhot said as the three prisoners were lined up in the platform, Vathek positioning himself behind them. The blue and bulking Galhot sported a somber look in his face, a visage designed for his infiltration and practiced during his time in the castle and that supposedly served to hide his emotions. Only people like Caleb knew that Vathek only put in that front in order to conceal his utmost anger.

Servantis took a scroll that Lothar handed him and opened it, reading aloud.

"For the charges of Treason, Plotting against the Crown, Murder and Thieving," the Viscount spoke. "I sentence you three, Kalith Swampson; Claudas, son of Marlon; and Tarion Mountainson;" Servantis made a small pause then, taking air in; "to die. Since all three of you have been identified as members of the Rebellion, instead of the rope, you will be executed by decapitation," Servantis then looked upon the three condemned and closed his eyes for a second before opening them again. "But you will be granted one last wish or words of your election."

Caleb raised an eyebrow in complete confusion upon hearing that sentence and even the crowd itself broke into confused whispers.

 _Cedric wouldn't have even looked at them before giving the order_ ; Caleb thought as he looked. The whispers' volume raised even more as Servantis slowly walked towards Kalith, and looking up slowly Aldarn and Caleb saw how even Lothar seemed intrigued by this situation.

"Any last words?" Servantis asked in a nice and polite tone, but the only thing that left Kalith's mouth were sobs. Knowing that this one was too afraid to even speak, the nobleman passed to Claudas.

"And you?" he asked to the Galhot.

Claudas didn't answer at first. He didn't even look at Servantis, his eyes focused in the crowd. It wasn't until Servantis made his intention to get over him and approach Tarion that he spoke.

"My mother still works in the docks at Heliosport;" Claudas said. "Please, tell her... tell her I died in the battlefield, fighting. Not like this."

"I will make sure of it," Servantis told the man as he walked towards Tarion. The last condemned man looked at him, a curved smile upon his face.

"Tell me, nobleman;" Tarion said. "Do you have family? Do you have a wife?"

"Yes," Servantis answered plainly yet sincerely.

Tarion's smile widened as an image of Rhouglar leaning over a terrified and crying woman with her dress torn out flashed in his mind and a cruel gleam appeared in his eyes. "She will die; nobleman."

Servantis narrowed his eyes at the somehow friendly threat against his loved ones that the rebel had dedicated to him. The Viscount stepped aside then, making a sign to Vathek to approach the trio.

"Execute them," the Viscount ordered.

Vathek walked towards Kalith first, the man trembling and sobbing as he heard the footsteps behind him. Near as he was, the blue Galhot's nostrils took notice of the smell coming from the sobbing man. He had peed himself. Well, at least it was better than soiling one's pants... Oh! There it was. Maybe giving those apples to them hadn't been such a good idea. Vathek lifted the execution axe over the man's head, gripping its handle as strongly as he could.

For a moment, Vathek and Caleb's eyes met; one in the platform and another within the crowd. Caleb started to raise his hand in order to make the signal... but then he saw Vathek's eyes.

A pair of eyes that begged him for not do stupid things, to not put two dozens of men in danger over his life. He would endure; he would take this and not break. For the Rebellion's sake, for Meridian's sake… he would endure. And thus Caleb lowered his hand.

"Caleb!" Aldarn whispered near his friend. ""What are you doing? It's our only chance at…"

"I know," Caleb said. "And Vathek knows too. But saving him now will put not only the lives of the men accompanying us at risk, but everything that we have been working for. We can't do anything; Lothar surely has guards hidden in some place or some house, waiting for us to make a mistake; like we did when we assaulted that armory. This little game ends in his favor."

Vathek broke the visual contact with Caleb and moved his arms as strongly as he could. The axe started to lower towards Kalith's neck, and then there was a sound like if someone had cut a tensed rope… and a head fell to the ground, the headless body to which it was attached moments before falling shortly afterwards. At least it had been a clean cut. No pain, no suffering. Next ones were Claudas and Tarion, whose bodies received the same fate than Kalith's, their heads falling off from their necks as soon as Vathek moved his powerful arms in a circular movement, cutting their necks.

 _Vathek! We are friends!_ ; echoed Claudas' last words into the blue Galhot's head. He had met Claudas only months before his infiltration began, yet they had formed a bond almost instantly; mainly over pitchers of ale. But there was nothing else to think about now. The three of them were dead now. And he had killed them.

"This is the fate that awaits everyone that dares to rebel against the Prince!" Servantis shouted towards the crowd. "Remain loyal, and you will be safe! Disobey… and you will die. Go back to your jobs and families, citizens of the Capital. Go back… go back and live."

With that last sentence the Viscount turned around and left the platform in the same vein he had come, and so did Vathek, his hands starting to get dirty with the drops of blood that fell from the blade of his execution axe to its handle and then proceeded to slide towards him. Servantis moved his right hand towards the guards and they started to drag the bodies of the recently executed out, the crowd having started to dissipate, the show already ended.

"Do you think that he was telling the truth?" Caleb asked to his friend. "About them bribing the mayor of Sonder Hill?"

"Those servants of the tyrant, all of them are nothing but liars;" Aldarn whispered as he and Caleb started to leave the plaza. "Once you know one of them you know them all. So that was Viscount Servantis, eh? Not any different from Cedric."

Caleb wasn't so sure about that; but anyway, this wasn't the time to start doubting himself again. With this execution, Vathek's actual condition and the Sonder Hill fiasco, it was time to fully turn to the Guardians and those wizards… and the Shapeshifter girl too. If they were going to support the Rebellion, then better if they do it fully.

"Go to the meeting point, gather the men and head back to the Infinite City;" Caleb ordered, and Aldarn nodded obediently. "I'm going to search for a _friend_ here."

The young Galhot left shortly afterwards, Caleb taking a much different route. Was what the Viscount had read from that paper true? Had been those three men really responsible to bribe that mayor? Had been the riots of Sonder Hill nothing else than the result of greed? Was his Rebellion really like that? _I put Rhouglar in charge of that operation, those were his men_ ; Caleb thought as he turned around a corner and entered a part of the city darker and dirtier than the rest. _Could it be that, those rumors about him are true?_ Or was Aldarn right and had all of it been a lie from the Prince in order to confuse them? Probably that last one, Phobos didn't do anything else but lie and oppress, so it was normal from all his underlings to lie and oppress. _The Rebellion is made out of the heroes of this world, fighters for freedom. Those servants of the tyrant, all of them as guilty as him_ ; he thought with hatred. Aldarn was probably right, and he didn't need those doubts to crack his resolve now. Yet the Viscount had showed a form of mercy towards those men, something that Cedric never did. Perhaps Servantis was like Raythor, a flower that grow in the same soil than weed?

"Treasures for trade! Treasures for trade!" he heard a somehow high pitched voice, ending Caleb's train of thought.

 _Ah, there he is_. "Blunk!" the rebel leader shouted towards the Passling, who had established an improvised store made out of some wooden boxes in one of the most impoverished zones of the Capital, selling goods he had taken from Earth.

"Caleb!" the Passling greeted as well, albeit he covered his mouth with his hand when Caleb took a finger to his lips. "Blunk sorry," the Passling apologized. "What does Caleb want?"

The rebel leader let a small bag full of silver and bronze coins over one of the wooden boxes the Passling was using as a table. "I need you to find a Portal for me," Caleb said. "I need to cross to Earth."

Blunk took the small bag and started to count the coins. Shinny coins, and shinny was good. "Blunk will find Portal for Caleb," the Passling said. "But Caleb will need to find a way back."

Caleb sighed and rolled his eyes. "I will let you five minutes alone with that… _dumpster_ of the Air Guardian."

"Ten," Blunk said back.

"Deal," Caleb said.

"Then follow Blunk!" the Passling cheered in happiness as he took the coins and kicked the wooden boxes away. Caleb followed the Passling as the greenish dwarf sniffed the air in search of a hole in the Veil.

Caleb glanced back to the central plaza then, the sun finally rising completely over the horizon. _I'm sorry my friend_ , he thought as a picture of Vathek flashed in his mind. _I promise, your sacrifices won't be in vain_.

* * *

"Viscount Servantis!" Lothar called the nobleman's name as the leader of Torus Filney was being handed the reins of his horse by a servant.

"Captain Lothar," the Viscount greeted with a polite nod as he took the reins and patted his animal. "Is something wrong?"

"Nothing, but…" Lothar said. "It just strikes me as strange that you let those three rebels to be able to say their last words."

"Do you think I did wrong by giving them a last wish, Captain?" Servantis inquired as he mounted in his horse.

"Of course not, my Lord;" Lothar answered. "But why grant those traitors, that rebel scum an opportunity to…"

"Do you know what I liked about your predecessor, Captain?" Servantis asked, interrupting the Half-breed.

"No," Lothar answered in a harsher tone. He didn't like anyone to compare him to Raythor; he knew he was never going to be at his mentor's level.

"That he didn't jump and execute a prisoner in the first minute," Servantis explained. "Raythor thought about things, he knew when a prisoner had more value alive than dead, and he only disposed of them via the Abyss of Shadows when there was no other doubt of their culpability. He never used them in order to led a petty revenge against an individual, be it a traitor of not."

"You know about Vathek being a spy," Lothar said, and the Viscount nodded from his mount.

"Of course I know," the nobleman said. "And we could have used his position as a way to feed the rebels false information and then lay them into a trap. But no, you had to put your own anger and hatred ahead of our advancement in this war;" Servantis accused. _You are not very different from Phobos… How am I supposed to end this conflict if you all just give those rebels more reasons to keep fighting?_ "And enemies or not, the rebels used to be subjects of this kingdom, and deserve something more than being treated like dirt. If you can excuse me, I have to stop in Heliosport before going back to Torus Filney. Good day, Captain;" the Viscount said as a farewell and then spurred his horse, riding out of the Capital from one of its principal ways, but shortly taking a more obscure road. He had learned from the corpses of many of his fellow nobles that travelling in caravans with a platoon of guards around oneself only made you a bigger and slower target.

 _And I still don't know where Cedric has gone, or why Phobos hasn't showed up to the execution when I know he enjoys those_ ; Servantis thought as he spat a small insect that had entered his mouth. _If the rebels weren't such a band of fools, I would ditch Phobos for them. Damn it, Weira. This is your entire fault!_

* * *

 ** _World of Earth; Ye Olde Book Shop; Dawn_**

 _I have to admit that Charles did a splendid job organizing them_ , Cedric thought as he checked into one of his books before putting it back in its rightful place. _Genre, author, and year of publishing! But big brother was always the best for this kind of details. And speaking of details, time for a brief report from this 'faithful' servant to his Prince…_

Cedric left the book where it belonged and headed towards his bookstore's backroom, were a tiny box full of sand and a communication orb ready for his and Phobos' interactions was ready. Cedric took a handful of sand and poured it over the crystal orb, which started to furiously glow after that, even raising powerful currents of air and making some papers fly. Kneeling in faked submission, Cedric waited for the orb to do its job, and for the Prince to answer.

"Lord Cedric," Phobos' voice came from the orb as his silhouette, and then a miniature form of his body, manifested inside it between the twirling sand. "I was starting to grow impatient over your lateness upon contacting me."

"My deepest apologies, my Prince;" Cedric answered. "But after the encounter Wong and I had with the Guardians and with… _their_ Shapeshifter; I was forced to take more time than expected in order to prepare my cover. But nonetheless, I succeeded; this bookstore will be the perfect place from which search for your sister; since I found an intersection point between this place and the castle's bookstore; which will permit me to move between both worlds with ease." Cedric lowered his bow a bit more. _Well, big brother found it for me, but you don't need to know that_.

"Once my sister is identified we must slowly and carefully bring her into our confidence," Phobos explained, gripping his fist. "And then, right onto our trap. Only then I will be able to proceed, and take the Heart of Meridian out of her. Don't fail me again Cedric; or you will pass the rest of your days as a worthless worm!"

After that last sentence, Phobos' image faded from the orb and the sand inside it stopped from twirling. Only after that did Cedric rise from the floor, glaring at the orb. "Pompousssss brat…" the Shapeshifter said with hatred as his tongue shifted to its snake form momentarily. "If not for pleasing him, I will find his damned sister just for the sake of not having to hear him again yelling at me…" Cedric turned around and exited to the main bookstore and approaching the door, he turned a small signboard around, the word 'Open' writing in italics facing the streets. He frowned at the sound the cars made in the streets, the odors that escaped their exhaust pipes… "And to get rid of this reeking world… I can't wait for big brother's plan to come into fruition… just to see all this to crumble and get pass to the new age."

* * *

 ** _Ludmoore manor_**

Raphael Silla was many things. Treasure hunter, mercenary, assassin, hacker, poker player, fan of cartoon shows for children… but there was just one thing he wasn't, and that was stupid. So when this Ludmoore man (but seriously, what kind of name was Ludmoore?) called for him and told him that he would paid him a large amount of money just for going into China and bring him a certain object from an almost ruined palace from the outskirts of Hong Kong. He and his unit of mercenaries had searched all around, and found the object at issue… alongside a bunch of other objects that were clearly much more valuable than the one he had brought to Heatherfield. Yet the blonde, glasses wearing mercenary of tanned skin knew that there should be something up with it… that was the reason he had thought to take the object directly to the creepy mansion this guy lived in.

"So, Mr. Ludmoore, what did you want this for exactly?" Silla asked while putting a briefcase over the man's desk. "Because there were a lot much more… valuable things back in that collapsed castle."

From the other side of the desk, Charles Ludmoore, concealing his eyes in order to pass as a purely blooded human, tapped the briefcase with his right hand while took another briefcase with his left. Rising from his seat, Ludmoore approached Silla and handed him the other briefcase.

"Would you believe if I told you that I have the strangest taste on art that exists?" Ludmoore asked, while Silla just raised an eyebrow at that sentence. "Nevermind it, Mr. Silla. It's just a mask I wanted to have in my art collection. Yes, it's pretty valuable, but there were things much more expensive in that palace… and I know you and your unit took them all. So here is your money," Ludmoore said pointing to the briefcase that he had given Silla. "And I hope you have a nice day."

Sighing, Raphael Silla turned around. "It was good having business with you, Mr. Ludmoore. Have a nice day too."

Once Silla was gone, Ludmoore let the concealment spell to wear out and his eyes returned to their normal color, with the black sclera and the golden pupil. He opened the briefcase, and let a grin to appear in his face. Then he moved his hands, and two small magical images appeared around him, one depicting the Guardians, and the other one depicting Jade. "So to the new generation of Guardians now we add a mammal Shapeshifter in the form of the little Chan girl… but of course, little brother has yet to find the Princess for everything to start falling into place;" Charles took the object inside the briefcase and raised it to his eye level. It was a traditional Oni mask of Japan, depicting a monstrous being with his face opened into a strange yet cruel grin, with skin of a dark fuchsia tone, green hair at the back of the mask, red eyes, and two big horns. Ludmoore held the mask in front of him, looking at the eyes of the beast it depicted… and imprisoned. Feeling the power within that this mask contained, Ludmoore couldn't avoid trembling slightly in amazement. "And you, you and your friends of the distant past will be the key to unlock everything! But first, I think we need to run a little test…"

Ludmoore took the mask in his hand and directed himself to one of the bookshelves that his library had, and moving his hand he retired the glamour around his stabilized Portal, which regained its usual appearance after spending all the time of his reunion with Silla disguised as a bookshelf. Looking at the swirling blue hole in the Veil, he manifested two new images in front of him; one depicting Phobos, and the other one depicting Caleb. Ludmoore took one of his hands to his black hair, playing with one of his locks while thinking. After a couple of minutes, he grinned again.

"Perhaps both sides of the war would want to get their hands into an unstoppable army of shadows…" Charles mussed, and then snapped his fingers, making two gargoyles not different from the one in his façade descended from the ceiling at his back. "Each one of you is to go to Meridian, one to the rebels and the other to the Prince. Tell them that, if they desire to get the power of the Shadowkhan at their disposal, they must contact me for an auction on the mask imprisoning one of the Nine Demon Generals that legend speaks about, and that the auction will be…" Charles revised mentally his coming schedule and the errand he had ordered from Japan "a week from now. Go!"

The pair of gargoyles flapped their stone wings and crossed the stabilized Portal, each one heading into opposite directions. Once they departed, Ludmoore created two magical mirrors in the air that let him see through each one of the gargoyle's eyes.

"Business as usual;" Charles said in a happy tone.

* * *

 ** _Gates of Sheffield Institute; Midday_**

"You sure you can't come?" Will asked to Taranee and Cornelia as they exited Sheffield. Of course, Jade hadn't been attending school today, Jackie having called Knickerbocker and told the principal that his niece was sick. Which was true... in a certain way. Telling the woman that the new student was in magical treatment because her transformation in a werewolf-thingy had trigered her awakening as the reincarnation of an ancient sorcerer wouldn't have made for a good excuse, after all.

"Sorry, but my mom says that I have to go and see my brother's basketball play with my dad and her," the Fire Guardian said. "Something about giving our support as a family."

"You think you have it bad?" Cornelia asked to the glasses wearing girl. "My dad wants all of us to meet with this new and flamboyant business partner of his and have lunch with him. In an Italian!"

"I genuinely pity the fact that you've to eat spaghetti, Corny;" Irma said in her usual deadpan tone.

"Oh, ha! Ha!" Cornelia laughed false and sarcastically. "He's just some guy that bought a building here thanks to the bank dad works for. And I hate Italian food; it's just all grassy pasta... French food, that's much better." Cornelia said before checking her watch. "Agh, whatever. I've to go. Say hello to Jade from our part. We'll text you later."

"We'll give her a hug, don't worry;" Hay Lin told the two girls as they waved and got out of sight between the swarm of students that were escaping from Sheffield as if it was Hell itself. Fortunately for all of them, today was Friday, and that meant two glorious days away from the educational institution.

"Better go now," Will said to Irma and Hay Lin. "My mom will get angry at me if I took a lot of time to get back home from school." Even if happy about Will making friends so easily, Susan Vandom wasn't a woman known for letting her daughter do as she pleased. Especially considering that the redhead's math grades hadn't improved a lot.

The three remaining girls didn't waste any more minutes and started to walk towards the Silver Dragon. When they had left this morning Jade was still sleeping, curled up over the mattress that she had been put in the night before. The five girls had decided to not trouble her, especially considering what had happened yesterday. A part of Will couldn't still believe it, and another part accepted it as the most natural thing in the world. In the bedtime stories her mother used to tell her, magic used to be an explanation for everything, and having that now applied to real life made things harder, or at least more confusing.

They reached the restaurant after fifteen minutes of walking, customers entering and already inside, ready to order their menus to the awaiting Chen Lin. While Hay Lin headed to the kitchens to tell her mother and grandmother that she had arrived alongside the redhead and the brunette in order for the other two girls to see how Jade was doing.

"She is still in the basement," Joan told her daughter. "I can't believe she got so sick from eating that popcorn from the mall. You eat them all the time."

"Uh... maybe her stomach isn't as strong as mine?" Hay Lin said, remembering that she had told her mother that Jade had gotten intoxicated due to eating popcorn. "Can Will and Irma...?"

"Sure," Joan answered. "Jackie and that Uncle of his came just moments ago. They should still be in the basement."

The three girls left the agitated yet peaceful environment of the Silver Dragon and started to descent to the basement. Upon reaching the door that led to it, Will rotated the knob and she, Hay Lin and Irma entered. While the upper level of the restaurant was just as noisy as a restaurant should be, the basement…

"WHAT DO YOU MEAN I CAN'T?!"

…not so much.

Opening the door revealed the insides of the restaurant's basement, Jade, Jackie and Uncle already inside. The elder was considerably apart from the other two individuals, Jackie standing right in front of Jade, who now dressed in the clothes she had bought yesterday, was looking at him in such a manner that it seemed that she was trying to burn a hole in his skull.

"Eh… knock, knock?" Irma said while hitting the opened door slowly. The three people in the basement looked at the trio of newcomers, and Jade sighed as she shot her arms to the skies.

"Finally! Someone that will understand!" Jade said. "By the way, hello girls."

"Hello," Will said as she and the other two girls waved in unison. The redhead then looked directly at Jackie. "Is… something going on?"

"If you need for us to come later, then we can…" Hay Lin started to say, but Jade just walked towards the trio of girls, taking the three of them by the arms and guiding them to the center of the room, exactly where Jackie was.

"Tell him that he's wrong!" Jade yelled, making the other girls even more confused.

"Wrong in what?" Will asked, looking at Jackie for an explanation, the adult still not giving away any indication of what was happening.

"He doesn't want to let me accompany you in your missions!" Jade accused, even going so far as to point a finger towards Jackie; who frowned a bit and crossed his arms over his chest.

"Jade, I didn't say that you couldn't;" Jackie said. "I only said that you can't do it so soon. You heard Uncle, you have new powers and you need to train to control them."

"Yeah, you say that now," Jade said, rolling her eyes and crossing her arms over her chest in the exact same way that Jackie had done. "And then you're going to keep me training and training… and never letting me into the action."

"Jade, that's not what I want;" Jackie told his niece, who just snorted.

"Yeah, yeah; you want to protect me and not getting me hurt…" Jade practically mocked him, a fact that offended Jackie.

"Niece should understand," Uncle said then, giving a few steps and putting himself at Jackie's side. "Niece holds veeeery strong chi now. If used wrong, veeeery dangerous! One more thing! She should train to use her Shapeshifting powers adequately too! If she is going to use power incorrectly, then better if she doesn't!"

"Listen to Uncle, Jade;" Jackie told the girl. "You know that we are right. We are just trying to help you."

"No! You are trying to overprotect me! Again! You never, never let me into the action, and then just complain when I show up and save you! And now I can do things that none of you can do!" Jade yelled, and for a moment, Will could see how her teeth turned into fangs for a second. In that very moment, Yan Lin walked into the basement carrying a small tray with a couple of dirtied plates; trying to decipher what the ruckus she had heard from above was about. She waited in the frame of the door, listening to the discussion the young girl was having with her tutor.

"What's wrong with wanting to help if you can help?! What's wrong with using the strength you have?! What's wrong…" Jade Chan started to yell.

"…with having power?!" Nerissa Crossnic ended for her, her form momentarily taken the place of the girl as she talked, the former Keeper of the Heart having been standing forty years ago in the same spot at the young girl was now, having a very similar conversation.

 _CRASH!_

Turning to the spot where the sound had came from, all of them saw how Yan Lin had dropped the tray and the plates out of pure shock, the pieces of cutlery having shattered once they collided with the floor.

"Grandma!" Hay Lin said as she practically flown towards her grandmother. "Are you alright?"

"Wha- Yes, I'm fine," the Chinese old woman answered. "It seems I got distracted for a second there."

"I'll go and pick a broom," Hay Lin said as she stormed out of the basement in order to get the cleaning tool.

"Perhaps we should go too," Will suggested. "And came in another moment? You two seem to need time to talk and all that."

"You know what?" Jade asked. "You're right, Will. I'll be waiting outside;" the girl declared before storming out of the basement too, heading to the street in opposition to Hay Lin.

"We came in a bad moment, didn't we?" Irma asked to Jackie, who was just sighing in defeat and exasperation. The adult nodded, albeit he did in such a way that Irma understood perfectly that he wasn't blaming her.

"I don't want for her to think that I'm putting her away, or underestimating her," Jackie said. "It's just… let's go Uncle, I will talk with Jade when we are at home."

The archeologist and the elder abandoned the basement, not before the wizard bid farewell to his cousin, who remained in the spot she had been standing the entire time until her granddaughter came with the broom and took the pieces of crockery out of the floor. After saying good bye to Hay Lin, both Will and Irma exited the Silver Dragon and walked towards their houses. The brunette sighed and kicked an emptied can of soda that she saw in the side of the street.

"And I just wanted to say thanks…"

* * *

 ** _Heatherfield Sports Centre_**

"Go Peter!" Taranee Cook yelled as she held a hot dog in one hand and she threw the other into the air, closed into a fist. She, her mother and her father were at the grades of a basketball field while her brother, Peter Cook, member and captain of Sheffield's basketball team; was currently playing a match and holding the ball, dashing over the court alongside his teammates and aiming to score. Taranee had to admit, this was kind of fun, not to mention one of the few (if not the only) chance to see the usually disciplined and serious judge Theresa Cook shouting and cheering for her son. The glasses wearing girl wasn't a person with a sore spot in her heart for sports (sincerely, she preferred a good book in a peaceful afternoon over all this yelling and mixed smells of different foods) but she was clearly enjoying this.

"So, what's the goal of the game?" she heard then a whisper behind her.

"Caleb?" the Fire Guardian asked, noticing the form of the boy in the seat behind her by looking out of the corner of her eye. "How did you get in here?"

"Windows," he answered. "We need to talk. I will be waiting outside."

Great, the only time I don't want to get out of a basketball match, and the guy from another world has to come and take me out; she thought with disdain. She saw how Caleb left and then looked at her parents, who were so focused in the match that they hadn't noticed his presence.

"I have to go to the bathroom!" Taranee said as she devoured the remnants of her hot dog.

"Then go, you aren't a little girl anymore;" Lionel Cook said as he rubbed his hairless head in order to swipe sweat out of it. "But try not to lose much time, your brother's making the game of his life!"

"I know!" Taranee shouted as she tried to find a way between the swarm of men and women that yelled, ate and drank while looking at the match. Albeit she had to risk her glasses a couple of times, she finally got past the crowd and into the halls, where Caleb was waiting for her, leaning against a wall.

"What's going on?" Taranee asked. "Is something wrong? There is an attack or...?"

"No, no; there is no attack;" Caleb said. "It's just that... can we speak with the other Guardians too?"

"Obviously, no;" Taranee asked. "I can text them if you want to," the girl explained, taking her phone out her pocket. "But right now they're having lunch, you know, with their families?"

Families, right; Caleb thought. "Sorry, the Portal Blunk found for me was near here and he sniffed you. The Rebellion has... taken a very hard blow. I was hoping we could ask for your help."

"Well... we should wait for the others," Taranee said. "I'll text them after lunch."

"And what do I do meanwhile?" the rebel leader asked as he shrugged, to which Taranee took a finger to her chin and then she smiled.

"Have you ever eaten a hot dog?"

* * *

 ** _Chan flat_**

"Jade! Jade, lunch is ready, come back to our flat!" Jackie said as he opened the door that headed to the rooftop of the building. "I knew you were here."

Since the moment they had gone back to their flat, Jade had tried to evade her family relatives with all the effort she could muster. And so, she had stormed out in the very first chance she had seen, furious with all of them; not even bothering to say anythig to Tohru, who had remained in the flat in order to prepare lunch. And now here she was, in the same rooftop he had been hours ago, sitting in the border and moving her legs in the air.

"Jade..." Jackie began, but his niece interrupted her.

"Today I met some guys," Jade said while looking at the now pure blue of Heatherfield's skies. "Well, I met them in my dreams, and one of them was a woman, but whatever. They told me 'you're the Chosen One, you got great power!'. So I thought, 'why can't I use that power to help my new and awesome friends?' And you go and tell me I can't do that. Tch!"

"Jade, I just told you that you need to train, that you need to be prepared;" Jackie said as he walked towards the end of the rooftop and sat at her side.

"Because you don't want me getting hurt," Jade ended the phrase for him. "But you let Will and the others to go and face Wong, letting me behind. And who ended saving you all? Me. You made me feel like a baby and I just want to help my friends. I just want to fight by their side."

Jackie fell silent for almost five minutes. Then he leaned against his palms and sighed. He wanted to say so many things. That war was wrong, that it was dangerous... but he supposed that could only worsen things with his niece. Maybe it was time to give Jade some reason and deposit some faith into the girl. Uncle always said that ' _youngsters always neeeeed space to fall and get to their feet in their own! And one ore thing! Nephew wasn't so different when he was young!_ ' Yet Jackie knew that this was a war, and that Jade would be in danger. Hadn't she been in danger already? With the Dark Hand, and Shendu, and even getting sucked in the Demon Netherworld…

"Starting tomorrow," Jackie said after thinking for a while. "Uncle and Tohru are going to give you classes into how handle your new powers. And you will be accompanying the girls in their Guardian missions."

Jade's face lighted in joy as a wide smile appeared in her face. "Really?"

"Yes," the archeologist answered, and his niece threw herself directly into his arms.

"Thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you! You're the coolest Uncle ever!" Jade said in pure bliss. "I promise not to get hurt and that I'll protect the girls and...!"

"For now," Jackie said, getting up. "Why don't you come down and eat with us?" the archeologist asked in a gentle tone as he lent a hand to the girl.

"Okay," Jade agreed, taking her uncle's hand. "Actually, I'm pretty hungry. I suppose it comes with being a werewolf, or a Shapeshifter... or whatever I'm now."

And thus they headed back inside, and they ate their lunch, a simple meal made by Tohru composed of some fried vegetables and then steak. Jade found the meat much more pleasant than the vegetables, but that was something she attributed to her new Shapeshifter physiology. It wasn't until they ended eating and Jade was helping Tohru to clean the dishes that someone knocked at the door. Opening it Jackie was greeted by Irma Lair, waving awkwardly at him.

"Hi," the Water Guardian said. "Is Jade here?"

"Sure I am!" the girl answered from the kitchen, her head popping out over the frame from the entrance to the room and her body shortly following. "What's up?"

"You... get things right?" Irma asked, her eyes alternating between Jade and Jackie, the adult giving a small nod in affirmation.

"Okay," the Water Guardian said. "I came because... because I wanted to say thanks to you," she explained looking at Jade. "For saving me from the snake-man and all that."

"Hey, what are friends for?" Jade asked, making the Water Guardian to smile.

"Right..." Irma let out a long sigh. "Really wanting to get that one out. Taranee texted, by the way; saying that Caleb got back from Meridian and wants to see us all. You coming? Corny's still waiting to have lunch with her family, but..."

"Sure! I mean," she looked back at Jackie. "Can I go?"

Jackie nodded again. "Go, but be careful. And phone me if you are going to get to another dimension," he said, almost not believing that those words had just left his mouth.

"Awesome!" both girls said as they exited the flat and ran down the building's stairs.

"Are you really going to let her go like that?" Tohru asked as he appeared behind him carrying a plate he was drying with a dishcloth.

"I still have some doubts about all this," Jackie told his friend. "But I'm going to let her be part of this since she already is. I told her you and Uncle will be training her in using all that power of the Ben-Shui. Can you...?"

"Sensei and I will look into it," Tohru stated, giving an affirmative nod.

"Jackieeee!" they heard Uncle's voice then. "You have a call in the Internet screeeen!"

Does he mean the computer?; Jackie thought as they strolled towards the room the elder had called from. And what a surprise, he really meant the computer. The computer which now was showing the visage of someone he hadn't seen in more than a month.

"Captain Black?" Jackie asked upon seeing his old friend's face in the screen.

The Captain and leader of Section 13, a tall, middle aged bald man named Augustus Black; gave a small wave of his hand from the other side of the computer. "I'm sorry for calling so suddenly Jackie. How are things going on there?"

"Pretty good," Jackie answered. I got my family and myself dragged into a civil war in another world too; he added in his thoughts, but decided to not tell Black. If there was a thing he didn't need now was for Section 13 and the goverment by extension to get into all this. "Thank you for getting Jade into Sheffield, by the way.",

"It was nothing," Black told him. "But I must sadly say that this isn't a courtesy call."

"I expected as such," Jackie said as he rubbed his forehead. "What is this time?"

"Old business," Black answered. "Dark Hand business."

"Dark Hand?" Jackie repeated, remembering his old foes. The last time he had seen the Enforcers was when they were going after Bai Tza back in Rome, and he hadn't crossed paths with Valmont since Shendu's banishing. Not that he missed any of them. "But I thought you handled that long ago."

"Actually, we have put both Valmont and his Enforcers into custody," Black explained. "They tried to get into the vault and steal the Talismans. Our agents got them in sight. No, I'm talking about the _other_ Dark Hand."

" _Other_ Dark Hand?" Jackie asked in confusion. What did he meant with that?

"Oh..." he heard Tohru whisper at his back. "So they had begun to move."

"They?" Jackie asked in his growing confusion.

"Let us just say that Valmont was only the tip of the iceberg," Black explained. "How many fingers does a hand have?"

"Five," Jackie answered instantaneously, finally realizing what Black was implying. "Wait, are you telling me...?"

"Valmont was only in charge of the Dark Hand's American branch," Tohru explained. "Europe, Africa, Asia and Oceania have their own branches, with their own leadership. Valmont used to take me to some of the meetings they organized, but I only met in person the man in charge of the African branch. Bau Farouk, I think was his name. He was a nice man, though... ow!"

"Why didn't apprentice tell us that?!" Uncle demanded to know from his student, hitting him with his usual dope slap.

"Tohru told me in the moment he changed sides," Black explained from the screen, excusing the sumo. "He shared all the information he had not only about Valmont and his branch, but the little he had concerning the other branches too. Section 13's jurisdiction only applies to the United States, so we had to handle the rest of the information we possessed to the Interpol. But we received a tip some weeks ago stating that the leader of the Asian Branch had moved to the USA in order to put the American Branch under proper management after Valmont's fall, and that he had established his base of operations in Heatherfield, since apparently he has connections in there already. We struck a hard blow to the most powerful criminal organization in the world, I can't let some other mobster to heal that wound and put someone even worse than Valmont in charge."

"But why tell me this?" Jackie asked, even if he already knew more or less what the answer was going to be. "Even if he is in Heatherfield, your organization has capable people to deal with this kind of threats, right?"

"Because since all this mess with the Talismans, demons and whatnot began, Jackie," Black said. "I put more attention to some things, and some conversations. And in those conversations people speak about a thief that can transform himself into a warrior made of paper, about people that get supplanted by exact copies of themselves… and only one word comes to my head. A word you are familiar with."

"Magic," Jackie answered almost instantaneously, and Black nodded in the screen. "Who is he?"

* * *

 ** _Giovanni's Italian restaurant_**

"Do it again! Do it again!" Lillian Hale cheered as she put a coin over the table of the restaurant she was in with her family… or the majority of it anyway.

Cornelia had arrived at the restaurant in time, her mother and sister already waiting for her. Her father... not so much. According to Elizabeth Harold and this new business partner of the bank he worked for had some, to quote her mother, 'bureaucratic issues' to meddle with. That left the blond Earth Guardian alone with her mother and little sister for a while, a prospect she didn't very much enjoy. However, that didn't last long, the mysterious businessman's two associates (bodyguards, Cornelia knew that they were bodyguards) appearing shortly after. She had to admit; whoever this man was he really was a big shot of some way. On to of that, the restaurant had been emptied just for her family and this businessman and his companions. Definitively a big shot.

One of them was a young man that should be in his early thirties or his late twenties. And damn he was handsome. Not in the very same way that Caleb was, of course. Caleb was an athletic teen that had the body of a bodybuilder thanks to spending almost one third of his young life fighting a tyranny. This man was... elegant, refined and dignified. An _adult_ man conscious of his sex appeal with slightly tanned skin and short brown hair over his head, all wrapped in a perfectly cut suit with an elegant tie. Almond eyes looked around awake and alive, inspecting and memorizing the whole restaurant to the smallest detail in seconds. He presented himself as Phillip Crane by kissing both Cornelia and Elizabeth's hands; and since his arrival he had been playing a game with Lillian consisting in that the man took a coin and, no matter where he or the little girl hide it, he would always retrieve it.

"How do you do it?!" Lillian asked in amazement after Crane had repeated his trick for the tenth time. "Are you a magician?"

"Experience kiddo," the man answered in a sweet tone. Not only handsome, but also gentle and funny; now that was a great plus. "Tell you what, if you find the coin next time I hide it, I'll teach you how."

Of course, Lillian giggled in joy to that proposal and continued to play with him. This childish behavior made the second bodyguard to snort slightly.

Cornelia had to admit that these two men were like night and day. Where Crane was a thin and friendly man, this one was serious, dry and unsympathetic. Not to mention muscled, more muscled than any man she had seen. He was wearing a suit much like Crane's, but the man was moving inside of it, clearly uncomfortable. As if he was accustomed to wear a very different type of clothing. A red and spiky mane fell at his back from his head, and a thin and large moustache and goatee of the same color adorned his face. He had called himself Hak Foo. Lillian had commented that he looked like an angry cat, making Elizabeth to scold at her and Crane to agree with the child, making the big man grumble in annoyance.

After several more minutes of waiting, Harold and the mysterious businessman entered the establishment. The man accompanying her father seemed to be an Asian (probably Vietnamese, or Taiwanese) man well past his fifties, with black hair with several white streaks over it. While his two bodyguards were clad in formal suits, this old man was wearing a pair of dark brown pants, a red shirt and a purple tunic over it, all of them apparently made of silk, if the Earth Guardian's eye for this kind of things was as good as she prided herself for.

"Sorry for being so late," Harold apologized. "If I knew that we would have so many problems with the paperwork I would have postponed this. But there is no going back, so..." he looked at the still-not-named businessman. "This is my family. My wife, Elizabeth," Harold introduced his espouse, who rose from her seat and shook the mans right hand, her face making an expression of strangeness.

"And my daughters," Harold addressed both girls. "Cornelia and Lillian."

While the youngest Hale just greeted with her usual childish demeanor and a happy 'Hello!'; Cornelia emulated her mother and rose to shake the man's hand. The touch felt strange against her skin, and she understood why her mother had made that face. The hand was cold, firm...

And green. The man nodded politely, answering her shake with a gentle smile and his name.

"Bartholomew Chang."

* * *

 _Conflict and doubt are the basis of any progression. If you don't doubt your own belief and path, how do you expect to transform, progress, and evolve? Yet very few people apply this fact to their life, for doubting themselves would crack their resolve and made them to question their whole life. They need to think that they are right and others are wrong… when there is no right or wrong. There is only change, only a continuum of progress and evolution; that is how Earth has been able to come to where it is. I have dedicated my entire life to strengthen and accelerate that process of transformation, both in an individual and societal basis… even if it means that I need to sacrifice some people in the way. And to those men that only can see their own way, I tell them: Don't fear doubt! Don't fear conflict! Don't fear change!_ Charles Ludmoore.

* * *

 **A/N: If no one remembers him, Phillip Crane was the 'anti-Viper' part of the 'Anti-J-Team'. But to get to the point… Guardians introduced and JCA Universe integrated in the WITCH universe? Check. Meridian's civil war and the Rebellion made into a more gray conflict? Check. Jade made into a Shapeshifter? Check. Chesmmasters in the shadows introduced? Check. Well, time to get into the conflict and action. I suppose next chapter should come sooner than this one, but only time will tell. As a plus for all of you due to the waiting…**

 **Meridian Trivia. Family names** **:**

 ** _Common smallfolk are referred to by their name and their name of their father in case of being male and mother in case of being female. An example: Caleb, son of Julian. Other, more lowborn smallfolk are called son or daughter preceded by the place they were born; like Swampson or Mountainson; due to probably being the result of an encounter between two horny people that didn't even knew the other's name, not knowing their progenitors or even rape. Noble houses have a surname, like Escanor or Servantis; indicating their highborn ancestry. Bastards of noble houses are referred as X, son/daughter of Y of the house Z._**

 **Bye, Bye!**


	7. A Mask for your Birthday

**Disclaimer: I own neither the WITCH cartoon-show nor Jackie Chan Adventures; they are the property of their respective creators, writers, and producers.**

 **Author Notes: Well, here comes chapter seven, but before we start I'll like to make various announcements. First of all, sorry for the long delay in this one, but life has been quite busy as of lately. Second, don't get accustomed to see this updated until a very long time since now on. And third and most important: I'll like to give many thanks to fellow Fanfiction author Vanessa Masters for suggesting me an idea for a character and helping me to develop it and insert it in the story.**

 **That was all; as always, please enjoy your read, more notes at the end, and leave a review to tell me how you find this _very_ _long_ chapter. Everyone's ready? Let's go.**

* * *

Guardians, Wizards and Kung-Fu Fighters

Episode Seven

A Mask for your Birthday

* * *

 ** _World of Meridian; a road to the Capital_**

"No really, who do you think would win?" a guard asked another as they rode a carriage over a road of Meridian towards the Capital. Night would be coming soon, and albeit the sun was still in the sky, it was starting to fall, and some zones, like the forest that surrounded the road, were already darkened. In front of the carriage the two guards were driving, a second one was travelling, guided by another pair of guards; both of them surrounded by a platoon half composed of guards and half composed of Lurdens. However, the contains of the carriages were completely different, the carriage first in line contained multiple goods like grain, potatoes, onions, various fruits and some barrels full of meat and fish in salt. The second carriage was a different story, as it had an iron cage built in it, and was currently occupied by a group of ten people or so, all of them rebels, all of them captured in a rush when they had tried to assault the first carriage. And now they were all captured, and the worst part was that they had to endure their captors' conversation about hypothetical fights.

"Between Cedric and the Archmage?" the second guard asked. "I don't know... Cedric, maybe? He is enormous and strong... and in one of the raids I saw how arrows and swords bounced back from his skin as if they were flies."

"But the Archmage can do magic, and is only second to the Prince on it," the other one retorted. "Let's try another one."

"Alright... Lothar and Frost," his companion proposed.

The other guard snorted. "Lothar, of course! He wasn't Raythor's apprentice and now has his position for nothing!"

"But Frost is incredibly strong!" The other guard protested, making the other one to roll his eyes.

"Strength is not everything," the first guard stated. "Aren't those Guardians of the Veil just five girls? Yet I have heard in the castle that they were able to defeat both Wong and Cedric at the same time. And that during the past days they have been aiding the rebels into freeing prisoners from the working camps within the borders of the kingdom. They say that they can create earthquakes or rise tornadoes to their aid."

"That has to be an exaggeration," the second guard said. "But they have magic too, right? I don't know if I really want to find out if they are able to do what rumors say they can do."

"Don't tempt fate," his companion suggested. "We could encounter them. After all, it's not that you catch one of the Rebellion's top lieutenants everyday, right Drake?" the guard asked mockingly.

In the cage at their backs, Drake, one of the Rebellion's most notable members and that was second priority only to Caleb; lowered his head a bit, but neither he nor his fellow rebels could avoid a smirk coming to their faces upon hearing that commentary.

 _Both of you are tempting fate_ , the rebel thought with confidence. Then again, fate has nothing to with this. _This goes all according to plan_.

"Halt!" one of the guards in the first carriage yelled then, the two carriage caravan stopping mere seconds after.

"What is it?!" one of the guards in the platoon asked next, approaching the first carriage.

"We have entered a morass!" the one in charge of the first carriage yelled back. "The horses can't keep going, much less the carriages' wheels!"

"That's ridiculous, there was no morass in this road!" the guard of the platoon, and apparently the one in charge of it, yelled in exasperation. "It can't have appeared out of nowhere!"

"Gee, it's almost as if someone could control the earth!"

Raising their heads towards the skies, where against the setting sun, five figures clad in blue and pink were flying and looking at the whole platoon from above.

"Well, I helped a bit to work that mud, didn't I Corny?" Irma asked her teamate jokingly, making the blonde to scold at her.

"If any of you ask me again to get near mud, and we aren't at a spa, start to search for another Earth Guardian, 'cause I'll leave the group;" Cornelia declared, making the Water Guardian to giggle a bit.

"The Guardians of the Veil!" the guard in charge of the small platoon yelled in fear and shock. "Archers! Archers, to me!"

"You know, they could try to say something nice from time to time," Taranee spoke, crossing her arms over her chest.

"I know right?" Hay Lin intervened. "It's always _'Fire the catapults_!' or _'Send the Larveks_!' It's never something like _'Let's settle things by talking_!' or the like."

"I doubt that's their style," Will declared, seeing how many of the Lurdens and guards were now carrying bows and preparing to shoot at them. At the command of the guard from before, the archers let loose, and a swarm of arrows flew in their direction. "Taranee?"

The girl nodded in approval and quickly put herself in front of the other four Guardians, conjuring an enormous ball of fire between her palms and unleashing it in the form of a wave of flames towards their enemies' incoming attack, reducing the arrows to ashes. Both guards and Lurdens looked purely scared right now that their attack had been literally disintegrated.

"Swords on hand!" the chief guard ordered; his men and the Lurdens already taking their weapons. "To the cage, don't let them get to the prisoners!"

"What prisoners?" Drake asked at his back, having already freed himself and his rebellious companions, standing out of the cage while shaking a pair of picklocks in front of him. "An easy and old trick; but please don't be angry at me, this whole operation was her idea;" the rebel said while gesturing to the Keeper of the Heart, who smiled proudly in the air.

The chief guard readied his weapon, albeit he didn't know if to point it towards the now freed rebels or towards the Guardians. His eyes fluctuated between the two groups of enemies frenetically, not knowing into which one they should stop. Over the less powerful but much nearer rebels? Or the five magical women in the air?

"Aw, I think they're starting to feel all stressed;" Irma commented. "Say Hay-Hay, what do you think about that?"

"That a good and big current of fresh air would relax them!" the air Guardian said in a excited tone while charging a tornado and directing it towards the guards and Lurdens, sending them and their weapons flying. They landed in the ground shortly after, either unconscious, with some bones broken, or with their will to fight shattered upon witnessing the Guardians' powers.

"Cornelia, wrap them up and let's go home!" Will commanded, the blonde quickly flying down and landing strongly in the ground, making vines to sprout out of the ground and targeted both guards and Lurdens, taking many and enveloping their bodies and imprisoning them.

"Said and done," the blonde said while proudly waving her hair; albeit there were some guards, the chief between them; that had been able to either evade or free themselves.

"To the woods!" the chief guard shouted. "To the woods! Retreat!"

"Some are getting away!" a rebel yelled, determined to chase after the fleeing soldiers, but Drake put a hand over his shoulder and shook his head, indicating to his companion that the escaping enemies weren't a problem.

The other four girls descended to the ground and the quintet approached Drake and the other rebels, who were now divided in two groups. One was picking the fallen weaponry of their defeated enemies and putting it in the same carriage they had been imprisoned; while the other was getting the carriage with the food out of the mud.

"Don't worry about them," Will said to the rebels while she looked at the small forest and a smirk appeared in her face. "They aren't going anywhere."

* * *

"Don't scatter! Remain together!" the chief guard yelled as he and his remaining forces strolled between the thick threes of the dark woods. He had to admit that maintaining them all together was incredibly difficult, as the Lurdens and the guards seemed to want to go into two complete opposite ways. _This is the problem with working with savages like Lurdens_ , the guard thought. _They are very good for raids and battles or attacks in an open field, or to attack a large fortress; but they lack the discipline to retreat from the battlefield in an organized manner or be sent into stealth missions or protect caravans like… wait, what was that?_

The guard was sure that he had seen something moving between the dark woods, jumping from one shadow of a tree to another. Maybe to his… right? The guard turned quickly, but there was nothing there but a couple of the Lurdens, who seemed… scared? Lurdens didn't feel fear unless in the presence of something that clearly was much more powerful than them. Like the Prince, or Cedric, or the Archmage! Then he heard the sound of something cracking at his left, at the side of the nearest three. He rushed towards there, but then again he found nothing. Then the first scream came, the recognizable scream of one of the other guards that were accompanying him; so he went into that scream's direction, sword in hand. Could it be the Guardians? No, they would attack from the distance with those powers of theirs, probably burn the forest or something. More rebels? If what Drake said about this all being their plan, then there could be more rebels around, waiting for them in the most probable escape routes they would take... Yes, that was probably what was happening. That was surely what was happening… until he found his injured companion.

The guard had been slashed over the chest by something sharp, maybe a razor blade, or a bastard sword… but no, no weapon left a wound like that, and no sword struck a mark of three slashes all over one's chest like that.

This isn't the work of a weapon, the man thought as he checked his companion's vitals. Still breathing; good, breathing was good. _I have seen this kind of wound before, that time while accompanying Lord Cedric during one of his attacks over the Rebellion… claws…_

He heard another scream then, not too far from his position this time. Then he heard a heavy sound as something landed at his side. It was another guard, this one alive too, but also with several wounds similar in size and form than the ones of the previous one. Wounds made by claws slashing his flesh, but there were more than in the other one. And there was another kind of wound in this guard, as if something had nailed the thick end of a spear in his flesh several times and in parallel lines. Something had… bitten him. Something big, with a very big mouth… and big fangs.

More screams followed, accompanied by the fall of more unconscious and harmed bodies all around. Then the Lurdens were the one to fall, and the now lone chief guard rose to his feet, sword in trembling hands; his mind clouded by fear. He heard another sound at his back, the sound of steps, so he pointed his weapon into that direction. The sun was almost gone, and seeing was more and more difficult with each second that passed, and so his fear grown in proportion with the darkness.

"Who's there?!" the guard yelled in fear. "Show yourself!"

In that very moment, no sound could be heard in the forest that wasn't the guard's uncontrolled breathing. Nothing was heard… until a growl at his back sounded, and a pair of almost golden amber eyes lighted in the shadows. The guard found no braveness to turn around, even when he heard the steps of the large wolf approaching him, the growls the animal was making, and the odor of flesh blood impregnating the creature's claws and fangs.

"Well," Jade Chan told the guard as she stood behind him, so close that the soldier could feel her breath against the back of his head. "Here I am. What you gonna do?"

The guard put together the few inches of courage he still had within his spirit and then let a battle cry escape his mouth as he turned around with the intention of delivering a blow with all the strength he had left. The sword made the air sung as it approached Jade… who casually took it between her jaws and shattered it to pieces with ease by closing them. She then moved her left claw and delivered a slash to the guard across his chest, sending him to the ground. Then she jumped onto him and roared in his face, striking so much fear in his heart that the man fell unconscious. Then the wolf sniffed the air and, founding no more enemies around, she shifted back to her human form, the form of the twelve year old Jade Chan, who proceeded to try and clean the majority of the blood in her hands and mouth.

 _And I haven't even needed to use my new awesome chi powers_ , the girl thought as she looked around at all the guards and Lurdens she had struck down, letting a proud smile to come to her face. The Shapeshifter girl then turned around, and exited the dark woods, were the Guardians, Drake and the rest of the few rebels that were there were waiting for her.

"And?" Will inquired.

"And? All of them down, whining like babies;" Jade answered proudly.

"Then it's time to go back to the Infinite City," Will declared, to which Drake made a sign to the now turned around carriages to start moving. The five winged girls started to fly, while Jade leapt into the carriage that had been carrying the falsely imprisoned rebels. And thus, members of the Rebellion, Guardians and Shapeshifter left the road, leaving behind only trapped and wounded soldiers of the tyrant behind. Once again, the mission had been nothing but a…

* * *

 ** _Infinite city; almost an hour after the assault to the caravan_**

"Success!" Drake proclaimed in triumph after returning to the underground city with the weapons and food they had won in their little skirmish with those guards and Lurdens.

He started to distribute the food among some of the rebels, while some others took the weapons and started to storage them in the armory. Cheers ran across the otherwise almost completely silent hall of the Infinite City the rebels used as their base. Cheers for Drake and the men that had accompanied him, cheers for another blow delivered to the tyranny, no matter how small it was. And of course cheers for the Guardians of the Veil and even for Jade, who some of the rebels had nicknamed 'The Wolf Girl' and 'The Good Wolf'.

One week. One week had passed since their duel with Cedric and Daolon Wong, and since the revelation of Jade being a Shapeshifter and the Chosen One of the Ben-Shui order. One week they had all spent almost the majority afternoons in aiding the rebels into everything they could, be it with assaults like the one from today, freeing rebels that had been imprisoned by Phobos' minions in working camps, working the land to extract mineral from it and craft weapons. Wake up, go to school, go to another world to beat the tar out of the servants of Phobos, and then head back to Heatherfield. Some of them had to admit that it wasn't exceptionally easy to found excuses in order to justify disappearing during entire afternoons, especially for Will and Cornelia, who had to do incredibly complicated juggles with their schedules in order to be able to not mis any of their ice skating and swimming practices. But they had managed to be in Meridian enough time to tip the balance of power of power a bit into the Rebellion's favor. The rebels had to admit, albeit all of them shared a visceral hate for Phobos, having a wolf bigger than an adult man and individuals possessing magic on your side really was helpful. And albeit many of the rebels had been quite adamant about collaborating with Jade due to her status as a Shapeshifter... but some words from Caleb, the approbation of the 'Mage' and the fact that Jade had proven herself as quite the psychological weapon against the enemy (there were few things that actually inspired fear in a heart more than an oversized black wolf coming out of nowhere to attack you, that was the reason the rebels maintained her mostly as a secret instead of presuming of her like with the Guardians) and as every day passed, there were more and more rebels willing to accept her, or at least to not pray to the Light of Meridian to get rid of 'the Beast', as some called her. The young, and especially the men that were directly under Drake's command, had warmed up to her quite quickly, as had done Aldarn's, the young Galhot quite grateful for the role she had played into his leader's survival against the Snake of Cavigor and the Archmage. Sephiria and her Faithwomen seemed to have cooled down towards the idea of having a Shapeshifter between their lines, albeit still considered it as something improper for ' _good and faithful meridianites_ ' _._ Rhouglar just loved the idea of a giant wolf tearing the enemy apart. And the children that lived alongside the rebels... they were amazed by the cool and gentle girl that told them stories about dragons, demons, wizards and that could transform into an enormous wolf that let them ride in her back at whim.

Of course, there were some ones that still looked at Jade with contempt and hatred in their eyes. They were mostly the oldest members, the ones that had grown, lived and raised families in the days of Weira's or even the late Queen's mother; before Phobos had come crumbling their peace to pieces with a Shapeshifter at his side. Between these men was Ser Alistair Tharquin, the Old Worm looking with stern eyes at how a sinful Beast like that one was laughing while sharing the Rebellion's triumph.

 _Have these fools really forgotten the harm Cedric and some of his horrid brethren have done to us?_ , the old Half-breed knight thought with bitterness. _Have they forgotten the teachings of the faithful that they are now eager to break bread with an abomination? And not only this, but that cursed, decrepit old man that Phobos dares to call his Archmage could be creating more as of now!_ The Old Worm took a hand to his left shoulder in pure instinct, the scars in his back starting to itch, reminding him of the sacred mission he had tasked himself with. _Perhaps is better to be calm and lay low for the moment_ , the old Half-breed thought as he looked how the girl, now in human form, gathering with the Guardians. _Until I find an opportunity..._

The Guardians' status was not very different than Jade's, having already won not only the rebels' hearts thanks to their actions in their battles, but also by helping the commoners of the villages of the kingdom's exterior ring with their food supply, because there was no better way of producing grain, vegetables and fruits than having a girl that could make them sprout out at will. But of course there were some that judged them too carefree, or that resented them for only showing up now of all times and start getting all the praise when the rebels had been fighting the tyrant for already more than a decade. Yet their glares were less obvious and their words spoken in a more soft voice. After all, everyone knew that Kandrakar was sacred, and their judgment wise and well-meaning.

"Are you sure you have to go?" Drake asked the six girls, who were getting ready to go back to the Portal they had used to come to Meridian today, if it was still there. "We were just opening a couple of..."

"No, we need to go;" Will politely declined the man's offer. "We need to get back to our own homes, even if it's Friday."

Drake raised a brow in slight confusion. "What does that matter?" he asked, making the five girls to snicker a bit. Right, different world, different rules. That meant no weekends, and probably no parents waiting home. Not that these families had any homes aside this supposedly infinite labyrinth.

"In our world, it does;" the redhead answered.

"Understood," Drake said, albeit Will knew that he really didn't. "Do you need a guide towards the Portal?"

"I don't think so," Will said, starting to walk away with the other five girls. "Thank you for everything anyway, Drake."

"It was nothing, Guardian;" the rebel told her as a warm smile appeared in his face. "Be careful in your way home."

The six girls started to leave the Infinite City after thanking Drake for his words, the cheers and shouts of victory dying as they turned around corners and strolled through halls, always doing the same route that Caleb had taught them when first entering the place. However, as they reached the secret exit that led them again to the nocturnal Meridian and they started to search for a Portal to get back to Heatherfield, Will noted how her companions were directing strange looks towards her.

"What?" the Keeper of the Heart inquired flatly, to which the other five girls just smirked.

"You know," Cornelia said. "That Drake guy."

"What about him?" Will asked, not falling into what her friends were saying.

"He liiiiikes you!" Hay Lin and Jade teased in unison, making Will to blush a bit.

"Wha- what?! That's ridiculous!" the redhead shouted. "I mean, he's just some rebel guy we make strategies with! And he's like... thirty, or what? Why would he like me?"

"To be fair," Jade commented. "You all look like twenty something girls in sexy outfits when being Guardians. And maybe this Drake is one of those guys that like intelligent people? He complimented you for today's mission."

"Whatever..." Will said while rolling her eyes and sharpening her senses in expectation of the weird sensation that a Portal make her feel upon its proximity. "And what about today's mission, anyway? The idea of letting the guards go to the woods in order to scare them was yours, not mine."

"Duh! But the overall plan was!" Jade protested, but before the two girls could broke into an argument of which one of the two was the better planner, the buzzing sound of a Portal echoed nearly, and the girls headed into its direction, coming into the sight of the blue hole in the Veil moments later.

"Speaking of rebel pretty boys," Irma commented as they reached the Portal. "Didn't see your boyfriend in the whole day, Corny."

"Caleb's not my boyfriend!" the blonde complained.

"But when we assaulted that mine with him and Aldarn, he really was looking at you with… you know, one of those expressions!" Hay Lin told her, making the Earth Guardian to look confused at her. "I don't know how to explain it, he seemed… impressed when you hit those guards with those rocks."

"Maybe it was that her skirt just moved in the right way while doing that," Jade commented, making Will to elbow her.

"Caleb's not one of those guys!" Cornelia told her friend. "He's far more educated than that!"

"But you like him or not?" Taranee asked; which made the Earth Guardian to look a bit confused to the ground.

"Maybe?"

"Okay, we're all tired after this long week;" Will declared. "Let's cross back to Heatherfield, close the Portal and went back to our homes. I bet everyone needs to sleep."

The five girls crossed the Portal, leaving Meridian behind. However, a last thought about the rebels crossed the mind of the redhead as soon as she passed from one realm to another. None of them had seen Caleb in the entire afternoon, neither Aldarn, or that creepy quiet woman named Mage that they all had met a week before and that sometimes looked at Will strangely from some distance.

Where were they?

* * *

 ** _Across the Veil; Ludmoore manor_**

 _We have been here for entire hours!_ , Nerissa Crossnic thought with rage, while her glamour as the 'Mage' showed no emotion. _I may be a patient woman, but this is starting to get ridiculous! At least Ludmoore had the decency to offer something to pass the time,_ the sorceress thought in a calmer way as she looked at the food and different types of wine that were in front of her, all of them lying over a large table in one of the biggest rooms of the Ludmoore manor, probably some kind of dining room for the great parties of the past. At her left, Caleb sipped from a small cup of wine from time to time, and at his left Aldarn fought with all his will in order to not take any food from the plates in front of them, suspicious that they would contain some kind of poison of drug, even when Caleb was showing no symptoms of being poisoned. What a ridiculous thought, Nerissa knew that Ludmoore was a man of business, and so the probabilities of him killing any possible customer were almost zero.

But the thing that clearly was troubling the two rebels more wasn't the food and the fact that it may or not may be poisoned. It was the other group of three in the room, sitting across the same large table and binding their time until Ludmoore showed up; having arrived shortly after the 'Mage', Caleb and Aldarn. The trio was composed by Daolon Wong, that little spider shifter Miranda and a boy whose name Nerissa knew to be Tristan only thanks to her Trill persona inside the castle's kitchens. She knew that he was a survivor of Carhaiz thanks to the bickering of the other women in the kitchens too. Great, just the thing that she needed. The looks that the boy was directing to Caleb weren't any more calming, neither were the brief moments in which his fingers turned into strange looking red claw like things. A Shapeshifter like the girl? Certainly; he probably was another one of Wong's successes. Good thing that she had already taken a couple of vials from Wong's laboratory for herself. If this continued like this, maybe it was time for Wong's laboratory to experience an accidental explosion before more survivors of Carhaiz turned in the wizard's direction... No, not yet; Wong and his little and twisted experiments could still prove useful to her in the long run. Damn it, if she had known that Julian was going to be the one sent to Carhaiz, she wouldn't have suggested the idea in the first place. The fact that her husband had ended there was a bit suspicious, but she supposed she would have to look at it later. Let's focus on the now.

The plan was quite simple, or at least it was for her. First and most favorable option, get the Mask and find a way to siphon its power directly into her body; which actually was quite improbable, since Phobos' economical resources were quite bigger than the Rebellion's. Second option, if first one failed and Phobos got the Mask, she could send the Guardians after this new threat and make them to defeat it, thus increasing the Rebellion's reputation.

Guardians. She had tried not to think a lot about them, not since Caleb had presented himself in the Infinite City with them. And with the wolf girl, but she was secondary; if even quite amusing and intelligent too. Seeing the Heart of Kandrakar again, this time hanging from _another_ neck that wasn't hers had been a hard trial to pass. And to see them five again, especially Yan Lin's granddaughter, who looked exactly like her old friend except for the long hair and the skimpier outfit. But she had fought the nostalgia and beat it to a pulp. She didn't need to get all emotional now, not when her plan was starting to get into fruition after all these years. These new Guardians were the same as Phobos and the rebels, just pieces in the board to be moved and be used. Or maybe not, her successor as Keeper had some potential to be exploited; she just needed the right motivation and time to use it. Perhaps with the passing of time… maybe good material for a second in command?

While the 'Mage' was lost in her inner thoughts; Wong was not paying much attention to the enemy, instead being proud that his new success had already accustomed to his new powers. So the old wizard looked at the boy at his side with faked paternal interest.

"Tristan..." Wong whispered to the boy at his side. "Control yourself."

 _They are right in front of me, you decrepit old man_ ; the boy of the kitchens turned Shapeshifter thought. _Those cursed rebels. How am I supposed to hold back?_ He decided to turn his eyes to the side and growl slightly as an answer to the wizard.

Miranda contained a sigh for her part. For the past week she had been training this new Shapeshifter into how to use his new powers properly. How to transform, how to maintain that form and fight properly with… no need to say that Tristan hadn't been the most pleasant of students to have around. It was clear at first sight that he had some combat experience with his human form, but fighting like a human and like a Shapeshifter were two very different things. And that attitude, that damn attitude was the worst part.

 _Where is Ludmoore?_ ; the spider Shapeshifter thought with a bored expression as her head rested upon her left hand. _We have been waiting for so long, and beloved Cedric told me that his brother is always punctual._ Miranda shivered slightly at the fact of thinking about Charles Ludmoore as her beloved's older brother. The discovery of Cedric belonging to the Ludmoore family, and the fact that he had been spying on Phobos and subtly manipulating some aspects of the Prince's reign the whole time had struck her as a complete shock. The fact that now, with Cedric stuck on Earth, the task of informing Charles of the movements of the Prince's forces was hers didn't ease things. She felt as if there were a million eyes looking at her every time; especially when she took some time to write on that book. This was a dangerous game, and she hated danger. Yet this was for Cedric, beloved Cedric. It had been Cedric who had extended a gentle hand to her when those peasants had reduced her life to ashes, when they had took her mother and flayed her, when they had took his father's head and put it in a spike. 'Traitor!' had they called him, 'Heathen!' for sleeping with a Changeling. _Trash_ , she called them all; then, now and forever she would. If there was something she agreed with Phobos, it was in his opinion of peasantry.

The sound of one of the grand dinning hall's doors opening took not only Miranda's attention back from her own mind, but also everyone else's. Entering the room and taking another three seats at one of the table's ends without saying a word of presentation, Bartholomew Chang, Hak Foo and Phillip Crane sat down and waited, each one of the two men clad in expensive suits at each side of the man of the jade hand, who calmly surveyed the other two parties without uttering a single word.

 _Who are those?_ ; the Mage thought. _Maybe Ludmoore's employees? No, Ludmoore uses those flying gargoyles of his to attend any magic related business. Then they can only be…_

 _A third party interested in the Mask?_ ; Wong thought too. _But I can't feel any magic from them, and those clothes… Simple rabble? Here?_

"It seems that everyone has finally arrived," the cold toned voice of Charles Ludmoore sounded from the other side of the room, to where he was currently accessing via another door while carrying a large briefcase. He approached the end of the table that was still empty and sat there, putting the briefcase over the wooden furniture piece. "Well then… Representing the Court of Prince Phobos of Meridian, Archmage Daolon Wong;" he addressed the old man, who nodded in recognition of his titles. "In representation of the Rebellion, Caleb, son of Julian;" Ludmoore addressed Caleb next, who greeted the man with the simplest of looks. "And a last hour attendant who somehow has taken news of this meeting, Bartholomew Chang;" he addressed the crime lord, who politely raised his flesh hand as a greeting. "Without any more delay, gentlemen and ladies;" Ludmoore said as he opened the briefcase and turned it around so everyone could see what it contained. "Let's speak about business."

And there it was, the Mask in all its glory. Wong and Nerissa felt it automatically upon lying eyes over the object, the enormous power residing within, waiting to be tapped and used. Yes, both chi wizard and fallen Guardian had heard about them, and actually were quite interested in their existence and how to control them. Shadowkhan, the armies composed of warriors made of shadows that, according to legend, had once marched obediently behind the beings that were referred as Nine Demon Generals in Meridian, slaying their enemies as an unstoppable force, albeit they had been defeated and killed by Escanor, his Four Knights, and his wife Leryn, first human bearer of the Heart of Meridian; and their power consequently sealed into ' _vessels that resembled their visages_ '. Of course, many regarded this as mere myths, but the pair of Sorcerers knew better than that. The war on Meridian had maintained them quite busy and without the chance to deepen in that regard, but now the opportunity had come to them by itself and from Earth nonetheless!

 _The fact that this little Mask is (and probably the others are) in this realm, plus the stories that little wolf girl tells about those Talismans…_ ; Nerissa thought with increasing lust for power. _Perhaps I judged Earth as a realm with no magic too soon…_

 _I can feel it, deep within_ ; Wong thought on his own part. _The power of an entire Tribe condensed there, such dark and ominous presence, such an overwhelmingly strong chi! I have always wanted to get my hands into the power of the Shadow, but if you imprint that damn mark into your flesh it will gradually consume you… Now is the time!_

For his part, Chang just looked at the other two parties, his intentions and thoughts unreadable. At his side Crane did the same, looking around memorizing all the faces of the attendants and the details of the room. Hak Foo rubbed his shoulders, still molested by the fabric of the suit against his skin.

And Charles Ludmoore just stared at the nine people that had come tonight. Nine, eh? Seemed almost poetic. "As many of you know from the legendary tales, this is one of the nine Masks in which the power Nine Demon Generals that terrorized Meridian in the past resides. Put the mask on your face, and you will be granted control of the armies of Shadowkhan that once served the general in question. As Lord Wong and the Lady Mage can attest, this is no fake, the power is real;" Ludmoore explained in his usual faked cold demeanor.

"This auction opens now."

* * *

 ** _Dreaming_**

"You should've seen me!" Jade Chan cheered inside her inner world, inner soul, dream world… or whatever it was called. "I appeared right between the shadows, and then I defeated all of them! I bet that last guard was scared shitless of me!"

"But you didn't kill them," her interlocutor answered, making the girl to frown at him. In front of Jade was a middle aged man neither tall neither short; his skin pale and his eyes and facial features resembling slightly the ones of a falcon. A large moustache adorned his upper lip and a mane of dark auburn color fell over his shoulders. His body was clad into royal robes of the byzantine era, red in their majority, with jewels all over it. And the teeth, the teeth were the strangest part, sharpened in order for them all to be like fangs. It gave the man a very weird aspect, but considering with whom Jade was speaking, that wasn't any surprise.

Vladimir Tepes; that was how he had presented himself, Dracul he had said proudly. He came to her almost a week ago, when she had going to sleep after trying to think about a way of how to help the girls in Meridian. He had said he could help after his presentation, and Jade had asked him if he was count Dracula. He had replied, quite angrily in fact, that he was a Prince, not a Count. And then Murasaki had appeared practically out of nowhere and dragged her out from the man's presence, saying that he was a bad influence. Because it was not just enough with Jackie in the real world, now she had an overprotective maternal figure inside her own self! But she had gone to Vlad by herself eventually, seeking out that help. Turns out, the counsel of the man had been quite appropriate. It wasn't just about defeating the enemy, it was about inspiring fear in their hearts, an idea most of the rebels had agreed with. However, there was a point in which Jade and the Impaler completely differed.

"I don't kill people," Jade told the man, narrowing her eyes. "We don't do that."

"You and the Guardians don't do that," the man retorted. "But the rebels do, albeit I suppose they don't do it in your presence. And given time, you and your friends will have to do that too. Tactics based in fear only last as much as it, and your fear is based on the illusion of a lethal threat, which will disappear with time, when your enemy discovers that you injure, but don't kill them. And both of us know that you can kill. You tried to kill that dragon after all. It's just that you find more troubling to kill beings that resemble you than beings that don't. As I said, you all will end changing your minds."

"We won't," Jade told the man. "Look, I'm glad that you helped me with the idea, but I'm not going to start killing people that just happen to be serving a tyrant probably because they're scared of him. That's just wrong."

The Impaler chuckled at that sentence. "You are fighting a war child, and everyone kills in those, be it innocent or guilty. You should enjoy it, at least."

"Do you enjoy war?" Jade asked the man, just for the creepiest of smiles to appear in his face, his pointy teeth all showing in his mouth.

"Enjoy war?" the Impaler asked sarcastically. "Child, I love war! The sound of metal cutting flesh, the maniacal glee that a boy exhibits when he beats and beats his first kill's skull just to get sure that his victim is really dead! I enjoy attacks, I enjoy defenses! I love to charge towards the almost endless lines of the Ottomans while a roar escapes my mouth! And I love to leave a field of spikes with the enemy soldiers on them behind me!" Vlad made a pause and raised his arms upwards, the colors behind him taking on an intense scarlet and the silhouette of impaled men and women appearing over it. "Since the first moment I have use of reason, the battlefield was anything that mattered! Everything else, everything is irrelevant! Age, sex, your birthrights, birthplace or even your own name… those are all irrelevant. You can say that war is the only place where I can find peace."

Jade didn't say a word after that. At risk of sounding redundant, that small speech had let her speechless… and what the hell, she had been scared out by the man, speaking and smiling at the idea of waving a bloodshed war like a child does at the idea of going to a candy store. Without saying anything, the girl turned around and left. Perhaps Murasaki was available for a combat practice, or she could talk to that funny old man she met a few days before… Joshua Norton, she recalled he was named.

Tepes was left alone, floating in the landscape, watching the girl go. A smile appeared again in his face shortly after, and then he turned around and walked away too. He had done what Rasputin had asked him to do, no problem for it, he liked the Mad Monk and his little idea was pretty good. Now the only thing left was to wait for the girl to taste her first blood. And then Lady Báthory would step in.

* * *

 ** _Saturday morning; Vandom residence_**

Will yawned as she exited her room, leaving the chaotic amalgamation of dirty clothes that adorned the floor of her dormitory behind and her mobile phone her only companion. She was glad that it was Saturday today; one more day going Guardian all the afternoon after the whole morning in Sheffield and she had the impression her body would just collapse. She headed directly towards the kitchen and served herself a bowl of cereal with milk. Her mother was there too, and Will greeted her with another yawn and a lazy ' _good morning_ '.

"Good morning to you too sleeping beauty," Susan Vandom, already dressed to go to the street, answered her as she left lunch already prepared so she can head to work with her mind calmed. "Did you sleep well?"

"Yahá," Will answered as she scratched her hair. She took a couple of spoons from the bowl of cereal and inhaled deeply. She needed a shower, urgently. "Hey Mom, have you ever have this weird dream in which you are an eggplant?"

Susan looked to her daughter with a quirked eyebrow as she gave the final touches to one of her stews. "No," the beautiful brown woman answered plainly. "Anyway, here is lunch, if I don't make it back from work in time you can start eating."

 _I think I'll wait for you_ , the redhead thought. If she was going to be intoxicated, then better to have mom around. It wasn't that she didn't like her mother's food or that Susan cooked that bad; it was that she didn't have a lot of experience with it. Dad was always the one who cooked back in Fadden Hills… but those were some thoughts she didn't want to have at that moment.

"Okay mom;" Will answered as she kept eating her cereal and checking her messages in her phone. "I don't think I'll be too soon here anyway, Elyon's going to take the girls and me to a bookstore this morning."

"I think I'm starting to fall in love with your new friends," Susan said as she took her jacket from their rack and putting it over. "It's good that they take you to do something cultural. What do you think?" the woman asked as she gestured to her get up.

 _Cultural, cultural… we're going because Cornelia, Elyon and Alchemy know that there is a pretty man in there. And what do I think…_ ; Will thought as she looked at her mother from head to toe, the clothing her mother had chosen did nothing but accentuate her curvy figure and her generous breasts. _I think genetics had been very unkindly with me_. "You look awesome."

"Thanks sweetie," Susan said while she approached Will, delivering a kiss in her cheek. "I will try to be back the sooner I can! Promise! We need to plan things for Wednesday!"

Wait, Wednesday?; Will thought as she looked at the calendar that had bee plastered to the fridge's door. Next Wednesday had been marked in red, with a small drawing of a red crown over the words 'Will's Birthday on it'.

 _Ah_ , the redhead thought as she realized the day that commemorated her birth was approaching. _Shit_.

* * *

 ** _Heatherfield's streets_**

"Can someone please explain to me why are we spending Saturday morning going to a bookstore?" an annoyed Jade asked her friends, the six girls having been joined by Elyon and Alchemy, the two girls walking in first line with Cornelia; while Will, Taranee and Hay Lin walked behind them; Irma and Jade in last line.

"'Cause Corny didn't follow my advice," Irma said. "Still not getting to that computer, eh?!" the Water Guardian shouted into the blonde's direction.

"Freaking pervert!" Cornelia shouted back, making Irma to crack a loud laughter. Nothing better than messing with her friend to turn a boring trip to a bookstore into something memorable. "And it's because Saturday is the only day we all have free time! Between my ice skating, Will's swimming, and Alchemy playing the violin…!"

"Okay okay, calm down everybody. Card says that this place should be right here," Elyon said while looking at the piece of paper that Taranee had gotten from the owner of the shop. She raised her head just in the right moment they turned around a corner and saw the little establishment in the distance, the words _'Ye Olde Book Shop'_ adorning its upper part.

"There it is!" Hay Lin said, pointing to it as if she had just discovered a treasure island. "It's a cute place. Hey, do you think that blond guy would let me to make a sketch of it?"

 _How can someone find a building cute?_ Jade thought with disbelief towards her relative's quirks.

"I don't know Hay Lin;" Alchemy told her. "Don't you think asking that is a bit rude?"

"Aren't we going in there so you three can ogle him?" Will asked to the shorter redhead, who just shrugged as if to say _'I admit it'_. "And didn't you and Elyon practically stalk him?"

"We were just trying to find if Hay Lin's description was accurate!" Elyon protested as they reached the door of the bookstore.

"And?" Taranee inquired.

Alchemy and Elyon turned around momentarily, smiling and putting their heads together while their eyes took into what Irma called 'dreamy eyes'.

"Beyond expectations..." the two of them said, their minds lost into their memory of the beautiful man.

"Irma," Jade addressed her friend. "If I ever do that for a boy, please kill me."

"Now could everyone please act properly?" Cornelia asked to her friends. "Because I don't want him to think we're just a bunch of girls."

"But we _are_ a bunch of girls," Taranee pointed out, making the blonde to roll her eyes.

"I mean to act mature and… whatever, just don't do anything stupid;" the Earth Guardian said as she pushed the doors and entered to the bookstore, one of them colliding with a small bell that produced a small 'ding' and alerted the owner and the few customers that were in of their presence. "Hi!" the blonde said in an extremely sweet tone. "Where are the middle school textbooks?"

 _So much for acting mature_ , Jade thought as she noted how some of the customers looked a bit offended at them. _And what the hell is that smell? Incense? Glad I can low my smelling to human level again, otherwise I would be crying._

Cornelia's words travelled quite easily over the otherwise silent bookstore, making a certain Snake to smile from ear to ear.

 _Ah, the price for being a patient man_ ; Cedric thought with delight as he had heard the recognizable voice of the Earth Guardian from one of the shadowed corners of the store. "Third line starting by the right, the fourth of fifth bookshelf in that one, I believe."

"Is that him?" Alchemy whispered into Elyon's ear as the girls scattered around the bookstore, three of them waiting for the beautiful owner's appearance, four of them only looking around, and only one actually looking for a book.

"I think," Elyon whispered back as both of them walked behind Cornelia and started to look into the bookshelf Cedric had pointed them too. They started to look at the books while waiting, only for Cedric's figure to emerge from the shadows, sporting a devilish smile on his face.

"Did you find them?" the blond man asked to the three girls, making them to turn around abruptly as a small cry escaped the Earth Guardian's mouth. "I'm sorry, I'm still getting organized. If you need any help…"

"Oh no, don't worry;" Cornelia said in a silly tone as she smiled towards the man. Whoa, no wonder Elyon finds him beyond expectations. A tall and blonde pretty man with blue eyes? Totally her type; Cornelia thought while looking at the man, putting in her best smile and taking a book from the shelf. "See? There it is," the blonde declared while not realizing that she had taken a book of advanced medicine instead of a middle school textbook. "I'm Cornelia, by the way."

"Alchemy, Alchemy Ethel," the little redhead presented herself, and then the last one did the same.

"Elyon Brown," the girl in purple presented herself and for the first time since they had entered into the bookstore, Cedric's eyes focused on her. And his heart skipped a beat. The girl was far from being called gorgeous, even if she was a bit pretty. But the color of her hair, the form of the nose and the chin and the eyes… they all were so similar to _his_.

"Rick Hoffman," the man presented himself to the trio of girls by using his false name. Cedric raised his hand and approached Elyon, shaking hers. He felt something there, caged and kept in line, but present nonetheless, like a thunderstorm waiting to be unleashed. Could… could had it been really so easy? He needed to confirm his suspicions.

As Cedric started a small talk with the trio of girls while he thought about the current turn of events and the girls just thought about how he looked under those jeans a shirt; Taranee had found the book she had been searching for since their visit on the mall.

"Finally!" the Fire Guardian said while showing her new acquisition to Will and Hay Lin. "Now this is what I was looking for! I bet I'll get an A Plus thanks to this one!"

"Hey Taranee," Jade asked the girl as she and Irma approached her, carrying a small amount of books. "Can you help me to choose one of these?"

"Never thought of you as a book girl," Will commented.

"Tch, these aren't for me. I like _fantasy_ books;" the girl answered as if the redhead ha said the most inconsistent thing in the world. "One of them is for uncle Jackie, but I don't know which one give him."

"She basically took all the books she found with the word ' _Archeology_ ' in them," Irma explained as she let the books she was carrying in the floor. "Better if you help her to choose one, because I'm not going to put her again over my shoulders so she can catch the right books."

"Okay, let's see what you brought here;" Taranee commented as she kneeled and started to check the books.

"Speaking of Jackie, we've barely seen him during this week," Will told Jade. "What's he been doing?"

"Dunno," Jade answered. "He has been with his head inside some paperwork this entire week."

"Maybe is for his work?" Hay Lin asked. "He worked for San Francisco's university, right? Maybe he wants to apply for a place in Heatherfield's?"

Jade just shrugged. Truth be told, she didn't put a lot of effort into listening when Jackie spoke about his real work. If there wasn't any magic trinket involved she didn't care, and besides her uncle could go on for hours about why a pillar belonged to a different time period than the one at its side based in a little detail in their top. Then again, he had been incredibly awesome letting her go in and out of that Meridian, and she wanted to have a detail with him.

"This morning I left sooner than him," Jade explained. "He said something about going to the bank."

* * *

 ** _Harold Hale's office; Prometheus Bank's branch office in Heatherfield_**

"You cannot be being serious," Harold Hale told the man that sat across the desk of his office. "I cannot believe it."

"I'm very sorry to be the one telling you this, Mr. Hale;" Jackie Chan told the man in front of him. He then pointed out to a series of documents he had put over the desk and that he had used as proof. For hours since he had arrived had the archeologist been speaking to Harold, explaining to the banker what Captain Black had explained to him, presenting the proof that the leader of Section 13 had sent to him. "But this is something undeniable."

"You are telling me that Bartholomew Chang, philanthropist and well known business man across the globe, and now partner of the bank I work for;" Harold said aloud more to clarify the facts presented to him inside his mind than for anything else; "is part of an international crime syndicate operating in each continent. And that he is responsible for," Harold took some of the papers then, reading aloud; "organized crime, extortion, thieving (with a whole page dedicated to the objects made of jade, no less!), bribery, killing, drug traffic, and even trafficking with people." Harold breathed deeply in, letting out a long sight. "Holly Christ."

"I know it must be a lot to take in so suddenly, Mr. Hale;" Jackie told the man. "But Chang is in this continent because he is trying to make the American branch of his organization to rise from dust again. I know I know asking you for help is unethical at best, and that it could put your family in danger, but I need your help to discover what Chang is planning."

"How do you even know about all this?" Harold asked. "Cornelia told me about you, she said that you were an archeologist!" Jackie opened his mouth, but Harold waved his hands in front of him. "You know, don't answer that question, I bet you already have put me in danger just by telling me about Bartholomew." Harold rubbed his temples a bit. "Fine, I think he isn't in his office as of now, and I have some free time," the man took his keys from one of the desk's drawers and sat up. "We will take my car."

"Thank you, Mr. Hale;" Jackie told the blonde as they exited his office and headed to the bank's parking lot for employees. "Knowing Cornelia, I knew I could trust you."

"No need to be so flattering Mr. Chan;" Harold told him as they headed to his car. "And besides, have you never heard of the saying ' _never trust a banker_ '?" the man joked as they both reached his car and he ignited the motor.

* * *

 ** _Thirteen minutes later_**

The building Bartholomew Chang had bought in Heatherfield was nothing out of the blue, just a normal office building that didn't contrast against the skyscrapers landscape that Heatherfield's center was. Jackie found that fact a bit surprising, or maybe it just shocked him as it contrasted totally with Valmont's former base, a skyscraper that towered over the rest of San Francisco's buildings. Black had told him that this was in fact Chang's greatest strength, the ability to be unnoticed while doing his deals. Instead of a big city like San Francisco, he had chosen a small one like Heatherfield as his base of operations. Could it be a coincidence, that this new menace had chosen this place as his base? Or could it be related to anything going on in Meridian? Had Chang the same relationship with Dark Forces that Valmont had in his day with Shendu?

"There we are. Try to pass unnoticed, some people here know me already;" Harold told him as they dismounted his car and approached the entrance.

The insides of the building weren't anything spectacular either, just what you could expect from your average office building. Black had been right, this man knew how to operate under the radar, and that made him much more dangerous than Valmont ever was. The two men headed directly towards the elevator, entering in it and pressing the button for the last floor.

"Bartholomew's office is in the last floor," Harold explained as he took a card from his pocket. "He gave me a keycard in our first meeting, wanting me to have full access to the whole place."

"Why?" Jackie asked as the elevator climbed towards its programmed destination.

"He said that mutual trust was something indispensable in a partnership," the banker explained. "That's the reason I have access to his office even when he isn't there, he gave me a copy of his schedules too. I suppose he imagined I would only appear to deliver documents or something, but now it can serve a greater purpose," Harold chuckled slightly. "Can you believe it? I just sounded like some kind of hero there!"

The elevator stopped in the last floor, the door opening with a small 'ding' signaling its arrival. Jackie and Harold entered into a grand hall that led directly to a double gate in its end, surely the entrance to Chang's office. Jackie walked first, Harold a few steps behind having already handed the keycard to the archeologist.

"I don't know if someone in reception saw us, you will have to be quick," Harold told Jackie, who was already slipping the card into the detector.

"I know," Jackie said. This was one of the moments in which he missed Jade being with him at all time; he supposed that she could be of a great help in this specific situation. Bu Jade was with her friends, and that was good. Without any more delay, Jackie Chan opened the door, expecting to find no one inside.

And he erred.

"But I wanted that Mask!" a man that Jackie knew too well for his liking, Hak Foo; protested to a Taiwanese man sitting behind a desk that had been put in front of a large window, while another man in an elegant suit watched the scene with an amused grin in his face.

"I will repeat myself for the last time, Hak Foo;" the Taiwanese, who Jackie believed was Chang, spoke. "We weren't there for that Mask; we were there to evaluate the situation. We got out of that manor with a new client, one that has paid quite generously for our merchandise in fact, and that will surely pay in the future. Don't forget that the one signing your checks is… me… Oh."

The three men looked at the entrance, where a thunderstruck Jackie stood, too shocked to even move. Crane looked him to head to toe, memorizing everything that the man's guise, posture and choice of clothing were telling the professional thief over the archeologist. Hak Foo looked as surprised as Jackie for a moment, before his face turned to one of pure anger at the man that had wounded his pride numerous times. As for Chang, he smiled at this turn of events, clearly pleased. He clapped his flesh hand against the jade one and then looked at the watch that hanged from his wrist.

"Jackie Chan, right?" the Taiwanese crime lord addressed him. "And right in time, I must say. I was expecting you."

 _Expecting?_ , Jackie thought, just to realize that he had been fooled. He turned his head around and looked at Harold, who stood in the frame of the door peacefully, this outcome clearly not a shock for him.

"What?" the blond man asked sarcastically as he quirked his eyebrow. "I _did_ tell you to never trust a banker."

* * *

 ** _Across the Veil; Infinite City_**

 _Finally back in home_ , Caleb thought even if he hated to refer to the Infinite City as home; the green light of the Mage's teleporting fading away and the Ancient One, Aldarn and himself appeared back in the Infinite City after the sorceress had took them from the Portal they had used to cross back to their world; alongside their cargo.

"Look who's finally back," the rebel leader heard Rhouglar's voice as he and Aldarn took the wooden boxes from the floor and the Mage silently headed back to her workshop. "What took you so long? We were expecting you three back last night, hey!" Rhouglar protested as Caleb tossed one of the boxes to him. "What in the Light's name is inside these? They weight like a Gargoyle's shit!"

"I suppose that's something you really know about, eh Rhouglar?" Drake's voice came in as the blond rebel leader approached the group, trying to take one of the boxes from Caleb, but his leader shook his head, stopping him.

"I'm fine," Caleb said even if it was clear that he was struggling to kept the two boxes in his arms. "Gather the rest of the Small Council, we need to talk."

Drake didn't understand what was going on, but he obeyed his leader, and in no more than ten minutes, the members of the Small Council, except the 'Mage'; were all gathered in their usual meeting chamber, the four boxes Aldarn and Caleb had brought from Earth in the floor.

"I take that we didn't get that Mask the Mage spoke about," Tharquin said aloud, his eyes fluctuating between Caleb, Aldarn and the boxes.

"I'm afraid so," Aldarn confessed. "Now Phobos has an army of those… Shadowkhan at his disposal too."

Noting how his companions' spirits were decaying, Caleb intervened. He kicked one of the boxes, sending its to flying and revealing the box's contains. "Phobos may have a new weapon, but so do we. Think of it as a consolation prize."

The members of the Small Council looked at the box's xontains, not recognizing exactly to what they were looking at. Their eyes had seen enough battle to recognize a weapon when they saw it, and thus they knew that this was what they were looking at, weapons. Weapons made of black metal and crafted in a strange form. If an earthling had been there he would have recognized them in the spot, be it from seeing them on TV or in any other place or having one of them in his hands.

Guns; they were guns. Fusils, shotguns and even some machineguns, both of light and medium size. Curious about these strange looking things, Rhouglar took one in his hands, trying to discover how to grab it correctly, checking every part of it and pointing the cannon of the thing into Drake's direction, his instinct and experience telling him that it was supposed to be fired that way. Aldarn put a hand over the weapon and forced Rhouglar to lower it.

"Be careful with these things," the Rebellion's number two told the muscular Galhot. "I have seen what they are capable of."

"And of what exactly are they capable of?" Drake asked as he inspected the weapons from a distance.

As a manner of answer, Caleb took a shotgun and loaded it. Putting the weapon against his shoulder just like he had been taught the night before and practiced during the morning, he aimed at a near pillar of the chamber, and then he shot. The sound of the bullet being fired, so similar to the explosion made by gunpowder igniting, made all the attendants to take their hands to their ears and jump out of the way by muscular memory. However, after the sound died out the only things left were Caleb still holding the gun and a hole with little cracks around its border in the stone the bullet had impacted. The projectile had sunk deep into the stone, and every member of the Small Council looked to it with awe in their faces. Caleb changed his posture then, letting the shotgun with the other weapons.

"Sorcery..." Sephiria whispered meekly, but Caleb shook his head.

"It's just earthling weaponry," the rebel leader explained. "The idea is basically the same as the bow and arrow... but better, stronger; like cannons in miniature. Sadly, they are seriously expensive too," Caleb said while reminiscent of the green-handed man that had sold them the weapons. Then he made a sign to Aldarn. "I want the most adaptable and promising archers and soldiers to practice with these. I want small groups and no more than three; nothing too big or flashy. I want them ready for our attack over Torus Filney next month, understood?"

"Yes," Aldarn answered plain and obediently, and Caleb gave his friend a thankful nod.

"Good," the young rebel leader answered. "I need to see the Mage, know exactly how much harm these Shadowkhan can do. Dismissed."

Caleb strolled out of the room, leaving the Small Council behind, who slowly started to return to whatever they were doing before Caleb's return. In their walk, Drake joined with Aldarn, the Rebellion's second in command lowering his pace.

"Who sold you those weapons?" Drake asked to Aldarn, who continued walking.

"A man that called himself 'Chang'," Aldarn answered. "He approached us after the auction, saying if we wanted to 'even the score'. We spent all the gold we had brought for Ludmoore in order to pay him."

Drake didn't push more that matter. Caleb and Aldarn's choice of action was pretty logical, if Phobos had the advantage due to numbers and magic and the rebels had already matched him in that last part thanks to the Guardians; then better weaponry would balance their forces even more. And yet...

"Caleb looked very serious back there," Drake said.

"It was a serious matter," Aldarn answered.

Drake decided to shut his mouth definitely after that. Aldarn was clearly not catching up, or maybe he didn't want to.

* * *

In the late Mage's workshop, Nerissa was reading three ancient texts about the Shadowkhan at the same time, trying to find all the information she could about them. She had been examining them thoroughly during the last year or so, but the current shift of power in the war thanks to the Guardians' intervention had taken her attention to other matters. However, she was actually finding more useful information in the notes and warning of the late Mage than in the text per se. Apparently her former mentor had investigated the Shadowkhan too, albeit the fallen guardian supposed it had been in order to fight them since it was a description on how to fight them, not control them; albeit there were some annotations on that matter too.

 _It seems that there is a way to use them without a Mask_ ; Nerissa thought as she read from one of the text while holding it with her metallic arm. Something called 'Mark of the King'… but the Mage specified in her notes that whoever puts the Mark on will be consumed. And there was another note too, one written badly, as if the hand writing it was trembling.

Don't let one run free, or the oath will be broken, the light lost

 _What does that mean? Blast, it seems I'll have to stick with the Annihilators if I want an unstoppable army,_ the fallen Guardian thought bitterly. _Unless I get my hands in other of those Masks; but those are probably on Earth and I don't have a lot of free time lately… curses, how complicated. Better to stick to my overall plan until Phobos is dealt with and I gain more freedom in my movements. I will have to make sure the Guardians take care of this problem before…_

She heard footsteps approaching her then, someone coming right down the stairs and directly into her little space for work. She frowned at this interruption.

"Great Mage?" Caleb's voice came from the near stairs. "Can I have some words with you?"

 _Ah yes, motherhood_ ; Nerissa thought as she concentrated and casted her 'Mage' glamour over her body. _Life's definition for constant interruptions._

"Of course Caleb," the 'Mage' answered, putting the texts over one of her workshop's tables and rising from the chair she was sitting, ready to receive the rebel boy. "Is there something wrong?"

"I just wanted to inform you that I have already entrusted Aldarn with the training of the new weapons," the boy told her. "I suppose they will need to practice if they are to habituate themselves to them instead of our current weaponry."

"Very good then," the 'Mage answered, having taking notice that the boy's voice seemed too hardened and serious, even for him. She knew that Caleb was a sweet boy, he was _her_ sweet little boy after all, and that his rough personality only was put to use when there was some emergency. But this Caleb sounded just _too_ cold. "Is there anything else?"

"I wanted to know how your work concerning Phobos' new weapon unfolds," the boy answered, still in that cold tone.

"The Shadowkhan, yes;" the 'Mage' told him. "I suppose we should bring the Guardians; and if we could, get the help of those two wizards too. Chi Magic may be more oriented to deal with them than Raw Magic; according to what I have discovered."

"Right, I will see it's done immediately;" Caleb answered and turned around in order to leave.

"Caleb, wait;" the 'Mage' told the boy, who stopped in his tracks and looked at her over his shoulder. "Is there something troubling you?"

Caleb didn't answer at first, his eyes focusing on the ground. "The reason we went to Ludmoore's manor;" the rebel boy said. "Was in order to prevent that Mask from falling into Phobos' hands, right?"

"Of course," the 'Mage' lied. Was he suspicious of her? No, impossible. Perhaps doubt then? But about her or maybe… "Is this because of the deal we made with that man of Earth?"

"At first I thought he could be someone that really wanted to help, then some smuggler like Ludmoore;" Caleb explained after another round of seconds being in silence. "But that gleam in his eyes, the greed without any end I saw in them… it was no different from the one I saw in Phobos when he captured me."

The 'Mage' sighed, actually surprising Caleb, who was not accustomed to see the Ancient One to express any kind of emotion. "You are worried that the rebels are becoming the same thing as the Prince?"

Caleb turned around completely, and the Mage approached him. "I believe this is something you should have learnt long ago, not from me, but from your father. Anyway, that is not an option, and it is time that you learn that in these types of conflicts, when you stand against Evil, you may need to raise another Evil to your side in order to win some battles, even if your goal is for the greater good."

"But then we won't…" Caleb started, but the 'Mage' silenced him with her own words.

"Be better than Phobos?" the 'Mage' ended for him, shaking her head. "You are wrong there, _young_ Caleb. Phobos doesn't have a goal that transcends him, and you and your fellow rebels do. While he only exists for his own egoism, you fight for the freedom of an enslaved world. And another difference is that Phobos doesn't care for the harm his underlings do as long as they fight for him, when you care. War is a cruel and chaotic thing, only when it has ended you will be able to heal the wounds you were be forced to open."

The 'Mage' put a calming hand over the boy's shoulder. "The fact that you feel responsible for this puts you on a higher ground than Phobos. But don't let those feelings to cloud your mind and blurry your goal. Phobos and the ones loyal to him won't hesitate in order to hurt you, so you must not hesitate either. Keep those thoughts and feelings to you, Caleb, because they are the greatest part of you; and share them only with the ones you care the most about. And when the dust settles, the war is over and you had righted all wrongs…" a flash of a girl falling down a breaking cliff passed over her mind briefly, before she fought it to nothingness. She stared at the boy's eyes, green as hers they were.

"Only then, in time of peace, you will have time to feel like that."

* * *

 ** _Across the Veil; Heatherfield; Chang's building_**

"ANGRY CROW TAKES FLIGHT!"

Hak Foo's familiar yell resonated through Chang's office as he jumped in the air in Jackie's direction, the other man with his guard up and ready to block the coming attack. In the moment Jackie had arrived the red haired mercenary couldn't resist the urge of attacking his old foe, and a small exchange of blows had started. Between block and counterattack, Jackie had noted that Harold had left the room, closing the doors in the process. He still had the keycard in his pocket, but he doubted that it would be useful in this condition. Chang and Crane hadn't moved an inch from the spots they were before, and were actually looking quite amused by the small fight going on in from of them.

"Shredding Lion Claws!" Hak Foo yelled again as he delivered a chain of quick attacks towards Jackie with his fists. "Heron Pierces Crab Shell!" the man yelled again as he tried to punch Jackie as hard as he could. Of course, Jackie was able to block it. However, the martial artist archeologist noted how Hak Foo's attacks were being much more vicious than he was accustomed to. The Black Tiger's blows were bathed in anger towards him, but Jackie didn't know if that was playing to his advantage or not; after all Hak Foo had always been an expert into fueling his prowess with wrath.

Jackie jumped backwards in order to put some distance between the two. He needed to breathe, Hak Foo wasn't giving him any second to rest or even think of a way to escape. Or maybe it was the fact that he had let himself to be led to such an obvious trap. Why had he been so foolish? Was it because Harold being Cornelia's father? Had that fact clouded his mind and made him see an ally where there was an enemy?

He heard something then, the sound of something being torn apart. His adversary had stopped in his tracks, the suit he was wearing ripped in some places due to the tension Hak Foo was making on it. The enforcer looked at his clothes displeased, and then grabbed both the suit's jacket and the shirt under it.

"Snake Detaches Old Skin!" the mercenary yelled, ripping the clothing apart from his body, ending with just the suit's pants on. "Angry Crow Takes…!"

"That's enough, Hak Foo;" Chang said then from his desk. "Stop this immediately."

"What?!" the redheaded hulky man yelled. "I won't stop until he has been reduced to shreds!"

"It's not a suggestion," Chang said without being disturbed. "I'm ordering you to stop. Now please, go and get another suit, or that ridiculous bodysuit I found you wearing if you find formal clothing so limited. But I would like to have a chat with Mr. Chan. Alone;" the crime lord said, this time not only to Hak Foo, but also to crane, who nodded and left his side, heading towards the door. Hak Foo followed him shortly afterwards, not without directing a last glare of pure hate at Jackie.

Once the other two men had exited, Jackie was left alone with Chang; the archeologist still with his guard up, read to fight. Chang, however, chuckled and waved his good hand in the air, indicating that Jackie was making something unnecessary.

"Please, Mr. Chan;" Chang said, rising from his seat and approaching the large window that was behind his desk. "Both of us know that you are a bit tired after that little skirmish, and I may be well past the prime of my youth, but I still had some tricks up my sleeve. So why don't you relax for a bit and we have a talk?"

Jackie let his guard down after a moment he dedicated to thinking. He didn't approach Chang right away, better maintain some distance if the jade handed man tried something. This didn't pass over the crime lord's head, who just smiled and returned to watch Heatherfield's streets from his window. "I take you are fully aware of who I am."

"Bartholomew Chang," Jackie answered. "Crime lord in Taiwan, one of the five leaders of the international crime syndicate know as Dark Hand."

"Excellent, for a second I thought that I would have to explain that by myself;" the jade handed man answered. "Now, I think that the first thing that imposes itself here is a thanking. So, thank you very much, Mr. Chan."

Jackie raised a confused eyebrow. "Thanks for what?"

"For taking Niles Valmont out of the picture," Chang said. "Don't get me wrong, he was a good asset for the organization, but not the best one. Too selfish to my liking, especially after he struck that deal with that Demon… Shendu, was it? Then again, the rest of us did make sure that Valmont got in contact with that dammed statue."

 _He knows about Shendu_ , Jackie though as his eyes narrowed. _It means he knows about magic too._

"You aren't angry at me for weakening your organization?" Jackie asked to the Taiwanese man, who couldn't restrain a laugh escaping his throat.

"Weakening? You know what would take to actually weaken us?" Chang said in a funny tone. "No, Mr. Chan; I'm afraid getting rid of Valmont has come in everyone's favor. Anyway, the Hand must always have five Fingers, and both of us know that I'm here to make sure our American branch gets back in its former shape."

"And you think I'm going to let you do that?" Jackie asked him in the most threatening tone he could use, but Chang didn't even finch.

"Was that a threat? You are conscious that you aren't a lawful authority, that you can't do anything to me. Neither does that Augustus Black of yours, or he would be here already. Unless you catch me doing something illegal by myself, then there is no proof, and without proof, no punishment."

"Then I will find proof," Jackie said, but Chang didn't lose his calm demeanor.

"I was hoping to actually have you on my side," the jade handed man said while approaching his desk and pulling a briefcase from under it. Opening it, Chang revealed that the briefcase was full of money, probably thousands of dollars. "I'm not Valmont, Mr. Chan. There is no evil demon behind me, and albeit I do realize the enormous benefits that magic brings for my organization, the Dark Hand values men like you much more than some lights and spells. So, what do you say?"

Jackie looked at the enormous pile of cash that was inside the briefcase. Approaching the desk, he took the briefcase, closed it, and tossed it back to Chang. "You think I will sell myself for mere money? You and Valmont have more in common that what you think if you believe that money opens all doors."

"It doesn't open all of them, but it does help;" Chang commented before putting the briefcase back in its place. He then opened a ladder in the desk and took a couple of small pieces of paper from it. "For the doors that don't open, we have these."

Jackie looked at the pieces of paper Chang had put over the desk. They were photos. Photos of Jade, transforming into her wolf form, photos of the girls as the Guardian, fighting Cedric and Wong in that parking lot one week ago; and Jackie's eyes widened in horror upon seeing those images.

"Does Harold…?" the archeologist asked, but Chang shook his head.

"No; I haven't showed any of these to him. These are for your eyes only after all, so take them please, I have more copies;" Chang told the man as he sat back behind his desk, a smug grin in his old face. Jackie had never wanted to take another man and punch him in the face than right now. "Take them, let Harold take you home; and know that my offer is still here, and that what is inside that briefcase is not only money, but a safe life for you, your family and your friends. As I said, I'm not Valmont. Scratch my back and I will be your best friend. Get into my bad side, and I will make sure that your niece ends over a laboratory's table."

Jackie didn't say anything else. He took the photos and exited the Taiwanese man's office. Harold was waiting for him near the elevator, and without any words both men mounted in it and starting descending. When they were half way down, Harold looked at Jackie, and then he broke the silence.

"You didn't take the offer, did you?" the banker asked.

"No," Jackie answered. His eyes focused in Harold then. "But you did."

"Years ago, yes;" Harold explained. "One night I ended at certain party. It was there where I first met Bartholomew, he still had two hands back then; Valmont was there too. I was passing for certain auto-destructive phase back then, and I got myself into some… morally ambiguous situations. Bartholomew got me out and offered me a job into his organization. At first I refused, arguing that I didn't need him, and that I wanted to try and have just an ordinary and honest life." Harold paused then, ruffling his moustache. "And then I met Elizabeth, and we married after a while. I didn't take Bartholomew's offer right away back then, if that's what you were thinking. But after some years, Elizabeth got pregnant, and then we had Cornelia. She just was there, like a little angel in my wife's arms, gripping my finger with her small hand."

"That was when you accepted," Jackie said, and Harold nodded.

"I wasn't even forced to move from Heatherfield, I could do my work right from my office at the bank. And no one ever discovered it; I suppose they never think that the _small_ banker in his _small_ office on some _small_ city is the great accountant for a crime syndicate, eh? No, they never focus on the everyman…"

"You are telling me you have done everything for your family?" Jackie asked then. "Have you any idea of what the Dark Hand does, of how many people suffer because of them? You can't justify working for someone as rotten as them just by saying that it is the best for your family, because it can't be. Harold, I know you are a good man, so please understand that…"

Harold made a quick movement with his hand then, smashing the stop bottom of the elevator, effectively putting an end to the device's descend. The blond man looked at Jackie, and he looked enraged, or even insulted.

"Now listen me here, you self-righteous punk;" Harold said to Jackie. "Everything, everything I have done, I have done it for my family's well being; in order for the mistakes of my past to not catch up to them. Don't speak to me as if I don't know for whom I am working, or as if I'm trying to justify the harm I had helped to inflict; because I know about it. But I bet you have no idea of the harm _you_ have inflicted. Do you have any idea of what happened when Valmont was taken down by you and that Captain Black? People died, the whole branch across America exploding into an inner war, every administrator wanting to climb to Valmont's empty throne by making a stair out of their competitors' corpses. And who was harmed by collateral damage? Innocent people, but I suppose your dear Captain never told you that, eh? In the same way he doesn't tell you from whom and how exactly he gets all that information. Do you think I have never met with men like you before? Men that only see one side of the coin, thinking that life is some kind of heroic tale and that everyone in it can be reduced to a stereotype. Do you know why I was able to take you here so easily? Because you didn't imagine that someone that has a family like you, that has daughters and loves them as much as you love that niece, could be related to something as the Dark Hand. Because men like you can only think in black and white."

Harold pushed the button again, the elevator resumed its descend. Both men exited the device and headed towards the banker's car. Harold said that at least he should give Jackie a ride home, and so he did. When the archeologist arrived to the flat he and his family had in Heatherfield, Uncle and Tohru where in the kitchen, the sumo having another of his classes after he had left lunch done. Sometimes Jackie forgot that Tohru was still under Uncle's training on top of being practically the one taking care of the home's chores. The archeologist didn't bother them in the slightest, instead heading to the living room and sitting down on the coach, not before having reduced the photos Chang had given him to shreds.

The door of the flat sounded shortly after, and Jade's voice came filling the whole flat. "I'm home!" the girl shouted as a sign of her arrival.

"Did niece bring what Uncle told her to buyyyyy?!" the elder asked from the kitchen, and Jade moved a plastic bag in her right hand, while another hanged from the left.

"Yes, I got your mayonnaise;" the girl told the elder after entering the kitchen and putting the three cans of the sauce she had bought. She then headed right into the living room, taking out what was in the other plastic bag. "I got something for you too, Jackie."

"You did?" Jackie asked as he took what his niece was handing him. It was a book, a pretty thick one at that; ' _Contributions of Sumerian architecture to modern buildings_ ', by Paul Schneider.

"Do you like it?" Jade asked him, noting how her uncle seemed a bit depressed. "Taranee said that it was the most interesting, so I took this one. It's mainly triviality, but I think that may be your thing since you're an expert and all… So?"

Jackie smiled at this sudden present and proceeded to hug his niece tightly.

"I love it Jade, thank you." It was better to let this day as it was and focus on the present Jade had bought him. Relaxing and not thinking too much for the rest of the day was the better option. After all, what else could go wrong?

* * *

 ** _Across the Veil; the castle; throne room_**

"Wong, these failed attempts at bringing armies of long forgotten beings to my side are starting to displease me," Phobos said in a bored tone as he sat in his throne, yet the threat remained there. "The Rebellion is getting more insistent with their attacks, and with the Guardians at their side their success rate is increasing. How much time until those attacks in the borders of the kingdom are taken to the great cities? Or even my Capital?"

Cedric was creeping behind the throne, hissing, his upper half covered in shadows and only his tail being seen. Miranda maintained herself in her usual spot in the ceiling, watching from a small nest she had made with her web. Vathek stood a bit separated from the rest, not wanting to call much attention over himself. Lothar and Tynar were there too, standing near Daolon Wong, the old dark wizard himself in the center of the room. The Mask was in his old, wrinkled hands.

"I have conducted many experiments in the last hours," Wong explained. "My Prince," he added after noticing a small frown from Phobos. "But it seems the power of the Mask is impossible to be taken from it, at least not by any mean we possess. The only way left to access the Shadowkhan is," Wong raised the Mask, it's visage being seen by all of them; "for someone to wear it."

No one uttered a word then, so Wong continued speaking. "My lord, if it pleases you, then I offer myself to..."

"No," Phobos declared. "You still have to produce more than one Shapeshifter that aids my cause," the Prince's eyes passed over all the peaople there, until they stopped over Lothar. _Yes, loyalty is the most valued virtue when giving power to an underling_ , Phobos thought as a grin appeared in his face. "Captain Lothar, considering your proven loyalty and recent victories over the rebels' forces, this is something that must be entrusted to you."

Lothar didn't do anything but bow in obedience. He then approached Wong and waited for the Mask to be handed to him. Wong let the powerful object to be taken from him. Damn it, he should have put the Mask on in the moment he had gotten it from Ludmoore! But there were too many risks at that time; he didn't know how the Mask was going to react upon being used. Better to leave Lothar have this one; he had other projects in mind.

The Captain took the Mask on his hands, the red eyes of the creature it supposedly was based on looking at him as if they were alive. Without any more delay Lothar took the Mask to his face and put it on.

The first thing he noted was a cold, strong pull in his face. The mask was pulling him closer, as if it wanted to devour his face. Once it could not keep pulling, Lothar felt how the back of the thing had started to close over the back of his head. And then pain, a lot of pain actually. The mask was moving in order to adjust to his features, but it was also moving the bones and muscles of his own face in order to adjust them. And it wasn't just the face; Lothar could feel his whole body changing, bones and muscles growing harder and denser, an immense sensation of power running through every fiber of his body, the pain unbearable. He fell to his knees due to the pain, and he let a roar to escape his mouth, not even noticing that he was roaring. One of his hands became a fist and the Captain hit the floor, his fist breaking the stone as if it was a piece of weak and rotten wood. He then felt something different, not over his head but inside it; the sensation of being invaded, as if a worm had entered his ear and was now strolling inside his skull. Once it had checked every corner, the worm stopped its movement, and the pain ceased.

Lothar rose to his feet again and instinctively took his hands to his face, feeling his new features, his new hair, his new horns; the tongue in his mouth bleeding a bit after being cut by his new fangs. He moved his arms up and down, feeling his new strength. And had he actually grown a few inches?

"How do you feel, Captain?" Wong inquired with a sinister grin from ear to ear.

Lothar looked at his hands and gripped his fists. "I feel... stronger."

Wong noticed how there was a second voice speaking alongside the Captain's now. A darker voice, even more animalistic and primal than Cedric's. How intriguing.

"And what about those Shadowkhan?" Phobos asked in a neutral tone. He was impressed by the effect the Mask have had over Lothar's body; a strong commander was nothing without an army to command.

"He should be able to call upon them just by thinking," Wong explained.

So Lothar concentrated. Yet nothing happened. This was very frustrating, just like how he had felt when Phobos and that pathetic snake had thrown Raythor down that Abyss; or when Servantis had told him that he had made a stupid mistake by killing those rebels. He should had exterminated him in that instant, cut his head and eat his brains... wait, what? From where had that come from?

"Perhaps he should call their name?" Tynar commented.

"Or," Cedric's hiss came as he abandoned his place behind the throne. "Perhapssss the legend of these warriors is jussst a legend after all."

"Silence."

"What?" Cedric asked as he looked to Lothar, the Captain not even bothering with looking at him. "What did you just say?"

"I said," Lothar practically growled as his eyes flashed in red. " **Silence**!"

There was a shift in the environment of the room that only Phobos and Wong seemed to identify for what it was: magic. From the shadows casted by every corner and every person; smaller shadows came and started to rotate around the Captain. Lothar roared again and then the shadows became black puddles and from each one emerged a figure. Around ten slender and blue skinned individuals with bright red eyes, all clad in black uniforms resembling the usual garb of the old shinobi of Earth's Japan.

"I suppose this should be proof enough," Lothar told Cedric with a demonic grin, his eyes back to normal; making the Shapeshifter to swallow his previous statement. He then looked at the Shadowkhan, the shinobi standing still, waiting for orders. "They obey all my commands?"

"Yes, they should do;" Wong answered.

Aldarn pointed to the Shadowkhan and then to Phobos. "Kneel before the Prince!" he commanded, and the Shadowkhan did as they were told. No mind to resist, no blood in their veins. Just obedience towards their General.

 _Finally, a commander and an army worthy of being my servants_ ; Phobos thought with delight. "Commander Lothar," Phobos instructed. "Find a Portal by deploying our Passling slaves and travel to the realm of Earth with your new warriors as soon as you find it. Find the Guardians and eliminate them, once and for all."

"I shall bring you the Heart of Kandrakar colored in the red of their blood, my liege;" Lothar answered, earning himself a strange gaze from Tynar, the Lieutenant not recognizing his commander in that last sentence.

"Let's march, Tynar! Shadowkhan!" Lothar declared, his Lieutenant and his new subordinates following in tow. "To Earth and victory!"

Lothar abandoned the throne room, and the other attendants at exception of Cedric did the same, with Miranda crawling her way out over the ceiling, and Vathek rushing towards one of the birds he used to deliver news to the rebels. The Snake of Cavigor roared and shifted back to his human form, standing at the Prince's side.

 _Charles, I hope you know with what you are playing_ ; Cedric thought. "My liege, didn't you feel that Lothar sounded a bit different just now?"

"Power Cedric, _real_ power; is a magnificent thing. It lets the smallest of men to become the mightiest of soldiers;" Phobos explained. "This is the first time Lothar experiences it, I feel normal that he acts differently. But he is loyal to me, and therefore he was the best option to give that power too."

 _Or you could have worn that Mask yourself, but I suppose you are too vain to do that_ ; the Shapeshifter thought.

"Any progresses in Earth?" Phobos demanded to know, and Cedric bowed respectfully.

"I have found a girl that matches the age that your sister should have," the Snake explained. "And she bears resemble to you. But without a way to test my theory…"

"Even if her powers had still not flourished, strong emotions could make them to act wildly," Phobos explained. "Put her on a dangerous situation and you will be able to test your suspicions."

"What about the search for the Star of Threbe in the volcano regions?" Cedric asked, but Phobos shook his head.

"If the Lurdens find it, then we will use it;" Phobos declared. "But don't let that to stop you from trying, Lord Cedric. If your theory is correct then we will be ahead of schedule, and if not, well… no one is going to miss some Earth girl."

As the two of them talked, however, they had not detected that something had been watching them the whole time, even when Lothar was putting on the Mask. A small bat with green eyes flew out of the throne room without being seen, down a corridor and directly into the dungeons; straight under its master's coat.

The Tracker, standing into the cell of the cell he usually used as a place for rest when not hunting rebels alive; let the images and sounds the bat had recorded to be delivered into his mind. When he opened his eyes, knowing fully what was going on, he took a small box from his belt. Opening it, an eerie purple butterfly came out, flying around him and his bloodhound, Sniffer.

The undead raised his hand and took the butterfly to his mouth. "I need to speak to you;" he whispered in a dry and raspy voice. Then the butterfly flew a few meters away and exploded, and in mere seconds a Portal opened where the purple insect had stood moments ago.

"Let's go, Sniffer;" Tracker told his hound. "It's time to hunt."

Hunter and hound crossed the Portal, which closed behind them, leaving no trail behind.

* * *

 ** _Across the Veil; Heatherfield; Monday_**

"Come on honey, rise that smile up," Susan Vandom told her daughter.

The two of them were driving in a car towards Sheffield because Will had overslept; so it fell to Susan to carry her daughter to school. She wasn't even angry, today was her daughter's big day after all, even if the redhead wasn't in the mood for it.

"You could tell your friends," Susan proposed. "Invite them home, or even throw a..."

"Mom," Will interrupted her. "No."

"Will..." Susan said. She let out a long sigh as she turned over a corner and Sheffield appeared in front of them. The woman parked, the students already entering the school. "Will, I'm just trying."

"Well, stop doing it;" the redhead said, making Susan to sigh and rest her head over the wheel.

"Will, I know it's hard;" Susan told her daughter. "It's the first birthday you have without Tony being here, and I know this last months have been a bit of total madness, and that this is not going to be the best of birthdays..."

"Then why can't we make like it's not big deal?" Will asked her mother.

"Because it is a big deal," Susan answered. "It's your birthday, Will. I'm not going to let it pass over as some random day. Tell you what, why don't I prepare something for this night, buy a little cake, and we relax? Just the two of us together. So? What do you say to that?"

The redhead looked out of the car's window. She could see Irma and Jade already at Sheffield's gates, probably waiting for her. "Okay, mom."

"See? Was it so difficult?" Susan asked with a small smile. She kissed Will in the cheek as the girl opened the car's door. "Be sure to enjoy your great day. And remember, no matter how old you grow, you will always be my Pink Poopy Perky Pumpkin."

"Mom!" Will protested, even if her face showed its first smile in the morning now. She proceeded to exit the car after returning the kiss her mother had given her.

Outside Irma and Jade waited for her, the Chan girl with the most amused grins on her face.

"What?" the redhead asked.

"Nothing," Jade answered with a devilish face. "Pink Poopy Perky Pumpkin."

"What?! How did you...?"

Jade took a finger to her ears. "You opened the door. And you know, wolf super-hearing. So, why is today your 'great day'?"

 _Ah crap_ ; Will thought.

* * *

 _Eat, you must eat. You are practically in your bones! Eat before a battle, drink before a battle! Eat and drink after a battle! Drink blood and eat brains while in battle!_

"Captain Lothar, sir;" Tynar said in a submissive tone. "Was this really necessary?"

"I'm hungry;" came Lothar's growling response. "Since I wear this thing," he said pointing to the Mask. "I'm very hungry."

 _I don't think that justifies all this_ , Tynar thought. They were, both soldiers alongside the Shadowkhan, in what looked to be an earthling butcher shop. For more than an entire day had they been looking for a Portal. And when found and cross, moving through the realm of Earth, through this Heatherfield (he hadn't seen any field of heathers, thought) had proven quite difficult. This world was very different from Meridian. Even now when the sun was starting to lose its peak, this location felt warmer than any meridianite city, and the air felt heavier in his lungs and over his skin; the noises were also louder and unknown. This world felt incredibly bizarre... yet its differences with his own world weren't his priority at this moment. No, his attention was focused solely on his Captain, on Lothar. His behavior since he had put that cursed artifact over his face had been changing and becoming more and mire erratic with every hour that passed. At first the Captain had been just drinking more than he was accustomed to, then eating... by the end of the day, directing very uncomfortable gazes towards some of the maidens at the castle. After a whole night of searching for a Portal, they had found it and crossed to this new, bizarre and strange world.

And now here they were, in this earthling butchery shop, the owner having fell unconscious after seeing Lothar's new visage and the dozen of demonic ninja that were following in tow. And the Captain had been doing anything but eat for the past half an hour.

Eating raw meat he had taken from the shop.

"Captain..." Tynar said as he approached his superior. Around him, the Shadowkhan tensed slightly and narrowed their red eyes towards him. "Lothar, sir. The mission..."

"Mission yes, orders from the King;" Lothar answered while chewing a piece of meat. "The Prince, I mean... ugh..." Lothar stopped eating and took his hands to his temples. "Eliminate the Guardians," his eyes flashed in red. "Shadowkhan! Scatter through this city and search for the Guardians of the Veil and inform me upon their localization!"

The Shadowkhan obeyed instantaneously, dissolving into puddles of shadow and exiting the butcher shop each into one direction. Tynar and Lothar were left alone, the Captain returning to chew the piece of meat like before.

In the moment the Shadowkhan locate those whores, I'm going to crush them by myself, Lothar thought. _And the rebel leader too. For what they did to Captain Raythor_.

His eyes focused one last time in the unconscious body of the owner of the shop. They flashed red once again.

 _Brains..._

* * *

 ** _Lair residence; dusk_**

"Irma! Jade!" Will Vandom's shout was heard at the doorstep of the Lair family. "I told you I didn't want any party!"

But there was a party, with music and low light and a lot of people… A birthday party especially prepared for Wilhelmina Vandom, who didn't want one. Even when Jade and Irma had practically interrogated her between classes and she had been forced to confess to the two that it was her birthday, she had made them promise to her that none of them would be organizing any party to her.

"But… we didn't do a thing!" Irma said as an apology.

"True! I mean we were with you all afternoon, preparing for that math test!" Jade corroborated.

"That's because _I_ did!" Cornelia said, standing alongside Taranee a bit behind the other three girls. Hay Lin was already inside the house, dressed in a quite elegant chinese getup, alongside Elyon and Alchemy; the three of them preparing the party while the other girls were gone. The blonde opened her arms to Will as the redhead turned around with an expression midway between surprise and anger. "Can you believe Irma and Jade didn't want to throw you a party just because you told them not to? Give me 13 hugs, Birthday Girl!"

"Cornelia!" Will protested. "If I said that I didn't want a party, then I don't want…!"

"C'mon Birthday Girl, don't give me that;" the blonde retorted, taking Will by the shoulder and dragging her inside. "Look around, we got music, and cute boys, and people laughing, and drinks, and snacks…"

Will mumbled something as she tried to resist to Cornelia's arguments to no avail; Taranee following behind them before approaching Hay Lin and congratulating her on her outfit. Still in the doorstep, Irma and Jade were approached by a skinny boy with reddish blond hair and a pair of glasses. Martin Tubs was his name, and he was known around Sheffield for many things. Mainly because he was just the school's standard example for a nerd… and for his very obvious crush in Irma Lair too.

"Oh look; your admirer," Jade commented as she saw Martin approaching them. "Better leave you two alone."

Irma frowned at the practically running Chinese girl. "Don't you dare to leave me alone with…!"

"Hi Irma," Martin greeted the brunette in a shy tone. "Thanks for inviting me."

The Water Guardian crossed her arms over her bust as her frown deepened. "Martin, I didn't invite anybody; and if I had, you surely wouldn't be in the top list."

"Uhum," Martin said, Irma's words with no effect upon him. "Hey, do you wanna dance?"

"No," Irma answered plainly, abandoning her place at the doorstep and inspecting what kind of mess Cornelia had made of her home. However, Martin wasn't ready to give up.

"Mind if I dance around you?" the determined boy asked, already starting to dance, a bit awkwardly though.

While Irma was trying to cope with Martin's attempts at impressing her, Will shipped from a glass contained a drink that tasted more to sugar than the orange it was supposed to taste to.

The redhead had to admit, this wasn't as horrible as she had thought it was going to be. The music was good, the snacks were tasty, and everyone seemed to be having a good time. Oh, and apparently Irma's parents and brother were upstairs, cool enough to let the party develop without interrupting it, or complain. This was a point that even Cornelia envied about Irma's family, since according to the blonde, her last party had been so unbelievably great her parents said she couldn't have another one until after she left home.

Anyway, Will had to give credit to the Earth Guardian. She had even given the party a frog theme, knowing that the redhead liked that kind of animal. She had never known why. Frogs were funny, and green, and jumped all around...

"Hey Will!" she heard Hay Lin's voice. "Look at what I got for you as present!"

Will stared down at the object Hay Lin had brought to her; a small picture the cheering Air Guardian had drawn for her. Or more accurately, a picture she had drawn of her, in her Guardian form. She looked majestic there.

"Oh hey!" Elyon said, peeking over Will's shoulder and looking at the picture. "It's you! I mean, if you were a fairy or something!"

"Yeah..." Will and Hay Lin said while exchanging a look and an awkward smile.

The party proceeded to develop normally, with everyone chatting or dancing around. Of course, everything had to come crashing down when Jade, sitting down for a moment to enjoy a small piece of cake, saw certain Passling and rebel leader knocking at one of the house's windows.

"Will? I think we've surprise guests," Jade told the Keeper of the Heart while pointing to the window, from where you could see Blunk waving at them and Caleb (now in his usual earthling attire) pointing to the house's door, where he started to head to.

 _Great, just when I was starting to relax_ ; the redhead thought as she approached the door. Opening it, she was greeted by Caleb, the rebel boy standing in the doorframe, hands in his pockets. "Caleb," she greeted him. "Let me guess, there's an emergency in Meridian…"

"Actually," the rebel leader said. "The emergency is here, and I don't know exactly how much advantage we have in terms of time. We need to gather the rest of the Guardians," his eyes drafted to Jade, the girl standing a few steps away from Will. "And those two wizards of your family, I think they could be of a great help."

"Why?" Jade asked as she started to send a message to Jackie with her mobile phone, indicating him to bring Tohru and Uncle and meet with them in the Silver Dragon.

"I think I may have committed a terrible mistake;" Caleb said, albeit he declined to explain the specifics until everyone had been gathered.

"Alright," Jade said. "I'm going to see if I can find some of the girls in this chaos," she said gesturing to the party. "Don't move from here."

"Alright," Caleb answered the girl by using the same word as her. He waited in the doorframe, looking around at all the dancing teenagers. This reminded him of some of those parties in the Infinite City after they had succeeded in a mission. Except for the absence of any liquor.

"Hi!" he heard a female voice then. Turning in the direction it had came from, Caleb saw Alchemy, Elyon, and another girl; the three of them looking at him with the best 'puppy-eyes' they could muster. "I'm Elyon!" the girl in purple told him.

"I'm Caleb," the rebel answered plainly, not knowing exactly why they were looking at him like that. He knew that he was an attractive man, many had said that him, but years dedicated to fight against the Prince's forces didn't let you enough time to indulge into the most common pleasure's of youth, and flirting was sadly among them.

"So…" Elyon continued to speak, her eyes travelling over the boy's body. "Are you friends with Will, or…?"

"Back off!" Cornelia's voice came from behind, practically making the other girls to jump in fear. The blonde, with the other members of WITCH and Jade behind her, took Caleb and pushed him onwards, taking him out of the house, not without directing one last look at her best friend and the other two girls. "I saw him first…" the Earth Guardian practically hissed.

"Okay, okay;" Elyon said while waving her hands in the air. "Where are you guys going, by the way?"

"To get some pizza," Taranee answered, saying the first thing that passed over her mind, an excuse that somehow didn't seem to startle none of the girls, as Elyon and Alchemy headed back inside.

"Pizza? Really?" Jade inquired to the Fire Guardian, who just shrugged.

"Okay, so nobody is going to talk about Corny being territorial?" Irma whispered so Caleb couldn't hear her. Cornelia did, however; blushing a bit in the process.

"Don't. Say. A thing;" the Earth Guardian threatened.

"Okay, before we go;" Will said aloud, directing to Caleb. "Care to explain what the hell is going on? Is it Wong again? Or Cedric, or…?"

Caleb shook his head. "None of them. Tell me, have you ever heard the word 'Shadowkhan'?"

None of the girls had any clue about what the rebel was speaking about. None except for one of them, whose honey eyes narrowed a bit, her throat gulping.

"Bad day," Jade said.

* * *

 ** _The Silver Dragon; a meeting and an explanation later_**

"FOOLISH REBEL BOY!" Uncle yelled at the top of his lungs.

All the persons needed had assembled at the Silver Dragon, both WITCH and the Chan Clan in complete; and Yan Lin, who was there both to get involved and to suggest from time to time that the girls should choose another place for their meetings. Blunk was sitting in a corner of the room, a small paper-bag in his hands that, if the smell was any indication, was full of trash that the green dwarf was eaten.

There, Caleb (now in his meridianite robes and with a sword at his waist) had told them everything; how Ludmoore's offer had arrived one week ago, how the auction had gone, how Wong (and by extension Phobos) had gotten out of the auction with the Mask, and how Vathek had informed them that Lothar was wearing it and was able to summon Shadowkhan now. Of course, Uncle wasn't precisely happy about this outcome.

"Doesn't Rebellion know about Shadowkhan?! They are force of great evil! Very powerful Dark Chi fuels them!" the elder wizard yelled as he dope slapped Caleb continuously. "Why didn't rebel boy tell us about Mask sooner?!"

"First of, stop doing that!" Caleb told the elder in order for him to stop hitting him. "Second, we maintained it a secret because we knew you would have wanted to assault Ludmoore's manor in order to take it! That would have been suicide!"

"Please, tell me you didn't want to use the Shadowkhan yourselves;" Jackie said. He saw how some doubt sparkled briefly in the boy's eyes. _Because men like you can only think in black and white_. The words still reverberated in his head, making him unease. Better to give Caleb the benefit of the doubt this time around.

"No!" the rebel proclaimed. "We were there in order to prevent the tyrant's forces for taking it! Ow! Stop doing that, I say!" Caleb protested as the old man had hit him again.

"Hehe," Blunk laughed from his corner as he tossed a bit more of trash in his mouth. "Old man is funny."

"Rebel boy does not understand!" Uncle yelled again, not paying attention to the Passling. Then his face turned into one of pure seriousness. "Shadowkhan are not normal soldiers, or like any other magical familiar someone can call to their aid. They are constructs of very old dark chi that their master molds and controls. They aren't even alive. A Shadowkhan does not tire, a Shadowkhan does not feel fear or pain, and as long as the conjurer is around, he can summon an endless number of them. Your actions had granted Prince Phobos with an almost unstoppable army. And that is not talking about Mask! Uncle doesn't know anything about any Mask!"

"They were supposed to be a myth!" Caleb yelled too. "According to legend, Escanor and his Four Knights, alongside the First Queen Leryn; were summoned to Meridian by Kandrakar in order to defeat them! Which they did, and apparently sealed the Demons' power…"

"In those Masks," Irma ended for him. "Yes, yes; we got it the first time you explained that story. Also, you think that's a myth and the Guardians aren't?"

"The Guardians of Kandrakar are a known force of good and protection around the Infinite Dimensions," Yan Lin said. "They have been around, non-stop, for generations, entire millennia. It's normal for people to forget about what they don't see with frequency. The fact that the majority of Earth's populace thinks that magic is just a fairy tale is proof of that."

"So, you put on the Mask, you gain control over those Shadowkhan?" Taranee asked the rebel; returning to matters at hand.

"But Caleb's story mentioned Nine Demon Generals," Hay Lin said with a small fear in her voice. "Does that mean there are other eight out there?"

 _Does that mean Nine different types of Shadowkhan?_ ; Jackie thought with the same fear of the Air Guardian. Now that was a terrifying thought.

"Apprentice!" Uncle called. "We must prepare spell in order to fight Shadowkhan! One more thing! Guardians and niece should prepare for battle! One more thing! We must found way to remove Mask from meridianite Captain's face! One more thing!"

"I have a question," Will said, rising her hand as if this was some kind of class.

"Do not interrupt Uncle when he is pointing more things!" the elder declared.

"Sorry," Will apologized. "But how do you know so much about them?"

"Duh! We fought them before," Jade told the redhead girl, making her and the rest of the Guardians to look at her speechless. "Remember that Shendu guy I told you about? They worked for him. They even worked for me once."

"Really?" Cornelia inquired with a quirked eyebrow.

"Yep. Got myself this weird tattoo, then my skin went blue and BAM! Ninja army at my feet. It was kind of cool," she said as she noted a strange gaze from her uncle. "Except when I tried to cut Jackie's head off. That was _very un-cool_."

"You went evil?" Hay Lin asked next.

"Complete with a stupid dress in dark colors," Jade said casually.

"You on a dress?" Irma asked then. "Yeah, I bet you weren't quite yourself!"

"Can we please focus on the army of demons attacking this world again?" Caleb asked politely, making the girls to smile at him as an apology.

"Uncle, you and Tohru should go and prepare everything you need for your spells;" Jackie said as he tossed his rented car's keys to the sumo. "We need to find a place in which you can fight without endangering the innocent. And we need to do it quickly."

"Why?" Taranee asked.

"Because I have fought Shadowkhan before, and they can find you anywhere;" Jackie explained. "And I don't want any of you fighting them with your powers in a restaurant."

"Then let's move," Caleb declared in the imperative and serious tone he used with the rebels.

 _Because fighting ninja demons is the first thing I wanted for my birthday_ ; Will thought with sarcasm.

* * *

 ** _Heatherfield's streets; almost night_**

"Jackie…" Jade said as she noted a bit of movement at the group's left.

They were now walking through one of the city's main avenues, big enough to fill any battle they may have. Jackie was still a bit reluctant to let them fight in such a place, but the majority of the buildings seemed to be the property of some enterprises, so he supposed there wasn't any risk there. And they were running out of time.

"They are here," the archeologist declared. "Be ready."

"Guardians, Unite!" Will said, holding the Heart of Kandrakar up, the five girls quickly getting enveloped in pink light and getting out of it in their Guardian form. Jade, meanwhile, growled as her black bangs grow and surrounded her body, creating a ball of black fur that grew even more until taking the shape of an enormous black wolf. Jade stretched her beast body, howling a bit after that.

It didn't last long until small shadows detached themselves from the bigger ones that the buildings were casting. How much were they? Probably more than two dozen, if Jackie's eyes didn't miss any. The small shadows started to circle around the two Chans, the rebel and the Guardians, the five girls already in the air. After several seconds, they stopped and from each shadow raised a ninja, all of them already in combat positions, and with several weapons in their hands, from kunai to shuriken. There were even some with a pair of katana.

"Those are Shadowkhan?" Hay Lin asked from the air. "They look super spooky."

"And I thought my cousins looked sickly," Irma casually commented. "These guys could take a bit of sun."

" **Guardians!** " a deafening roar took them out of their small talk. In the middle of the street, four Shadowkhan had formed a small circle, and in there their shadows had merged in one, big puddle. From the puddle, slowly, emerged both Lothar and Tynar, the later quite freaked out in comparison with the former, who was sporting a gleeful grin across his new face.

"Captain," Tynar said as he breathed repeatedly, fighting vomit down his throat. "Please, don't force me to do that again."

"That's the Lothar guy?" Taranee asked, unable to heard Tynar's plea. "Oh my god, look at his face!"

"Gross!" Cornelia corroborated. "What the hell happened to him?"

 _So that's what Vathek was referring in his message with 'the Mask practically ate his face'_ ; Caleb thought grimly. So this was it, eh? The power of one of the same demons his favorite childhood story spoke about. He readied his sword. Better to live up to the Knights of legend and songs then.

"Guardians of the Veil!" Lothar spoke as he walked towards them. "The Rebellion's Shapeshifter, the rebel leader! And… eh…" Lothar doubted a bit after looking at Jackie.

"I'm an archeologist," Jackie pointed out.

"Anywho!" Lothar exclaimed. "Tonight… tonight I take revenge for what you did to my Captain! Tonight I get rid of all of you! Tonight… **Tonight you die!** " the soldier roared, his voice echoing with the reverberations of a second one.

"I don't remember this guy being so cheesy," Irma remarked.

"It has to be the power," Will said. "You know, like that sentence today in class? Power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely?"

"Oh, so you were paying attention…"

" **Silence!** " Lothar roared again. "I won't let you whores to escape this time. I never understood why the Prince and the Archmage were so obsessed with magic, but now that I feel it in my veins, coursing through my body… Hahahahehehi…"

"Captain?" Tynar inquired from behind his superior. This was now bordering into insanity. He hadn't seen that kind of sadistic glee not even in the likes of Frost, who practically jumped to battle with almost sexual excitement.

 _Roar! Roar now, child! The battlefield awaits you!_

" **Now I have the power to destroy you all!** " Lothar exclaimed at the top of his lungs, arms stretched to the skies, and then another twenty or so Shadowkhan appeared from the shadows, ready to fight.

"So many of them…" Hay Lin said in a scared tone.

"Don't be scared!" Will shouted. "Cornelia, I need something to take cover in land!"

"Got it!" the blonde said as she descended to the same level as the Chans and Caleb, putting her palms in the ground she raised a wall of stone in front of them. That would be enough to serve as a cover for some of the flying weaponry of the ninja.

"Attack!" Lothar ordered his minions, and in mere seconds, more than five Shadowkhan were rushing towards them.

And thus battle ensued in the streets of Heatherfield.

Jade was the first one to jump into the fray, impulsive as she was. Howling, she started to slash Shadowkhan after Shadowkhan with her claws, even going as far as to bite some of them in their necks or heads with her jaws, prompting the ninjas to go 'poof' into small bits of shadow that faded to nothing in seconds. In the moment five of them surround and jumped at her, kunai in hand; Jade smirked. She concentrated for a few seconds, just like Uncle and Tohru had taught them too, amassing energy within her. She roared and a stream of white chi surged right through her body, shattering the Shadowkhan upon contact. She roared in pleasure upon doing that and continued to attack the rest of the ninja with her claws and fangs once again.

Caleb was intelligent enough to realize a disadvantage when he saw one, and thus he maintained himself next to Jackie, the two of them fighting the ninja as best as they could, Caleb parrying attacks and counterattacking with his sword, while Jackie was opting for an evasion and redirecting the attacks of the ninja stratagem, a course of action that let him conserve his energy. He had noted something different with these Shadowkhan in comparison with Shendu's. They were the same in appearence, but these felt stronger, and by far more resilient.

The girls were having a much easier time, though. Having an aerial advantage was proving quite useful, letting Taranee and Hay Lin to use their elements at their fullest. Cornelia and Irma were a bit lower, their elements not being as useful against long numbered opponents as the other two girls. Will was practically in the ground, flying only a few inches over it, evading shuriken and punching a ninja from time to time. Truth to be told, her mind was far more focused into the fact that Lothar and Tynar weren't moving from where they were than into the battle.

No, the Captain and his Lieutenant weren't precisely moving out of the way. They were just there, looking at how the fight developed around them. Seeing how the Shadowkhan were slowly but relentlessly being wiped out, Tynar took the pair of scimitars he was carrying and started to walk with the intention of entering the battle. However, Lothar put a hand in front of him.

"Don't worry, Lieutenant;" the Captain said as his eyes flashed red for a second, and another fifteen ninja materialized from shadows behind them, to promptly run into the aid of their fellow Shadowkhan. "Soldiers are something we aren't running out tonight."

 _We're tiring out!_ ; Will thought with anger after, glancing at the spot where Lothar and Tynar were standing; Lothar summoning another set of the ninja from time to time. _And they haven't even moved! This is just a distraction. I need… I need…_ her eyes focused in Jade for a moment; she was the one nearer to Lothar and the other guard. If the one wearing the Mask was taken out, would the Shadowkhan disappear?

"Taranee!" the redhead called for the girl of the dreadlocks. "I need Jade free of them! Fry those ninja!"

Taranee gave the redhead a thumb up and flew to Jade's position, throwing fireball after fireball at the ninja surrounding the wolf-girl.

"Thanks Tara!" Jade howled. _Not that I needed help, anyway…_

"Jade!" Will yelled from her current position. "I need you to take Lothar out! These creeps are nothing without him! Taranee, cover her back!"

"Understood!" both girls said, and as the wolf started to dash towards Lothar, while Taranee fired fireballs towards the Shadowkhan that tried to get in the way.

Tynar looked at his commander, and Lothar gave a nod of approbation. "Go for the rebel and that other man. The wolf is mine."

Tynar unsheathed his pair of scimitars and rushed towards Jackie and Caleb. Deciding that the Shadowkhan should be enough for the earthling, he decided to focus on Caleb instead. And thus his swords clashed with the ones of the rebel leader. Tynar couldn't avoid a smirk of pride as the boy fought tooth and nail to find the stamina needed to stop his two blades. Lothar's plan was working, they were getting tired.

As for the Captain, he had waited patiently for Jade to arrive at him. There were no words exchanged, no honorable exchange of salutes. No, Jade simply roared at him, to then proceed to jump towards his neck jaws opened. Lothar jumped to the side in order to evade her. He had been eager to do this, to fight for himself now that he had so much power in his body. He unsheathed his sword, and raised it over his head.

Jade landed after her jump and started to circle around Lothar, growling slightly. The soldier didn't doubt, ready to strike at the first moment she made a move. He wasn't showing any opening in his guard either, and her instincts were telling her that if she saw one it would be a trap. This wasn't the same as fighting scared guards in the woods, this was totally different. Good, she had something different for these occasions.

Jade concentrated into her chi again, unleashing another wavelength of the white energy towards Lothar. The surprise attack did the trick, and albeit Lothar didn't get out of it as harmed as she hoped he would, his sword cracked and then broke in two. Taking advantage of the momentum, Jade jumped claws first, planning to take down the Captain and end this battle once and for all.

However, as she jumped she noticed how the soldier had a smug grin on his face. And as soon as she nailed her claws into something, she felt that it wasn't the Captain's armor. It was a Shadowkhan, not even completely out of the shadow the ninja had appeared from; her claws nailed into the ninja's chest; but not Lothar's.

"Fool!" the Captain shouted in triumph as he made another three Shadowkhan to materialize. The new ninja attacked Jade, and she defended from them as best as she could. However this got her distracted and left enough space for Lothar to attack her.

The Captain punched her in the gut. It hurt; it hurt much more that it should have. Jade realized then that not only was Lothar able to summon Shadowkhan now, but he was also pretty strong. A simple hit shouldn't have hurt so much. However, Jade ignored the pain and amassed more chi. She was feeling much more tired now, a result of her continuous use of her powers, no doubt. But she wasn't going to go down, oh no! Not against this freaky dude on steroids!

"Take this!" Jade yelled, unleashing the wave of white chi one more time, this one with all the strength she could find within herself. This attack pushed Lothar back, and this time he was in the loser's end. He felt his skin burning, and as soon as the wave of white chi dissipated, the small amount of Shadowkhan he had summoned had vanished, and he had fell to his knees.

"What… do you… say to that?" Jade asked, showing her fangs. However, Lothar could hear another sound leaving her mouth.

"I say," the Captain said while standing up, the burns over his skin healing already as small shadows travelled over his body. "That you are starting to exhaust yourself."

Jade narrowed her eyes at the man. Damn it, she really was starting to get tired! What the hell was that Mask? This felt as if she was fighting someone with the Ox and Horse talismans at the same time, albeit in a weakened form. However, as much as she wanted to rush at him again, her enhanced wolf hearing picked upon something then, a sound she recognized quite well, approaching at increasing speed. She smirked at Lothar.

"Yeah? Well, I say you should be careful with the traffic!" Jade taunted Mask wearing man, who raised a confused eyebrow at the words of the Shapeshifter.

His answer came in the form of Jackie's rented car, who driven by Tohru and Uncle, crashed against the masked Captain at top speed, sending him flying across the street and smashing against one of the buildings.

"Captain Lothar!" Tynar shouted in concern as he pushed Caleb away and ran to his commander. He wasn't the only one, half the Shadowkhan that were fighting doing the same. After all, their master's survival was priority over victory, unless master said otherwise.

The other half remained where they were, fighting the Guardians and Jackie; but due to their decrease in numbers, they lost quite quickly, dissolving into puddles of shadow and disappearing.

"Gather around Tohru and Uncle!" Will told the group. "Jade, are you alright?!"

"I'm fine," the Shapeshifter told the Keeper of the Heart as soon as reaching the car, from where Uncle and Tohru were descending, the elder a bit dizzy after the race. The Guardians had descended to ground level too, and Jackie and Caleb had run to them already. "But that asshole's really strong."

"Jade, language!" Jackie protested, and Jade rolled her eyes as she reverted to her human form.

"I think I need some time to catch up my breath," the wolf-girl informed. "But we got him in the ropes, yes?"

"Such it seems," Caleb answered.

"Foolishness!" Uncle yelled. "Nothing stops man from summoning more Shadowkhan! Tohru, we must prepare spell to destroy Shadowkhan so Guardians can focus on… Tohru?"

Tohru wasn't paying any attention. He was looking at Lothar, who was currently rising from the ground, helped by both Tynar and a Shadowkhan, even if the Captain shook his arms to get rid of them, indicating that he didn't need any help. Even from the distance that separated them, the sumo could see their enemy's face, the horns, the unusual skin color, and the fangs. It reminded him of the pictures, the tales of old Japan that his mother used to tell him. In this situation, he only trembled.

"O-o-o-o… Oni!" the sumo said as if he were a terrified kid.

"Who-ni?" Jade inquired.

"Oni!" Tohru said. "Demons from Japanese legends! My mother used to tell me that they were monster that ate bad children's souls!"

"So… Japanese boogeyman much?" Irma asked in her usual deadpan tone.

"Those are just the tales for children," Tohru continued to explain. "Folklore specifies that they were ogre-like monsters that lusted for battle, and that each possessed the strength of twenty men!"

"But the Nine Demon Generals are part of a meridianite tale," Caleb said then. "How come they are monsters from Earth?"

"I don't know," Tohru answered.

"Ha! It is impossible for Mask to be based into an Oni! Shendu, who used the Mask before, was Chinese!" Uncle protested.

"That doesn't exclude the other option," Taranee pointed out, but she was distracted by a roar coming from the enemy side.

Looking into that direction, all of them saw Lothar clutching his head while roaring in pain. Their hearts skipped a beat. This couldn't be a good sign.

 _You have your fun. Now is my moment. That child posses the power of that Murasaki harlot! She is a Ben-Shui! Even more, I can feel the sigil of His Majesty upon her! I won't let her leave this place alive! Neither I will let those Kandrakar whores!_

 _But… but she is just a child. I shouldn't… I won't… who… who are you?_ ; Lothar thought. He had been thinking that the voice had been nothing but his own thoughts, but the current situation as proven that as an error.

 _You foolish little man. I have been here since the moment you put my Mask on, whispering to your ear. Now obey and attack!_

 _I won't do it! But I hate them, I hate them all… but, what Raythor used to say… And they killed him! But honor…_

 _Pathetic. If you are going to continue getting in my way then you are just…_

" **Weak!** " Lothar, or rather someone else speaking through Lothar's mouth, roared; and the Shadowkhan grew stiff upon that sound. He then cracked his neck and started to stretch his limbs, feeling every muscle and limb as if testing them for the first time.

"Captain?" Tynar asked in concern, just for Lothar's hand to shot quickly to his neck, lifting him above the Captain's head, forcing him to look into his eyes. Tynar forced a gasp of terror down his throat when he saw that his commander's eyes were completely red. "Lothar, sir…" Tynar said, gasping for air. "Snap out of it!"

"Your Captain…" Lothar said slowly in a voice that didn't belong to him. It was a dark, cruel and old voice. "Your Captain is not here anymore."

He then threw Tynar across the street, the Lieutenant crashing against a tree that shattered upon the impact. The not-Lothar smiled smugly at this. This body wasn't as strong as his real one was, but it would be enough for the moment. His eyes focused then on those Guardians and those wizards, looking at him with shocked expressions they were. Ugh… he could smell the foul stench to chi magic in that large man and the old one. He had very bad experiences with chi magic in the past, better to take care of them quickly.

"Eh… did I get something on my eye, or did that guy just toss his friend like a ragdoll?" Irma inquired.

"Aiyah…" Uncle said, almost whispering. "Mask not only holds power of Demon general. It has Demon General sealed _inside_!"

"For real?" Cornelia asked with an eyebrow rose in puzzlement. This was getting weirder and weirder with every moment that passed.

"It would do you well to listen to the old man;" not-Lothar said while walking towards them, more Shadowkhan appearing behind him as he walked, this time from his own shadow. He then hit his own chest with his fist three times. "I am of the Oni of old Japan, from the Naindēmon shōgun who terrorized entire countries! I am the General of the Ninja Khan! Uta of Deception!"

"Nainde… what?" Irma asked again. "Okay, can we please talk in English?"

"It means Nine Demon Generals in Japanese," Tohru explained, readying his blowfish.

"Oh! So you _are_ Japanese!" Uncle acknowledged the demon's nationality.

"I was," Uta explained. "Long ago, before we travelled to other realms. Earth seems to have advanced quite a bit in my absence. But enough about me, let's kill you!" More Shadowkhan appeared behind him, forming two lines of five at his back. The demon smiled cruelly at them.

"Really?" Jade asked in confidence. "We were moping the floor with your guys just moments ago."

"Oh no, little wolf;" Uta explained as he showed his fangs in a big and delighted grin. The Shadowkhan behind him melted into shadow and disappeared as he spoke. "You were mopping the floor with ninja that were being used as soldiers. Now fight ninja that fight like assassins!"

The shadows around the Chan Clan and the Guardians started to move then, and shortly afterwards, five ninja jumped from them, kunai in hand. The girls flew in order to evade the hit, and the Chan Clan plus Caleb jumped out of the way, Tohru and Uncle firing green chi blasts in order to destroy them. However, as soon as they had destroyed those firsts, another pair of the ninja shot from their own shadows, ready to stab then. Only Jackie's quick intervention kicking the ninja out of sight saved them.

In the air, the Guardians had quite a problem, as the Shadowkhan assigned t attack them were now moving in the floor in their shadow forms, only exiting them from time to time to deliver an alluvium of shuriken towards them. There was always at least one Shadowkhan out of his shadow, and so the Guardians had to keep evading.

"Do something Taranee!" Cornelia yelled. "You're the one that can shot fastest!"

"How?! I can't destroy them while they're shadows!" Taranee yelled as she evaded another rain of shuriken

"You pathetic whores," Uta spoke from the ground as he surveyed the fight. "My tribe is not to be used as a frontline force, no. That was Ikazuki and Sukhosi's task. But I am a ninja, a master of the subtle art of assassination. I must admit that using my skills into a wide open battlefield with moving targets is being quite difficult, but I do love challenges!" Uta raised his right arm then, catching Caleb's incoming blade with his bare fingers. He then kicked the rebel leader in the gut, sending him stumbling to the ground. He catched Jackie's flying kick with both hands then, and instead of throwing him he smashed the archeologist against the ground, cracking it and inflicting so much pain in Jackie that he was sure he couldn't move again. "Then again, none of you seem to be challenges! Come on; hit me as hard as you can!"

"Does Oni want a piece of Uncle?!" Uta heard the elder's cry, both Uncle and Tohru free of the Shadowkhan he had sent after them. Ah, His Majesty had decided to use the power of the Shadow Realm because Raw Magic wasn't as effective against the Shadowkhan as Chi Magic was. But when faced with it…

"By all means," Uta said as he extended his arms. "Come and face me, mortal!"

"Then feel the power of mayonnaise!" Uncle yelled, putting the spell he had crafted with the ingredient to use.

A pair of green beams of chi shot from the two wizards' blowfish and lizard, and Uta answered by clapping his hands together and rising a barrier of black chi in front of him. The beams collided with the barrier, which did a pretty good job withstanding the firepower of the two men. However, Uta got distracted then as a side attack of white chi smashed against his head, burning him. He growled in pain and looked for whoever had attacked him, finding Jade, kneeling at Jackie's side, palm extended towards him and the afterglow of the chi attack still present.

" **Impudent…!** " Uta yelled, but that cost him concentration, and his barrier cracked and broke under the attack of both wizards. The hope didn't last long, a in the stream of green energy, two red eyes flashed with fury, and Uta's whole body enveloped itself into black chi. " **Novices!** "

There was a small cracking sound, and then a huge explosion. Dark chi shot from Uta's every pore and stroke both humans, Guardians and Shapeshifter. Interestingly, instead of hitting and hurting, the black chi enveloped their bodies as if it were some kind of black goo, and then it transformed in chains that restrained their every movement. The Guardians fell to the ground, unable to keep moving their wings, while the others fell too, chained from head to toe.

"You idiots," Uta told them with a smug grin. "Did you really believe that you could stop me?" he asked as he started to approach Jade, making one Shadowkhan to appear and handle him a katana. "We that master the Shadow only grow stronger with the darkness within of living beings! And this man, this little, concerned soldier that only cares about his men," he said, patting Lothar's chest. "You sent the first man that looked at him with acknowledgement and pride into a pit! Oh, so much anger, and hatred, and also desperation! Both at you and towards himself;" he licked his lips. "It can get me running for decades, even in this inferior body! And you thought you could stop me? Fools, you don't even know how to remove a Mask from a host! Now I will be able to awaken the other generals! We will take our revenge!"

 _Revenge?_ ; Jackie thought as he struggled with his chains. _Wait, remove the Mask?_

"Aiyah!" Uncle yelled. "There _is_ a way to remove Mask from host!"

"How, sensei?" Tohru inquired, and Uncle shot a glare towards him.

"How should Uncle know? You are the Japanese; this is your field of work!"

"And now, to get rid of a thorn in the side of all Oni-kind!" Uta proclaimed as he raised his sword over Jade's head. "Farewell, heir to the Ben-Shui!"

"Don't touch my family!"

Uta looked up just to see the Air Guardian coming directly towards him, slamming against his body with her, making him trip and fall to the ground with a loud growl.

"I thought you couldn't fly!" Jade told Hay Lin, who smiled at her.

"But I can still shot air from my mouth, right?" Hay Lin asked with a wide smile. She had used air to propel herself. Of course it could only be Hay Lin's idea.

"Oh, you and I are family, alright;" Jade complimented her with a grin.

"You changed nothing!" Uta yelled as he got up. "No more mistakes," he said as he summoned more Shadowkhan. "I will kill you all, and…" Uta's voice died suddenly then, drowned by a gasp that didn't fully fly out of his mouth. The Shadowkhan grew stiff once again, reflecting their master's uneasiness.

 _Now what?_ ; Caleb thought as he continued to struggle with his chains. They had enough with what they had in hands right now, they didn't need more surprises. Yet he could hear something approaching. _The sound of a titling chain?_

Slowly, yet relentlessly; the sound of the titling chain continued to approach. Nearer and nearer. Away from the current fray, Tynar was starting to come to his senses. He opened his eyes in just the right time to see another individual entering and joining the fight. A tall individual, garbed in an old hunter's attire. Dried and green skin all wrinkled and half rotten, exposed teeth, and a demonic bloodhound at his side. Red eyes looked around the street, their crimson even more demonic than the one of the Shadowkhan.

The Tracker.

"The undead…" Caleb whispered in horror. This wasn't exactly what they needed right now!

"It's the zombie from Phobos' throne room!" Will yelled, remembering the monster from that time she had been tortured by thorns.

"Great, because we didn't have enough with the Japanese boogeyman," Irma deadpanned.

However, there was no one more terrified in the street than Uta himself. The Oni in control of Lothar's body was looking, eyes wide opened, to the undead that was just a few meters away, his hound growling in anger at him.

"Impossible…" Uta muttered. "But that clothing, that flail… I saw you die! You died by Ikazuki's sword!"

"And yet here I am," Tracked said. None of the attendants knew which one sounded more terrifying, the Oni's deep roar, or the undead's raspy whisper. "Perhaps Ikazuki wasn't as skilled as he thought."

"Don't you dare to mock him!" Uta yelled in anger. "He was His Majesty's second in command for a reason!"

"They… they know each other?" Cornelia asked, confused to the extreme. She had been making small vines to sprout out of the ground for a time, trying to break the chains with them. She stopped when a small purple butterfly landed over the chains, other purple butterflies doing the same over her friends'.

"Lieutenant," Tracker addressed Tynar at his side. "When that Mask goes out of your Captain's face, then take him back to Meridian."

"Under…stood?" Tynar answered a bit unsure. This was the first time he had ever heard the undead to say something more than a single phrase.

Tracker started to walk slowly towards Uta, taking his chain out of his body, revealing a long flail that immediately started to glow with green energy. At his side, Sniffer walked at the same pace, both of them not showing any fear or doubt.

"Attack!" Uta ordered his Shadowkhan, the ninja obediently rushing towards the undead. Tracker whistled and Sniffer rushed to meet the ninja, launching himself to one of them and biting his neck. Tracker swung his flail, making the bunch of ninja that were attacking him to disappear. Knowing that his mindless soldiers wouldn't do the trick, Uta materialized a pair of tonfa out of the shadows, and walked towards the undead.

"Is he… is he on our side?" Jade asked aloud.

"He is a monster!" Caleb yelled. "He has killed many rebels, and delivered as many to the tyrant as if they were nothing but animals!"

"He's helping us now," Will said. "And we were in need of help. Now, if we could only get out of these damn chains…!"

"I think I can help with those." Looking down, Will saw how a female voice had come from the butterfly. From all the butterflies, actually. "Please, don't be scared. Contrary to Mister Hunter there, I am on your side. Now, don't move and…" the butterflies glowed in purple light, and then delivered a small shock to the chains, which dissolved into shadows no different from the ones the Shadowkhan materialized from. "There we go, free and ready."

"Wow, cool mojo;" Jade said as she helped Jackie up as best as she could. Both of them were tired.

"And they're like… super cute butterflies!" Hay Lin cheered as she raised in the air with her fellow Guardians, the insects flying around them. The butterflies then landed at Tohru and Uncle's feet.

"Thank you, ladies;" the female voice said. "And now, for my next trick!" The swarm of butterflies started to glow again, this time all of them over the same spot on the ground. When they flew again, there were symbols and words imprinted over the concrete. "Look! Mask removal spell!"

"Okay, wait a minute;" Will said with her hands up. "Miss Talking Swarm of Butterflies," the redhead addressed the insects. "I'm grateful you saved us, but care to explain who are you and what are you doing here?"

"And why didn't you save our asses sooner?" Irma interrupted earning a glare from the rest of the girls. "Sorry…"

"I'm just a friend," the butterflies answered, the voice coming from them. "And as for why I didn't come in sooner, well; I just wanted to see how you fared against this for yourselves."

"Butterfly lady will identify!" Uncle yelled, pointing his blowfish to the swarm, which knowing that a conversation wasn't available tonigh, flew to the skies and dissipated in multiple directions.

"What. Exactly. Was that?" Jade asked.

"Don't know, zombie fighting Japanese demon, we fought shadow ninja while being fairies…" Cornelia said. "We should be kinda more used to these things popping out. Magical band of butterflies? Not very weird these days."

"Uncle doesn't like it," the chinese elder said. "Very strooooong magic in those butterflies, very strong wizard or witch behind! Could be another enemy!"

"Sensei," Tohru called for him. While the others had been speaking, the sumo had been reading what the butterflies had left behind. "Sensei, this spell may work."

Uncle adjusted his tiny glasses and kneeled to read better. He mumbled something as his eyes traveled fast over the letters. "It seems that the basics for all Masks' removal spells are the same," Uncle said. "But we need appropriate ingredient! Japanese steel!"

"Would this be enough?" Jackie asked, handing the pair of wizards a shuriken that had been previously nailed in his back.

"It should," Uncle answered, taking the small amount of weaponry. He looked around to the surveying people. "What do you want?! Uncle and Tohru need space to work! Go and help undead with Shadowkhan and Oni! Go! Go!"

Speaking of the Tracker, he was faring quite well against Uta by himself, flail and tonfa striking each other; while Sniffer tried to defend his master from the Shadowkhan as best as he could. The hound was deprived of his next victim when a fireball struck the Shadowkhan. Looking up, hound, Oni and undead saw the Guardians flying over them.

"What?!" Uta roared. "Impossible!"

That moment was enough for the Tracker to take advantage of the situation and wrap his chain around Uta's body, restraining his movements. Uta struggled against the glowing chain as his victims had done moments earlier, just to realize that there was someone chanting in the distance.

" _Nukeru He Men Ja'aku. Nukeru He Men Ja'aku_ " the two wizards chanted to Uta's horror, the Oni recognizing the incantation. There was a flash of green light, and after that a blast of chi shot from the shuriken and hit Will's hands, making them glow green.

"Keeper must take Mask out of host!" Uncle instructed.

"Got it!" Will said, approaching Uta and putting her habds around his face.

" **No!** I don't want to go back! Not to existing without breathing, not to seeing without blinking! Please!" Uta begged in fear. Will kept pulling, not listening to the demon's plea, the Mask slowly coming off. Tracker pulled from his flail too, and the combination of their strength made the Mask to come off Lothar's face, a scream of pure pain dying in Uta's mouth as his whole being was reduced to an inanimate object again. The remaining Shadowkhan dissolved into nothingness shortly afterwards, a whisper left in the air.

"His... Majesty..."

Will fell onto her butt with the Mask in hand, while Tracker pulled Lothar towards him, the Captain unconscious. Tynar rushed to his commander's aid, relieved that the young man was still alive. He looked at Tracker, the undead taking his flail.

"And now?" Tynar asked.

"We go back to Meridian," Tracker explained.

"But the Mask..."

"The Mask is useless to the Prince," Tracker explained. "And it's their hunt, their prey, their prize."

"Tracker!" the undead heard the voice of the rebel leader. The boy was looking at him with a mixture of anger and gratitude in his eyes. He was feeling repulsed by it. "This changes nothing."

Tracker gave him a solemn nod, and then he, Tynar, the unconscious Lothar and Sniffer disappeared into the night. Cornelia let out a big sigh of relief, sitting in the floor at Will's side.

"That's it, right?" the blonde asked. "No more big, scary surprises."

"I hope so," Hay Lin said. "Ugh, I'm so going to be tired tomorrow."

"We all gonna be, Hay-Hay;" Irma said, peeking over Will's shoulder and looking at the Mask. "That has to be the weirdest birthday present ever."

"Shame Mr. Ugly Face came crashing your big day down," Jade told the redhead, who proceeded to laugh at that phrase.

"You're kidding, right?" Will asked. "Fighting ninjas? Defeating a demon? This has to be the best birthday ever!" All the girls shared a laugh then. "And speaking of birthdays," the redhead continued. "I think we've some pizza to take to a party." Will got up and handed the Mask to Tohru. "You can take care of this, can't you?"

"We are accustomed," the sumo answered, taking the Mask. It still was quite scary, and if he concentrated enough he could actually feel the immense amount of dark chi within it. That in combination with the visage of his childhood's nightmares sent chills down his spine.

Will gave a smile as a way of thankfulness, and then raised the Heart up. There was a flash of pink, and the girls were back in their human forms.

"I should be going back to Meridian too..." Caleb started to say, but Irma took him around the shoulders with one arm, forcing him to bend over.

"Oh no! If we've to go to your parties," the Water Guardian said. "You've to come to ours! Right Corny?" the brunette said as she took Cornelia under her other arm in the same vein she had taken Caleb, forcing the pair to look directly at each other. The two of them blushed slightly, and avoided the other's gaze.

"Sure..." Caleb answered.

* * *

 ** _Lair residence_**

"PIZZA FOR EVERYBODY!"

Irma's shout, and the fact that she and the other five girls had showed up with fifteen pizza boxes to back her argument, received nothing but an overall approval from the crowd of teenagers; who were until now dancing in a conga line (with Irma's parents leading, no less!) none of them having paid a lot of thought to them going out for an hour. In the moment they heard Irma's voice, many of them went straight for the pizza, including the brunette own mom. Jade smirked at that. Guess fun ran deep in that family.

As some of the teens rushed to the pizza boxes, many others went back to dancing, or having a drink. This last one was Will's case, who had opted for sipping from one of the glasses of super-sugary liquid that supposedly should taste to orange. Where had Cornelia taken these drinks?

 _I suppose I was overreacting with all this_ ; Will thought. _I mean, worst thing in the whole night has been fighting a demon..._ ; Will chuckled internally. What has become of my life? Will asked to her own head as she continued to walk, too focused in her thoughts that she didn't see the person in front of her until they clashed and went stumbling to the floor. The remains of the glass of juice fell with them, wetting their heads. Their clothes survived, thank goodness.

"Oh my god! Are you alright?" Will asked the boy (she was sure he was a boy, she had landed just on top of him).

"I think," the boy, a kinda _cute_ boy she found out when looking at him, answered. "Can you please get off me?"

"Oh!" Will answered, blushing a bit. "Sure, sure. Just let me…" Will rolled over herself and got to her feet, giving a hand to the boy, helping him up. "Sorry about your hair, I was kinda distracted and…"

"No, no. I wasn't looking where I was putting my feet either," the boy answered, waving his hands in front of her. Now that she had the opportunity to look at him properly, she could see a boy that should be in her age, or at most a year older. Dressed in a purple sweater and a pair of khaki pants, he had a somehow bluish hair that fell in quite the disorganized manner from his head (probably due to the fact that it was wet from the juice), and eyes of dark blue color. He was politely smiling at her, and that fact alone, combined with the fact that she had underestimated the boy's cuteness, made her blush and look aside. Which in return made him blush.

"So… cool party, eh?" he said awkwardly, rubbing the back of his head. "haven't meet this Will Vandom, though."

"Actually, you have;" Will told him with a smile. "She just threw juice over your head."

The boy's eyes widened a bit as surprise crossed his face. It died shortly after, and it was quickly replaced by happiness. "You're Will Vandom? Oh whoa! Nice party! And nice to meet you birthday girl;" he said, rising a hand.

Will shook it with maybe too much eagerness. "Nice to meet you to… erh…"

"Matt," the boy answered with another of those enchanting smiles. "Name's Matt Olsen."

"Yo Matt!" a boy with a much darker tone of red hair than Will called him from the door. "Let's go, we're running late for practice!"

"Give me a minute, Nigel!" Matt shouted back. "Sorry," he told Will. "Gotta to go to band practice. See you around Sheffield, I suppose. Ah! And happy birthday, Will."

The redhead waved as Matt went to his friend and both of them left the party. She was so focused that she didn't notice Irma peeking over her shoulder.

"So… Matt Olsen, eh? Nice guy, has a pretty cool band, his grandpa owns a pet store…" the Water Guardian said as she piece a piece of pizza she held in her hand. "You got a nice eye."

"What do you mean by that?" Will asked her friend.

"Oh, c'mon gal!" Irma said, putting an arm over her shoulders. "You're a girl, he's a boy… live a little!"

"Are… are you playing matchmaker?" Will inquired again, and Irma just shrugged.

"Playing? Will, look at that;" Irma told the redhead while pointing to a spot in the room, where Caleb and Cornelia were dancing. Well, more like Cornelia was teaching him how to dance like a modern teenager. Near them, Hay Lin, Jade and Taranee seemed to have decided to join the dance. "I'm not playing, I've succeeded. And besides, Matt's a nice guy, and you two connected in that fall. But… whatever, it's your life," Irma landed a kiss over the redhead's cheek. "Pink Poopy Perky Pumpkin."

"You know what would be great?" Will told her. "If you don't call me that ever again."

"What's that Poopy?" Irma asked, and the two girls broke into laughter. The party continued for about another forty-seven minutes, and then the majority of the teens returned to their homes.

* * *

 ** _Chan flat; hours later_**

Jade was asleep. He supposed that was natural, with everything that had gone out today. Uncle and Tohru, under the elder's insistence of finding everything that was related to purple talking butterflies, had made an improvised library of the living room, in order to 'do research'. And Jackie was now, after dinning and putting in his pajamas, in his room. The Mask was with him too, his uncle confident that his room was the safest in the house. He couldn't sleep, and he would get out of bed regularly, look at the monster's visage. Even if he had been defeated… the Mask was crafted in such a manner than it seemed that the Oni was laughing at you. And yet, the eyes were so full of hatred, so much anger. Being trapped there, without moving, without speaking… even Shendu could speak while sealed in rock; it surely wasn't a pleasant experience.

What a tiresome and long day this one had been. And yet he couldn't sleep, no; the doubt still bugging him. He didn't know why exactly, but after several trips in and out of his bed, he took his phone. He dialed a number, and waited for the ringtone to end. After three tones, the man in the other side of the line answered.

"Captain Black?" Jackie asked, being met by his friend's voice. He thought about Harold, about his words. He thought, and then spoke. "We need to talk about something."

* * *

 ** _Deep in the night; a rooftop on Heatherfield_**

Why was always the same scene? It always was the same, the same memory, the same path. Haunting her like a rabid beast that had caught her smell and was determined to never let her go. It was always in the same remote village in one of those nameless regions of western China. She always went to the same house, she always unleashed her butterflies. She always turned left in the third corridor, and she always confronted the other woman. And the woman always yelled, ' _He's just a child!_ '. And she always answered with ' _He's a demon, a creature of evil_.' And there was always struggle, doubt that was quickly subdued, a movement of her hand, and then blood. And there was always a powerful cry, a terrified boy calling for his mother. And she always looked at the boy no older than a five year old, to his scales and the tail that fell from his behind to the ground. And he always looked back, the utmost despise and hatred sparking in his eyes. And then there were always flames, and where there had been butterflies, there were now only ashes…

"Witch;" the raspy voice of the Tracker called for her. She opened her eyes and looked at him. Oh, why couldn't he ditch that hunter's attire for something more modern? She chuckled at the thought of how much time he had wasted orienting himself in this modern Earth. Oh, the days of him being a lad in old Britannia were long gone. Sniffer, his loyal bloodhound was standing some meters behind, not wanting to approach. Ah, that dog had never liked her.

"Tracker," she greeted back, his red eyes narrowing at her due to the familiar, playful tone she always used with him.

She was, in one word, beautiful. He had always found her like that, and he supposed many others had done. The Warlock was the primal example. She had always looked beautiful beyond anything he had seen on either Earth or Meridian in his long life. She had jet-black hair that hung to her shoulders in a glossy wave, striking violet eyes in a round, lovely face, and she wore a simple, gauzy white dress that seemed more fine than the most ostentatious gold and scarlet of the nobles of Meridian. If a normal lad would set eyes on her, he would probably drool out of lust, and if a more mature man did the same, he would feel something akin to admiration. But if the man had enough experience, he should be able to catch in the tiny details, the look in her eyes, reminiscent of the one of a falcon; the movement of her fingers, as if she was playing with tiny dolls. And the drooling would become wariness, or even fear; the admiration would become then envy, or simple distaste. And beauty would equal danger then.

"You didn't take the Mask, I see;" she told him, as she sat at the border of the rooftop, legs swinging in the void.

"A hunter hunts;" the undead explained. "And he always takes a prey. No other hunter has right to take another's prey. That has always been the code."

"Is that what Gorlois taught you as a child?" the woman asked, resting her head over her palm. "Oh, he was always so stick to the rules, no wonder why his daughters turned out to be so rebellious!" the woman laughed. "The Oni had always been your sworn enemies, and yet you have wasted the opportunity to get rid of one of them."

"Be it human, Galhot, Changeling, Banshee or Oni; a prey is the prize of the one that hunts it;" Tracker said again, his raspy voice making his boy as neutral as possible. "If you wanted that Mask so badly, then you could have helped me against Uta."

"You said you didn't need help. Didn't you argue that he was the weakest among the nine?" the woman inquired.

"There is no weakest among the nine," Tracker explained. "But the Ninja Khan are killers designated for silent assassinations, not open battle."

"I will never understand why Kandrakar sent for Escanor and you four instead of trying to contact Master or me;" she said in an apathetic tone. "Then again, that let me freedom to move;" she sighed and looked at the skies. "I suppose I can let them to have that one, I still own that family a lot for banishing those monsters back to the pit they should never had come from; and nothing stops me from going and destroying it one day or another. And it was funny seeing how the new Guardian generation fares. They had a lot of potential but they are still too fresh. None of them has still taken the necessary steps."

"If there is nothing more," Tracker said. "Then I would want to go back to my world."

"This is your world," she said as she prepared one of her purple butterflies. "It has always been."

"No," he said as he surveyed the city, from the smallest of hoses to the tallest of skyscrapers. "Not anymore. This world has forgotten me, it has forgotten the likes of us. I suppose I do enjoy Daolon's company mainly because it also has forgotten him."

"Then I suppose we shall bid farewell once more;" the woman said as she made the butterfly fly around and open a Portal in the same vein Tracker had done in Meridian with his own. As the Portal opened, the woman put another butterfly in the hunter's little box. "This is for… if you need my help again." She then stood up and leaned over her tiptoes and delivered a small kiss over the undead's cheek. Even if dry and wrinkled over the passing of the centuries, even if there was so little of the idealistic man that she once loved there… a kiss was the least she could give him. "Take care of yourself, Didier."

"Take care," the undead told her as he crossed the Portal, his bloodhound following in tow. "Nimue."

The Portal closed as the undead crossed, and the woman, Nimue, was left behind. She then sat in the same spot again, and whistled a melody while she thought. The reemerging of one of those Masks wasn't coincidental. Had the passing of the Heart to a new generation made the Dark Forces to wake and start to stir? No, everything that had transpired tonight had been thanks to Charles Ludmoore. He probably didn't know a thing about what the Mask really was meant for… but the fact he had got his hands on it was problematic. Then again, she never wanted the Masks per se, but to destroy the Oni they had inside.

 _I should pay a visit to that manor someday…_ ; Nimue thought. _Or better to pay someone to sneak in, my butterflies cannot fly inside, and that means a lot of magic and wards at work. Old magic, the one of that family. How troublesome…_

* * *

 ** _Ludmoore manor_**

"So that's it, Charles?" Cedric asked his older brother, both of them reunited in the library. "Your little experiment ended, and the Mask now in hands of the Guardians. I know you are too intelligent to not know about the General being sealed inside."

Charles, still sitting behind his desk, smirked and rose to his feet. He then walked towards one of the bookshelves and taking some books apart, he pulled two briefcases from behind them. He brought them to his desk and put both over it.

"I had my suspicions ever since I read about the legends referring to them," the older brother answered. "And some of the information I found thanks to our associate did help a lot. And don't worry about the lost of that Mask. I got very well paid for that one, and besides;" he said as he opened the pair of briefcases. "Look at what I bought from a Japanese museum and an online auction!"

Cedric's eyes flashed in delight as he saw what the two briefcases contained. There were another two Masks, one purple and with horns, strange fags in its mouth, and the other was pitch black, the making of it reminiscent of some kind of humanoid crustacean.

"Are those…?" Cedric asked as a gleeful smile appeared in his face.

"Another two Masks?" Charles answered with his own question. "But of course! Cedric, do you really believed me to get into this kind in situation to get only Phobos' money and a couple of Wong's spells as payment? How ridiculous, if I enter a wager, it will be one that can only end with me as the winner."

"And now?" Cedric asked.

"Concentrate in the task Phobos has given you, we won't be able to proceed without the Heart of Meridian back in its rightful world; no matter which sibling does posses its power. Once the Princess has been revealed, we will adapt."

"But you said that if you enter a wager, it will be one of your own terms;" Cedric said as he crossed his arms over his chest.

"True," Charles answered. "But sometimes the key doesn't lay in creating a flawless plan, but in how you adapt when that plan fails. After all, who knows how many surprises this game that is war has in storage for all of us?"

* * *

 ** _Shadow Realm_**

Between the innumerable universes that compose the multiverse continuum; in a place where time doesn't flow and space makes no sense… there is a realm of unknown and unmentionable horrors. It has been called Void, Abyss, Pandemonium, Sheol… and another bunch of names since its discovery; but for the King, it had always been called Shadow Realm. The home to the Idea itself, reflection and Shadow of the Multiverse; the King had once tapped into this ancient and cursed realm's power in order to forge the nine tribes of Shadowkhan for him and his generals. But he had only scarred the surface, and the light of a Heart combined with the might of ancient chi wizardry had been enough to banish him and seal those that followed him. Yet someone had stirred the Shadow, and now the Idea moved in the depths of the Abyss, the cavalcade of monstrosities so large and ancient to speak about that inhabited it playing tunes upon the use of a power that derivated from them. That chaotic music had been enough to wake the King from his slumber.

The King looked up, eyes narrowed as he looked into the floating shadows. Shadows were everywhere, in everyone. And where a shadow was, so was he. The King's lips formed a smile as he saw beyond the Masks of all the players… and thus decided that it was time to gave this new era a reminder that the past had still some tricks up its sleeve.

"I can hear the sweet tune of the drums of war…;" Tarakudo, lord of all Oni, and King of all Shadowkhan said in pure bliss. "Would you all dance with me at the sound of that tune?"

* * *

 _Everyone is wearing a mask. A hero that masks himself as the villain, a villain that masks himself as the hero. Be it for deception or to cover their fears and flaws… everyone is wearing a mask. Yet, masks aren't infallible. Give enough time, they will all crumble to pieces, and truth will find its way_.  Nimue

* * *

 **A/N: Do you wanna know why this chapter was been so big? Because! Haha! No, now seriously, almost 30.000 words, everyone! Christ… but I suppose it is what happens when you want to include so many scenes. Also, meet Nimue, character co-developed alongside fellow author Vanessa Masters (as I mentioned before) to whom I'm very grateful for the help, and based in the character of the same name from the Arthurian Mythos. In a total different note, many of you may have noted that this fic is not only about deconstructing/playing realistically the Rebellion and Caleb… but also Jackie. Now don't get me wrong, because I love both of them. But I just wanted to explore how a real civil war in a magical world like Meridian can play out. Thus Caleb, instead of being one of those heroes that loses his parents and decides to become a rebellious force against the evil tyrant, is now a child soldier practically dragged into a command position, with a lot of issues that will be explored in the rest of the first season; and who's ideology of 'Phobos is Bad, we are Good' has opened the doors of the Rebellion to a lot of nasty people like Rhouglar and Tharquin and has led him to think that there's no one on Phobos' side with good in his heart. Jackie understands the fact that a good person can be working for the bad side due to circumstances and that there's place for redemption (Viper is proof of that), but then I thought… what happens when Jackie meets a good man, a man with very similar values to him, that works for the bad side willingly and actually considerers it better? Thus, here's my adaptation of Harold Hale, who still holds a couple more surprises, and that is here to put Jackie's moral code to trial. Having said ALL this, I hope you enjoyed this long chapter, because I won't be publishing more in months. I have things to do, and if I come back to writing, I'll go back to Out of the Corner of the Eye, which is pretty abandoned.**

 **Bye, Bye, readers. Y'all awesome!**


	8. Stampede

**Disclaimer: I own neither the WITCH cartoon-show nor Jackie Chan Adventures; they are the property of their respective creators, writers, and producers.**

 **Author Notes: Greetings, readers. So… I suppose you know already, but some time ago, FF's alerts stopped working. Me, being me, I decided to post the previous chapter around that precise moment. So, if you're reading this and you haven't read the previous one, go there and do so, because there are a lot of surprises in that are going to be very important in this one. Also, this chapter will introduce yet another character (an expy of a certain DC comics character) then we'll have another one (chapter, I mean), and then we will get into the chapters involving Torus Filney, which is where shit is really going to hit the fan. Having said that, hope that you'll enjoy this chapter. More notes at the end, and please, leave a review.**

* * *

Guardians, Wizards and Kung-Fu Fighters

Episode Eight

Stampede

* * *

 ** _Jade's inner world_**

"I could sit here and watch this for all eternity…" Vladimir Tepes muttered as he saw one of Jade's memories within the girl's soul. In aid memory, one could see how Jade blew up Shendu in that fateful New Year's night; this time through the girl's eyes no less. "Boom!" Vlad said as he saw Jade using the demon's own Talisman to destroy his sealed form. "Ahahaha… Hilarious. Isn't it, Rasputin?"

The Mad Monk was standing mere meters away from the Impaler. Around him many other memories of Jade were floating around, showing images of the girl's past; her cunning, trickery, determination… all summarized in this collection of images and tales. Rasputin, currently paying more attention to a complete different memory than the one Vlad was watching, smirked.

"Indeed," the bearded man said, as his eyes left the memory and sifted to the other people that were attending. "I suppose this _does_ prove my point."

"And what would that point be?" Ben-Shui, standing side by side with Murasaki; asked of the Mad Monk, clearly displeased with his insinuations, even if he didn't show his discomfort. Murasaki, in the other hand, looked clearly enraged.

"My point would be that she is more like us," Rasputin said while gesturing to Vlad and himself; "than she is like you."

"Oh, and you have been playing quite fairly in that one, eh?!" an offended Murasaki asked sarcastically while crossing her arms over her bosom.

"It should be her choice, Mad Monk;" Ben-Shui interceded. "It is hers only and not ours."

"And yet, if presented with the opportunity, you will guide her in the path you prefer;" Rasputin told his predecessor as Chosen one. "What is wrong with actually trying to give the girl some independence?"

"You're just trying to corrupt her!" the Japanese woman yelled to the Russian.

"May I say something?" another voice said. The new speaker revealed himself to be an old man with a beard a bit smaller than Rasputin's, dressed in a worn out but otherwise elegant brown military suit. This man was in life Joshua Norton, and once held the title of Emperor of the United States; something that no other man has ever done. "Since our… premature awakening within this girl," the man said while caressing his beard. "I have been giving some thought to the real nature of our existence."

"What _real_ nature?" Murasaki inquired. "We are a force of Good, that's something very clear."

"No, my fair Murasaki;" Joshua answered. "Ben-Shui was a force against the entities that in his time threatened humanity. You were that also, since many of those threats were still present in the world. But none of us were that… because there were no demons or monsters in our time."

"What do you mean?" Rasputin, actually interested in the man's words, asked.

"What I mean," Joshua said; "is that maybe, when the Heart of Earth," Norton looked around, as if expecting that he had mispronounced it. "When the Heart of Earth gave Ben-Shui the ability to reincarnate, maybe she tied us to the world too, to its Heart. What I mean is, look at all of us. We are very different, but if we have a mission, why don't reincarnate into someone that shares similarities with the previous reincarnations?"

"And you have come to an answer?" Ben-Shui asked of Norton. Truth be told, he was the strangest of them all, for never in all the years spent as a Chosen One had he decided to use their enormous power over Chi Magic to accomplish anything.

"My theory is," Norton said; "that we are what the world needs us to be. Murasaki was a force against those demons of Japan because she needed to be. Vladimir was a soldier and a warrior… because his country needed him to be. Lady Báthory was a monster because maybe a monster was what the world needed back then. Rasputin was a politician and a manipulator…"

"Because that was the age of politicians and manipulators," Rasputin ended the phrase, and shortly after a smirk appeared in his face. "Interesting."

"And what is this girl?" Norton asked. "What does the world, the worlds, need of her to be? I say, it's still a mystery. So maybe we all should let it be a mystery."

"Lady Báthory will still try something," Ben-Shui said in a somber tone. "But I suppose this kind of possibility works for you too. Doesn't it, Mad Monk?"

"Indeed," Rasputin answered. "Even more, I think Mr. Norton's theory sits well with my own. Look at the Earth our current incarnation lives in, look at Meridian. War, egoism, liberalism! Your old ideals of Good and Evil don't apply here anymore, neither do mine, or Vladimir's. So much to think about…" Rasputin concluded his speech, taking a hand to his chin. Vladimir followed in tow, not without playing the memory of Jade blowing Shendu to smithereens one last time. In time, Norton left too, leaving Ben-Shui and Murasaki alone.

"You can't let them to do that!" the Japanese woman yelled, pointing to the fading forms of the others.

Ben-Shui didn't answer at first, looking around Jade's other memories. He shook his head, and silently turned around, leaving the place too. "Murasaki, tell me. Do you judge Rasputin as a cruel man?"

"Of course!" Murasaki answered. "No matter how much they try to justify it, an evil man will always be an evil man! When I was alive, and I fought against the Oni on Japan…" the woman shuddered. "That was proof enough of that."

"So, a man can't be as good as he is evil?" Ben-Shui asked, thinking about the direction many of his reincarnations had taken, and the great possibility of this girl following those steps.

"An apple is healthy or rotten," the woman answered. "Not something in the middle of that."

"People are not fruit," Ben-Shui said before leaving the scene, leaving Murasaki behind and alone. And for some reason, she couldn't find an answer to that statement.

* * *

 ** _Sheffield Institute_**

"And so, I present to you;" Mrs. Knickerbocker said while gesturing to a ginger man around his late thirties that sported a moustache and was dressed in a pair of simple pants and a blue sweater; "our new History teacher, Professor Dean Collins!"

The just announced Dean Collins approached the center of the stage, where Knickerbocker let him to talk using the speaker, and so the new teacher directed himself to the students, talking about the virtues of studying and how he was anxious to start imparting class. Of course, the majority of the students didn't share his enthusiasm, reacting with either bored or slightly annoyed expressions to the man's words.

"C'mon, just a little bit more…" Irma said as she discretely played with her mobile phone, trying to make a small, humanoid being in the screen to jump and get to a castle-like being in a platform. "Jump, you little…"

"At least you could pretend that you're interested in what he says," Taranee told her friend.

"Oh, like I'm the worst here," the Water Guardian said while pointing to her side with the head. At the girl's left, all lined up; the other six girls weren't exactly being the most prominent example of good behavior. Jade was practically fighting for staying awake; Hay Lin was drawing some small pictures in her sketchbook while Elyon peeked from time to time; Cornelia and Alchemy were discussing about something related to music, and Will… Will was focusing her entire attention in a boy with dark bluish hair that was sitting across the auditorium with a friend of dark red hair. They were as focused in the speech as the girls were.

 _Is she even blinking?_ , Taranee thought as she raised a confused eyebrow.

Noticing this, Irma paused her game for a second and looked at Taranee. "Oh, she's been like that since her birthday. An entire week eating the boy with the eyes, but not talking with him. Classic Will."

"That's Matt Olsen, right?" Taranee whispered. "Never talked a lot with him, but he's pretty popular with girls."

Irma shrugged. "He's nice. If Will could just talk with him, that'd be awesome. Maybe I've to do something with that..."

Taranee elbowed her. "Or maybe you could let Will handle it. You know, because it's her thing?"

Speaking of Will, she blushed slightly in that moment, and started to move a bit frantically in her seat. "Guys, guys, guys!" she whispered. "I think Matt Olsen likes me!"

"Why do you think that?" Cornelia asked, ending her conversation with Alchemy.

"He just looked in this direction!" Will said, leaving the other girls speechless.

 _Maybe she needs just a little push_ , Taranee thought as Cornelia and Alchemy abandoned their conversation to speak with Will.

Irma, meanwhile, returned to her phone game, restarting it and finally beating the current level. She jumped out of her seat, arms thrown upwards, a triumphant and loud "YES!" escaping her mouth. This, of course, ended with the whole auditorium looking at her. She smiled awkwardly as she rubbed the back of her head.

"Well, I'm glad that someone is happy with my teaching schedule," Collins stated; "but I think that's a bit of an exaggeration just for studying the Mongols."

Almost everyone in the auditorium broke into laugh, except for Irma, who just sank into her seat until the laughter ceased.

"Awww," Jade said, stretching her arms as the laughter had finally taken her out of her semi-slumber. "Did I miss something funny?"

 _These two are going to end me one of these days_ , Taranee thought.

* * *

Lunchtime in Sheffield wasn't anything out of the ordinary. The process was simple: wait in the line, take today's dish, pray to any god or saint you believed in that it didn't taste bad. Or at least, not bad enough to make it not edible. As the girls sat down and started to eat today's menu (a simple hamburger with a red sauce that supposedly was tomato), they started to talk again. As their conversation progressed, it took into one direction. A direction concerning one redhead and a guitarist boy.

"Why don't you go and tell him something?" Jade asked as she ate the last bit of her hamburger. "Are you going to eat that?" she said to Alchemy then, pointing to the remnants of her hamburger.

"All yours," Alchemy answered, handing the plate with the burger to her. Seriously, how much could this girl eat?

"Go? What do you mean go?" Will said, momentarily gazing to the table where Matt was having lunch. She shook her head. "I can't go and just talk to him! That... er..."

"Okay, Will? Breathe and count to three," Elyon told the redhead. "Just relax, go and say something nice."

"Uh, uh, uh!" Hay Lin said, raising her hand as if she was in class. "You know that trip we have to the mountains after this week?"

"The one we're going to go skiing?" Will asked. "What about it?"

"Why don't you go and tell him to go with you on the bus?" Hay Lin suggested.

"Y-you mean in the bus as in... in the same seat?" Will said.

"No, she means for you to be in the front and him to be in the back," Irma said sarcastically. "Of course in the same seat!"

"I can't do that!" Will said.

 _The same girl that puts on a magic jewel and talks like an army's general_ ; Jade thought. _Like, is the Heart like an automatic boost of confidence or what?_

"Oh, for God's sake;" Cornelia said, standing up and taking Will's hand and forcing her to stand up too, practically dragging her towards the table in which Matt was sitting.

"Cornelia, what are you...?!" Will tried to struggle with the blonde, but it was effortless.

"Hey Matt," Cornelia called for the guitarist as he chewed into his own burger. "Will here wants to speak with you;" the blonde explained while pointing to the shocked redhead at her side. She then proceeded to turn on her heels and leave Will behind.

The redhead looked awkwardly at the teen in the table, blushing a bit. "H-Hey Matt. How's it going?"

"Hey, eh… Will, right?" Matt asked her. "I'm pretty good, except for this burger. But we've to eat something, right? So," Matt asked the redhead. "What was that you wanted to tell me?"

"Uhm? Oh! Oh, right…" Will said, as if she was realizing now what Cornelia had said earlier. Damn, was it really so difficult? The only thing she needed to do was to take air and… "Wannagototheskiingtripwithme?"

Matt looked at her, eyes wide open. A small portion of his burger fell from the main piece and crashed in the plate with a simple 'plaf' sound. "Excuse me, what?" Matt asked her, understandably not having understood what the girl had just said.

Will breathed deeply and tried to calm down. _He's just a boy_ , she thought; _that you met at your birthday party. This isn't a big deal, no matter how cute he is, no matter how many times you have looked at him go when he walked away and how awesome that sight was..._ "Do you want to go with me to the skiing trip?" _Please?_

"Oh, you mean the trip to the mountains that we're going to do!" Matt said, finally being able to understand. "Of course I'll go with you, Will."

"R-Really?" the redhead asked, almost not believing what she had heard.

"Sure, why not?" Matt told her. "But I call dibs in the corridor, because I get kinda dizzy in the window."

"O-okay, sure. No problem. See you," Will said, turning around and heading back to her table, the silliest of smiles in her face. _YES! I did it!_

Meanwhile, back at the table Matt was sitting at, Nigel was looking at his friend with slightly narrowed eyes and a sly grin.

"What?" Matt asked once again.

"You know you just accepted to go on a date, right?" Nigel inquired, even if he already knew what the answer was.

"What?" Matt repeated.

"Is that going to be your catchphrase from now on, dude?"

"No! I mean... she just asked me to be her partner in the bus," Matt said.

"In girl language, that means 'Would you go out with me?'," Nigel explained.

Matt remained in silence for a few moments. "Then why didn't she simply say that?"

Nigel shrugged. "Big bro Danny says 'Women act in mysterious ways'. Maybe she's just shy, dude."

"But... I mean, she could've just asked;" Matt stated. "I wouldn't have said no."

"Oh dude!" Nigel said. "You like her, don't you?"

"Wha- I just met her!"

"All the more romantic," Nigel stated, crossing his arms and closing his eyes, nodding slowly as his smile widened. "Super sweet."

"Nigel..."

"It must be the hair, we redheads have something..."

Matt sighed and continued eating his burger, deciding to not play more attention to his friend. He was right in that last one, though. His eyes moved to the table the girls were in, from where they were starting to get up and leave the cafeteria after eating. Redheads really had something.

* * *

"He said YES!" Will said happily as the group of eight girls walked through the halls of Sheffield. "Haha! He really said it!"

"Tone it down, Will;" Taranee asked, concerned about the shouts of joy of her friend upsetting some of her fellow students.

"Sorry," the Keeper of the Heart apologized. "But it was so easy! Thanks for the push Cornelia."

"Told you;" Irma said with a sarcastic tone, which made Taranee roll her eyes.

"They're boys, Will;" Cornelia said. "They're easy to deal with."

"What about that guy from Will's party?" Elyon said in order to tease her best friend who, unable to find an answer, just stopped talking. Seeing this, Elyon decided to change the term of the conversation. "Well, since we're in for good news..." Elyon made a dramatic pause in order to take air in. "I've got a part time job!"

"What?" Alchemy exclaimed. "Awesome!" the girl cheered, jumping into Elyon's arms and embracing her. "Where?"

"In 'Ye Olde Book Shop'," Elyon explained. "I went there a couple of days ago and I started talking to Rick. Turns out he's been in need of a bit of help, and I offered mine. And now there I am, every afternoon from four to eight."

"You sure about this?" Jade asked as the girls halted, ready for going back to class. "Not wanting to be the paranoid one here, but that Hoffman guy just giving you a work isn't a bit... creepy?"

"Ah! Has he tried to touch you?" Hay Lin asked as she put her hands over the girl's shoulders. "In a bad way?"

"Guys, really; you're overreacting. He's a nice guy;" Elyon stated. "And it's only in the afternoons, when there're a lot of people in the bookstore. Nothing bad can happen."

"If you say so," the wolf Shapeshifter said.

Classes continued as anodyne as any other day, until the bell rang and the students headed back home. It seemed that this was going to be a peaceful and tranquil day. Of course, that's exactly how the hardest days begin.

* * *

 ** _Heatherfield's streets; back of an alley_**

The life of a homeless man wasn't easy in any place, and Heatherfield wasn't any different. Sneak around during the day, try to find something to eat during in a dumpster or a trash can; and then try to find a good place to spend the night in. But of course you also had to deal with the other homeless people, and there were some kind ones; that was true; but the majority were… pretty territorial. And Heatherfield wasn't the kindest part of the world to a homeless _teenager_ in that regard. If he had known that life in the streets could be so cruel, fifteen year old Jordan Johnston would have never abandoned his home in order to 'gain freedom'. True, there weren't any incredibly controlling parents or hypocritical, contemptuous private teachers in the streets; but neither were a good meal, or a good sleep… or a shower. Dear goodness, he was in the urgent need for a shower! But a part of him thought that this was far better that having to endure another one of his father's angry glares and her mother's disappointed sighs. His hands searched deep into the trash can he was looking in for food. Finding food had proven much more difficult than finding water, after all water could be found in any fountain of a park. But food… he had spent the small amount of money he had been able to take from home in the first weeks of his escapade. Turns out that being accustomed to three meals at a day didn't fit well with not having a roof over your head, or a source of income. His hands grabbed into something. Donuts? Yes, they seemed to be donuts, a pack almost completely intact, at that. Well, this seemed to be his lucky day after all! He took the pack and sat down in the ground, devouring donut after donut with voracity until the pack was empty. Once he had finished he simply threw the pack aside, and he sighed, lowering his head. How long had he been in the streets, trying to escape his life? It idn't amount to more than five months. And he was already in this state.

"Yes, this is my life now," Jordan said aloud. "I suppose it could be worse."

"But it could be much better, don't you agree?"

Jordan froze for a second before rising up, his right hand quickly going inside his pocket and pulling a small penknife that he had taken back at home, from his father's desk. The voice longed in the air for few moments, Jordan holding the knife strongly in his hand as he looked into every direction. If he was intelligent, he would put his back against one of the alley's walls. Of course, he didn't do so.

Covered by a simple invisibility spell that shouldn't be able to hide him from even people with strong enough latent magic power, Daolon Wong surveyed the boy he had been following for a couple of days. He seemed strong enough physically, an average built, black skin, short hair… and the glint in his eyes showed potential. And although those brown eyes lacked the sheer hate that Tristan's had, there was a strong desire for survival and prove that his way was the correct one in there. Well, time for playing a bit with the youngster's head. It had gone quite well with the other two.

"Who's there?!" Jordan called for him, pointing his 'weapon' to no place in particular. "Where're you at?"

Wong restrained a laugh. Rabble was always rabble, no matter the world. Confused, disoriented and pathetic in the face of the ones that were wielders of magic; that's what rabble is. The dark chi wizard moved the twisted root he used as a wand and surrounded himself with purple smoke, letting the invisibility spell to wear of as he did so. Jordan looked in shock as how, as the smoke faded, Wong practically materialized in the alley. Jordan's grip around the penknife softened and his 'weapon' fell to the ground. Was he dreaming? Or maybe the donuts were in the trash for a good reason?

"I'm right here, boy;" Wong addressed the shocked teen, who in a very logical train of thought, turned around and ran. Wong was ready for this, of course, raising his staff and shooting a purple beam that, upon hitting Jordan, trapped him in a dark blue bubble of chi that levitated over the ground. The bubble carried Jordan back into the alley, just in front of Wong.

"Am I dreaming?" Jordan asked, fear and confusion present in his voice.

"Dreaming? No, nothing like that," Wong told him. "I have chosen you in order to reveal to you a world of wonders, a world of magic;" the dark chi wizard continued his rant, making Jordan to grew even more confused.

"Magic?" Jordan muttered. _What's this guy talking about? Magic's not re…_ he looked around him, at the bubble he was trapped in. _Oh shit, magic's real._

"Yes, magic;" Wong said. "I've been looking for young men like you, people that had the will to survive in the cold of the world. And again, I make you the question. Is this the life you want? The life you desire?"

"What's the matter to you?" Jordan asked to the old, wrinkled man.

"It does matter, because as I said, I'm looking for people like you;" Wong explained as a cruel smile appeared in his face. "I have been keeping a track on you for the last days, and I have seen a boy that wants to be free. So, tell me, young man of the streets…" Wong said as he pulled one of the vials with his Shapeshifter serum out of the bag he was carrying. "Tell me, do you want make a deal? In exchange of a little favor, I will grant you the strength necessary to fulfill that desire and escape this filthy live of yours and hold control over your own life and reach that freedom."

Jordan looked at the strange vial the old man was holding, whatever was inside of it changing colors violently. What was inside that thing? A drug? A _magical_ drug? He didn't know what to do… but then he looked around, at the dirty alley that was supposedly to serve as his place to pass the night today. It could be worse… but it also could be better. Much better.

"I'm in."

* * *

 ** _Across the Veil; World of Meridian, guard barracks_**

Lothar wasn't a man that dreamed a lot. Due to his life as a member of Phobos' army, he judged that fact as something good. He did enough awake just for his dreams to remember him of it while asleep. However, this time he was dreaming, and it wasn't a pleasant dream. But neither was it due to his actions… not in the way he would have expected it, anyway. This time he was running, over a dried field, soldiers of his army all around him. Except that none of them had a face, just their usual platting, their swords, axes and spears… but not a mouth, a nose or a pair of eyes; the space was completely blank. And he was running, even if he didn't know why. Something was following him, something terrible, and enormous… something which sheer size casted a shadow over the dried land he was running in. The sound of gigantic steps grew closer, and Lothar's hands searched for his sword. But he had no weapon, he had no armor, or shield or helmet. He was naked, running barefoot.

"Do something!" Lothar shouted to the men at his sides. "Help me!"

"Why would they help you? What did you for them?"

Lothar looked in the distance, and there, over the dried land, Raythor stood still and proud, arms folded over his torso, giving him a disappointed look.

"Did you ever defend them? No!" the former Captain accused. "Shame! Shame on your honor, my Lieutenant! I entrusted you with protecting our men, and what did you do? Used them in your anger, ditch them for those foul shadow demons! You harmed Tynar, who has show nothing but respect for you, even when you knew that he didn't approve of your actions! You aren't even able to remember their faces!"

"But… my Captain!" Lothar exclaimed, halting in between the lines of faceless soldiers. "I was trying to avenge you!"

"And who would that revenge serve?" Raythor asked, his eyes showing even more disappointment. "No one but you! I am DEAD! I don't matter! The lives of the living ones do! I thought that I had been able to teach you that lesson," Raythor said as he turned around, walking away and fading in the air. "But it seems I have erred."

"No, please! Captain!" Lothar pleaded, but the only answer he got was a taunting and cruel laughter behind him.

"An error indeed!" a monstrous voice said as a giant hand grabbed Lothar by his waist and elevated him over the ground. Holding him with inhuman strength, Lothar was face to face with a giant ogre-like being, clad in black armor that covered his whole body at exception of the hands and the face. And that face… that damned face of dark pinkish color, with two horns and a large, greenish mane at its back. The Mask… Uta, his name was Uta. And he was a General.

"You fool!" Uta roared in an arrogant and mocking tone. "Look at you! You and your desire for revenge let me in and take control over your body! Pathetic little soldier…" Uta said as he lifted the struggling man towards his mouth. The Oni opened it, revealing his powerful teeth.

"You are nothing but a shadow now"

* * *

"NO!" Lothar yelled in pure fear and despair as he woke up from his nightmare. He found himself trembling, naked from the waist up, and sweating, sweating cold sweat. He was in one of the beds of the barracks where the guards that didn't have family in the city used as a home. He had spent many years of his life there, training as a guard and then under Raythor's tutelage. He had accustomed himself to calling this place home, seeing it as that. The room the bed and him where had been emptied of any other thing, he supposed that it had been done in order to leave enough intimacy.

"Finally awake?" he heard a male voice. Looking at his side, his eyes met up with the ones of Viscount Servantis, the nobleman looking at him while sitting up in a chair at his bedside. At the nobleman's left was a small table, and over it was a huge pitcher full of water accompanied by a small glass and a bowl with some fruits. Lothar looked at the water with eyes that showed his thirst. Noticing this, Servantis took the pitcher and started to serve a glass, but Lothar extended his arm and grabbed the pitcher itself, drinking its contain entirely. Servantis looked at him drinking, water dropping from the sides of his mouth and falling over his torso. The nobleman drank the glass of water himself, and as soon as Lothar finished the water, he tossed a piece of fruit at him. And another one after he finished that one… until the bowl had been emptied too.

"Thank you, Lord Servantis;" Lothar said sincerely. "How… how much time I have spent sleeping?"

"Around a week or so;" Servantis answered, making Lothar's eyes to widen in surprise. "Some servants had to force water down your throat in order to not let you to die from thirst."

"What?!" Lothar exclaimed. "I have to…" he said trying to get out of the bed, but instead he almost fell from it. Servantis took him by the arm and forced him to lay down.

"Your body was injured to the extreme," Servantis explained. "And according to Wong and some of the physicians I brought from Torus Filney, your spirit had been tainted by extremely strong dark magic. Whatever that Mask was, Tynar explained to us that it possessed you, that the spirit of a demon was inside it. I suppose the legends and tales about Escanor and his war against those demons are true after all, albeit no legend spoke about them being sealed in masks."

"I wasn't possessed, at least I don't think that was a possession;" Lothar spoke. "I could see… everything happening. That thing was speaking into my ear since I put the Mask on, and then it took and placed me into the back of my own mind. It felt as if I was in the verge of losing myself… and Tynar…"

"Tynar told us, and even a very angry Prince," Servantis explained; "that the wizards that help the Guardians created a spell that can take the Mask off your face. That was enough to redirect the anger towards Wong, who the Prince accused of not being able to predict this outcome. The Archmage has been very little in the palace since, searching for candidates for his Shapeshifter experiments. He has gathered another two on top of that young Tristan boy, and they have been training with Lady Miranda since;" Servantis rose from the chair he was sitting on. "As for Tynar, he has been taking care of commanding the guards until your body healed."

"So," Servantis said as he positioned himself in front of the injured Captain's bed. "Are you finally ready to see things my way?"

"And what is your way, Viscount?" Lothar asked him.

"My way is the one that stands for the people's well being," Servantis spoke.

"That sounds a lot like what a rebel would say," Lothar retorted. There was no malice in his comment however, it was just an observation.

"No," Servantis corrected him. "A rebel would say: 'Down with the tyrant, and all his followers!' That is not fighting for the people. Fighting for the people requires knowing where, how and when fight... and when not; when to approach a situation with a different procedure than simply swinging your sword all over the place. I'm not a foolish man, Captain Lothar. I'm not as stupid as to think that Phobos is a benevolent, fair or good ruler in any sense. However, I'm not as foolish as to think that the rebels are the answer to that problem either. What happened in Carhaiz, which was another of the nobility's projects, is proof enough of that. No, the rebels aren't an answer, not in the long run."

"And what are you then?" Lothar asked.

"Me, and the rest of the nobility for that matter;" the Viscount answered; "we are the third option."

"I thought the nobility pledged loyalty to the Prince when..."

"When he killed his own mother, the late Queen Weira?" Servantis inquired, not without a hint of melancholic nostalgia in his voice. "Yes, we... I choose Phobos over Weira in that day, thirteen years ago, convincing my fellow nobles to do the same. Making sure that the guards faithful to Weira weren't in place, Phobos' authority did the rest after the cup; deposing officers, and even the late Captain, Alistair Tharquin; a nobleman in his own."

"Why?" Lothar asked, his voice showing concern. Servantis' left hand had started shaking after a while before stopping again, especially after mentioning Weira. For a second, the Captain felt as if he wasn't the weakest man in the room anymore.

"Because Weira wasn't able to think in the long term either," Servantis explained. "She was kind and just, there is no denying that; and the Light of Meridian strike me if she wasn't a good friend. But she was also naive, and too optimistic. A ruler must know the difference between being well intentioned and being wise. Weira was a kindly soul... and that exactly was the reason why, at the end of the day, she wasn't a wise ruler at all." Servantis sighed tiredly and he walked back to his chair, sitting again. "But Phobos is exactly the opposite. Too self centered, egomaniacal... and Cedric and Wong's presence does nothing but worsen those traits. We nobles chose a side, and now we must cope with that, for the well being of the realm, and those who populate it. That's the reason I'm asking of you, from one man to another, to stand by my side for Meridian's future."

"You are asking me to participate in a conspiracy. To break my..."

"No! Not to break your oath, to bend it. It is not my intention to betray and dethrone Phobos, but to use him," Servantis explained. "Not to gain power, but to save as much people as I can. And I can't do it alone. Please, I know that you must know that Phobos isn't worthy of your services. I'm just asking you to stand for something that it is."

Lothar crossed his arms over his chest. He looked at the dirtied blankets he was lying on top of. 'Protect the men', had said Raythor's last gaze, but nothing about serving Phobos or be consumed by revenge. Was this the same doubt the Captain felt day after day? People like him, like Raythor and Tynar… the Captain had been right; they had nothing but their oath. But which oath was he supposed to follow? He had his oath to the people, to his men, to the crown… too many oaths. What happened when one had to be scarified for the others? What happened if there wasn't any need to do that?

"No nobleman in Meridian's history has ever asked for the help of a guard like this," Lothar said after a while. "Be it a Captain or not."

"I'm not the usual nobleman. I never aimed to be so," Servantis retorted as a thankful smile appeared in his face.

Lothar breathed deeply. "What must I do?"

"Rest. Until you have grown strong again;" Servantis sat up again, shaking off dust from his robes. "Since this is settled, it's finally time for the guilty to pay for their crimes."

"Vathek..." Lothar whispered as he incorporated a bit and sat in the bed. "How?"

"Remember what I said about Wong and those new Shapeshifters?" Servantis asked with a small side grin. "Well, isn't that something worthy of being informed to the Rebellion about?"

* * *

 _This is starting to get troublesome_ ; Vathek thought as he walked through the corridors of the palace. During the past week and right after the Mask fiasco, Wong had been putting his best efforts solely in fulfilling his promise of a Shapeshifter army. Said 'army' had been reduced to, at least for now, four members, and one of them was Miranda herself. However, this wasn't a calming fact at all, since the new Shapeshifters looked as dangerous as her. That boy from the kitchens, the girl with so little hair in her head that she seemed shaved except for that little lock... and the fat one, especially him. There was a fat boy, no older than the Guardians; and he seemed to be adapting pretty well. Or maybe it was just that his beast form reminded him of Cedric. And Wong had been gone for three days now, which meant that when he came back he would do in company of another earthling child at his side.

The blue Galhot turned around a corner and searched for a small door at his left. The chamber he had accessed to was a small, circular one that smelled to bird shit. Which was befitting, considering that this was the place where the many aviary creatures of the palace were kept. Pigeons to carry messages, hawks in order to hunt those pigeons… even two large cages, housing the _Amayther;_ enormous winged creatures with blue scales, bald heads, horns and red eyes. They were used in order to patrol the skies of the Capital if there was any emergency, like they had done during the weeks after Caleb's escape. A part of him still couldn't believe that he had gotten scot-free from the whole situation with that key. But better not to think about the past and focus on the now. He searched for a cage in specific, inside which a small falcon awaited. Vathek opened the cage and took the falcon in his forearm.

"Good day, Salazar;" Vathek told the falcon, searching in his pocket for a piece of paper that he proceeded to tie to the animal's leg. "I'm sorry to disturb you again, but I need for you to send a message. You haven't flown in a long time, have you?" Vathek asked friendly to the animal as they exited the chamber, patting him in the head. "Well, I suppose that it's time for you to open your wings and…"

"Vathek."

The blue Galhot stopped in his tracks, eyes leaving the animal and focusing ahead, where Tynar, alongside around a dozen guards, were waiting for him, all of them sword in hand.

"What are you doing, Vathek?" Tynar asked, a scimitar in each hand as he walked slowly towards the blue Galhot. "Taking a walk, enjoying the collection of aviary creatures the castle holds? Or perhaps," Tynar said as his eyes focused in the falcon's leg and the small paper tied to it; "perhaps sending a message? But you don't have family far away from the Capital; that we would know. Unless you work for the Rebellion, and the message is for them." Vathek grew stiff upon that commentary. Tynar could see how his eyes moving from one part of the corridor to another. Was he really trying to devise a way of escaping? "Vathek, don't be reckless," Tynar told him. "Surrender and come with us, and no one will have to be injured."

 _I should have brought my flail_ , Vathek thought as he gave a step back involuntarily. No, that was no good; there was no escape route behind. If he could get to the dungeons and then to the castle's secret entrance to the Infinite City… that was his only option. He surveyed the guards behind Tynar, many o them were doubtful about this situation. He had befriended many of them, ate with them, drank with them… even laughed with them. He hoped that they really were as conflicted as he was; else this was going to be the easiest kill of their lives. _Perhaps with a bit of help…_ Vathek thought as his eyes focused in Salazar, the falcon looking at him with a tilted head.

"Go!" Vathek shouted, his yell surprising the rest of the guards, and Salazar took flight and went directly to the face of one of the enemies, who screamed under the pain that the animal's claws were inflicting upon his eyes. Vathek, meanwhile, charged towards the group, rushing pass Tynar and jumping against the guards, making some of them to fell to the ground. The Galhot was quick to grab a sword and use it to parry another guard's incoming attack. Once he was sure he was in the right end of the corridor, he turned around and ran away from them; Salazar following in tow.

"Seize him!" Tynar yelled. "Don't let him get to the dungeons, he knows them best!"

But it was too late, Vathek was running as fast as he could (one could be surprised of how fast the man was being so bulky) and heading towards the dungeons. He turned around corners and went down stairs… always heading down, always down… until he reached the dungeons. Then he headed to one lone cell, where he started to press the bricks of the wall into one specific order. He heard fast footsteps approaching, a sign of Tynar and the rest being able to finally catch up to him.

 _Come on!_ Vathek thought with anxiety as he pushed the last brick and the wall started to slowly open as if it were a door. When finally opened, Vathek crossed it and pulled a lever in the other side, and the wall started to close. _Quick, quick! With good reason we don't use this passage, if there were Lurdens and more guards around here, it could be disastrous!_

"He has to be around here, search for him!" Tynar yelled to his men, who scattered around the place. The Lieutenant searched too, and he would have sworn that he had heard something coming from one of the cells. But when he reached there… the cell was empty.

"Sir!" he heard one of the men. "We searched thoroughly, but Vathek is not here!"

"Lurden spit!" Tynar cursed in anger.

* * *

Behind the secret entrance, Vathek was panting, his back against the same door he had used to access the Infinite City. He had escaped, but now his cover was completely blown, and the tyrant's forces would surely strengthen measures to keep any other rebels from infiltrating the place. Salazar descended over his shoulder, and Vathek patted him.

"Good falcon," the blue Galhot told the animal as he incorporated. "But if the tales are to be believed, then the Infinite City is, well… infinite. Better to start walking, who knows how much time it will take to reach the rebel base…"

"So Vathek really was the rebel spy," Prince Phobos said as he emerged from a pond of water in the lower levels of the castle. He usually came here in order to relax himself, albeit he didn't stop consuming energy from Meridian, the same thorns connected to the throne also connected to the stonewalls of this place, filling the water with energy; an energy that Phobos' body proceeded to absorb.

"So it seems," Servantis told the Prince. "The guards lost him in the dungeons, probably he wasn't even there, or it was a diversion for him to find another router of escape. I take whole responsibility over the failure, my lord."

"There is no need for punishment, Viscount;" Phobos told him. "The traitor is no longer among us. Yet something should be done... what about those rebel settlements in the borders of the kingdom?"

"The ones that used to be prisons and work camps?" Servantis inquired. "The rebels had been using them for themselves since the Guardians freed them."

Phobos took a small amount of water in his hands. Within it, Servantis could see sparks of pure energy dancing violently before they were absorbed by the Prince's hands.

"When Wong returns," Phobos instructed. "Tell him to use his Shapeshifter unit against those settlements. Deploy Tracker too, just in case."

"Yes, my Prince;" Servantis said with a small reverence. Truth be told, the strength the rebels were gathering from those prisons and camps also worried him. He had Lothar in his side now, and he knew that would be helpful... but the Rebellion was growing and getting closer. Closer to Torus Filney. Closer to his home.

* * *

Hours passed in Meridian, which in the Capital wasn't something that could be perceived as well as in the rest of the realm, since Phobos' continuous draining of the planet's life force left the Capital the darkest out of all places in the world. Walking through the streets, carefully in order to not trip and fall onto one of the Prince's enormous thorny vines; Tynar walked towards his home. It wasn't very much, a two stories tall house that wasn't even in the main street of the city. Yet it was home, it had always been home. For generations Tynar's family had lived here. His great-grandfather had lived here, his grandfather had lived here, and so had done his father, and now himself. And when he passed away, it would be this house the one housing the man that his son was destined to become. But for now, his son was just…

"Daddy!" a small boy with dark brown hair and a dark yellowish skin tone came running once Tynar opened the door of his house. The boy wasn't older than six, and he had a thin complexion appropriated for a child of his age. Bright brown eyes looked at Tynar from a round, smiley, lovely face as the Lieutenant took the boy in his arm as he came to him, throwing him up in the air various times, laughing with him.

"Hello, my little Tash;" Tynar greeted his son, adding a kiss to the boy's cheeks, which the boy quickly proceeded to rub in his father's shoulder, as if wanting to wash the kiss. Tynar chuckled at that behavior and then sniffed the air. "And what is this lovely smell?"

"Mom's cooking," the boy answered as he was put in the floor by his father. "It's a rabbit we took from the market. I wanted Hermeneuta, but mom says it wasn't good enough."

"Then we should listen to your mom," Tynar told his son as they headed towards the kitchen, were they were quick to spot a pot in the large fire of their fireplace; "she is the most intelligent person in this house, after all."

"That won't get you an extra ration of my stew, dear;" said a chubby woman around her forties with a hair of a bluish tone of green, practically green skin and scales in certain parts of her body.

"Ah, busted;" Tynar joked to his son's delight as he approached his wife, kissing her lovely from behind. "How are you, Anna?"

"Trying to find how to use these rabbits to prepare a decent meal;" the woman answered. "And you, my dear? How did things in the… _palace_ go?"

Noticing Tynar's eyes changing the look they were giving, Anna looked at her son. "Tash, be a good boy and fetch momma one of the Itheen plants that grow across the street."

"The ones that are purple, tight?" the boy asked. "Yes, mom!"

Once the boy had disappeared, Anna approached Tynar. "What's wrong?" she asked.

"Vathek turned out to be the rebel spy," Tynar told her. "I tried to capture him, but he was able to escape. I suppose this will clear the doubts some of the guards still had about Raythor's innocence, but…"

"But you feel remorse for Vathek, don't you?" Anna helped him to end the phrase.

"Vathek is a good man," Tynar said. "Many of the people under my command had him for a good friend, until now. It creates… conflict among the men. Maybe that was what Vathek was aiming for; maybe his camaraderie with us was just a façade. But a part of me knows that untrue."

Anna took Tynar's face between her hands and delivered a kiss in his lips. Once it broke she maintained her husband's face looking directly at her. "You know what you should do? Forget about all those rebels, and noblemen, and princes in their palaces. You should eat with us, and then play with Tash a little before heading back to the castle."

Tynar smiled upon that comment. "See? You really are the most intelligent person in this house."

* * *

 ** _Across the Veil; Heatherfield; Chan flat_**

"What do you mean you're going to Japan?!" Jade asked, surprised to the extreme. In front of her, Tohru and Uncle had spent the whole time she had been at Sheffield making their luggage for the trip, and were intending to head out for Heatherfield's airport as soon as the family had ended their dinner, take a plane and travel to Japan during night.

"Shadowkhan are related to Japanese demons!" Uncle said. "Therefore, answers on how to deal with them may be on Japan! One more thing! Uncle and apprentice still need to find information on magic butterflies! One more thing! Tohru! Where are Uncle's sleeping pills? Uncle must sleep in order to flight to not disturb him!"

"Here, sensei;" Tohru said as he gave the old man a small plastic vial with pinkish pills.

"But, but..." Jade babbled. "What about those weird Masks? What if some other bad guy appears with one of them in the face? What if Wong comes back to Heatherfield?"

Uncle started to count using his fingers. "Oni Masks are surely scattered through this world, Meridian, or maybe the Infinite Dimensions themselves. Very hard to find!" the elder extended another finger. "Second, Mask removal spell is very simple. Uncle and Tohru have left instructions into how prepare it. Only needed thing is proper ingredient!"

"Tch, and how do we know what ingredient use?" Jade asked.

"According to what we have found regarding the Masks," Tohru explained as he put some of his clothes inside a bag; "there are some items named Hanafuda Cards, that should be able to provide us with the adequate ingredient for each Mask. However, it could be just a tale. There isn't much information regarding the Oni, and there is nothing that points to their connection to the Shadowkhan."

"Alright," Jade said, rubbing her forehead a bit. "So you two in Japan, us here... what about Wong?"

"Guardians and niece should be enough to deal with Wong!" Uncle stated. "As long as his Dark Chi warriors don't spend enough time in this plane, he won't be able to use that fouuuuuul transformation. And niece has received gooood chi training from us. She should be able to cast spell properly."

"Okay, okay..." Jade said as she headed to the kitchen. There, dinner was already done and ready to be served; even if there were still hours until dinner. However, Jade noticed that there was a piece missing. "Hey, where's Jackie?"

"Nephew has been out since we have lunch," Uncle's voice came from his room. "Said something about meeting up with veeery important man."

"He's been very busy lately..." Jade said, a bit sad. She loved the girls, and their adventures were awesome; there was no doubt in her about that. And she was grateful beyond belief that he had let her go with them to Meridian in and out. But a part of her missed kicking ass with him. She knew that his job as an archeologist was very important, and that Jackie had always wanted a life without all the magic in... Well, better to not give it much of a thought. Knowing Jackie, and if something related to archeology was involved, she was sure he was enjoying himself.

* * *

 _This has to be the worst afternoon of my life_ ; Jackie though as he walked through Heatherfield. He had spent walking the streets since he had ate, searching or more accurately, waiting; for someone. Maybe. Maybe not. He wasn't sure of which one of the two he was exactly doing. If he was doing any of them at all. In the same night they had retrieved the Oni Mask, Jackie had put himself in contact with Captain Black; telling him everything he had learned about the Dark Hand, including Harold. Yet he had omitted anything related to the Guardians, Meridian... or anything like that. For Black, the girls were just Jade's new friends (with the fact that one of them was the daughter of one of the crime organization's members as a mere coincidence), and the fact that his family was now staying some time in Heatherfield was due to one of Uncle's distant relatives had called for him. Not that the archeologist had to put on a better excuse, or an excuse at all since he wasn't Black's employee per se. Jackie was grateful that the leader of Section 13 had pulled some strings to get Jade into Sheffield, but the archeologist wasn't very sure of telling a man that, albeit his friend, was still a government agent; that there were a bunch of inhabited worlds full of magic out there with the ability to send God knows what to this one. It was better if Black thought, for the moment, that the reasons behind him being at Heatherfield were purely due to family and that the Mask had been a slip into an otherwise normal daily life.

He had told Black that the Oni Mask was simply a powerful and dangerous magical artifact, just like the Talismans were; and that it would be better under his custody in San Francisco. Upon receiving it and considering what Jackie had told him about Harold and Chang, Black had decided to send one of his own agents to Heatherfield, in order to help Jackie. Black had told him that the agent, named Quentin Ross, would make contact with him. He had also said that the man had... 'strange habits', and that he was a 'bit paranoid'. That had been an understatement.

The first sign of that Quentin man's presence had come in the form of an e-mail that very morning, with the instructions to go to a lone coffee shop in the middle of the city. Once there, and just when he had ordered his coffee, another message had gotten to his mobile phone. This one indicated for him to go to a kiosk in the nearby square. There, he bought a newspaper and waited again. Another message came shortly after, this one indicating him to go to a supermarket and buy whatever he wanted... and a couple of cans of beans. No idea why he wanted that. Once Jackie had done that part, he received another message, this one indicating to go to a hotdog stand called Louis' in Heatherfield Plaza, order a hot dog, and eat it there while reading the newspaper. And that was exactly where he was heading now, walking through the bustling plaza while carrying a plastic bag with two cans of beans, oranges, and the newspaper. He located the stand with ease, and walking towards it, he ordered a hotdog and started to ate it while walking a few steps away from the cart. Was this all a prank? A part of him had started to believe so. He saw a bench not far away and decided to take a small halt in this bizarre journey of his. Sitting down and putting the plastic bag between his legs, he munched into the hotdog, and decided that it tasted bad. He never was a huge fan of fast food, but he knew that, if well prepared, it could taste good or at least taste to meat. This hotdog tasted to nothing.

Minutes passed and he didn't get another message in his phone, so he continued eating the hotdog without interruption until finishing it. He looked around the plaza, focusing in the people that were walking around. He sighed as a redhead man, also with a hotdog, sat by his side. The redhead man, who was probably in his late forties, was wearing a long brown trench coat that covered his whole body, not letting Jackie to see how exactly he was dressed. In his feet he wore couple of old and overused spiky shoes. His hair was messy and bad combed, and that in combination with the remnants of a bad shaved beard and a tired expression, evoked a homeless man and thus gave him the image of a man you didn't want to talk to. Of course, even if Jackie didn't know, that was precisely the idea.

"What kind of beans did you buy?" the redhead man asked after finishing his own hotdog and taking out a cigarette from his trench-coat's right pocket, lighting it up with a lighter he had pulled from under his sleeve. His voice was deep and raspy, the result of a lifetime smoking too much.

"Excuse me?" Jackie asked, a bit surprised by the man directing himself to him.

"The beans, what kind?" the redhead man said pointing to the plastic bag. "I like beans, they're a good food; fill your stomach fast. But there are some that get you too busy in the bathroom."

"Mr. Ross?" Jackie asked, still a bit confused.

"The very same," the man said, extending a hand that Jackie shook. The grip was strong, very strong. He didn't let go of his hand either. "Quentin Ross at your service, Mr. Chan. Pleased to meet you, I'm a big fan of your work."

"You are?" Jackie asked, and Quentin answered with a small nod. Was he referring to the archeology work? No, he supposed he wasn't.

"Yes," the redhead answered, eyeing him. "Running around the world, putting that criminal scum in the place they belong to… and defeating those demons; quite impressive."

Of course he wasn't referring to the archeology. But had he just mentioned Shendu and his siblings? Then that meant… "You know about magic?"

"Yes," Quentin answered bluntly. "Actually, I'm one of the few members of the organization that believed in what Captain said about magic. The rest were the ones that accompanied him to China that day of the dragon. The others got pretty convinced when your niece took over our base, albeit I was in Canada then."

"Oh right, the whole Shadowkhan incident…" Jackie muttered. "So, what exactly are we…"

"Not here," Ross said, finally letting Jackie's hand go and incorporating. "Eyes could be watching, even if it's improbable. Been following you since you left your flat, and no one's been keeping track on you sans me."

"You were following me?" Jackie asked, offended as he sat up too. "Since the beginning? Why didn't you just talk to me?"

"The Dark Hand's employees are pretty sneaky guys," Quentin explained as he tied his trench-coat and threw the cigarette to the floor. "Some of them could've been following you. And I wanted beans. I've got a safe house around here. Let's talk there."

Jackie let out a sigh of exasperation as he took the plastic bag and followed the redhead. He had forced him to do all those things in order to give the impression of Jackie having a normal afternoon, hadn't he? Strange habits and a bit paranoid? That was being too kindly.

From where had Captain Black taken this guy?

* * *

 ** _Vandom residence_**

Afternoon had turned out pretty relaxing for Will, who had spent the majority of the hours outside of Sheffield in swimming practice. If there was something that could soften your nerves after fighting the army of an evil overlord in another world and asking the boy you liked out (which by the way she considered much more stressing), that was swimming, or so it was for her. Now, as she sat in the couch, Will was actually thinking of what she could talk with Matt about during the trip. Maybe music? He was part of a band, after all. But she knew very little about music… maybe about animals? She liked animals, and Taranee had mentioned that Matt's grandfather owned a pet shop. Yes, that seemed like a good idea… perhaps Matt could get her a pet frog?

The bell of the door rang then, and Will heard her mother calling from the kitchen alongside the sound of running water, a product of Susan washing her hands. "Will, can you please answer for me'"

The redhead obeyed her mom, jumping from the couch and walking towards the door, which she opened afterwards. She was expecting for the one calling to be one of those weird persons that were from door to door speaking about religion, or trying to sell something… but instead she was met by a blue pullover, ginger hair and a moustache of the same color. Dean Collins was the one standing in the door's frame, carrying a bunch of documents in his arms.

"Good evening Will," the man greeted her politely.

"Professor Collins?" Will asked, surprised to see him here. Come in, she couldn't be getting personal visits from the teacher this soon! They have had their first lesson with him that day; she hadn't done anything that deserved this… yet. She looked in the kitchen's direction, from where her mother had finish in washing her hands and was now approaching them. Will gulped. "Whatever you're here to tell my mom, I deserve fifteen minutes to think about an excuse!"

Collins couldn't restrain a chuckle at that comment. "It has nothing to with that," the professor tranquilized her, but Will just grew more confused when her mom finally got to them and smiled fondly at the history teacher, who handed her some papers.

"Susan joined the PTA some weeks ago," Collins explained as his eyes met with Susan's. "But… she hasn't been in the last two meetings."

"Work has been terrible these last days," her mother said as her eyes didn't leave Collin's either. "So I passed over Sheffield after work today, I met with Dean and I asked him if he could bring me the documents of the last two sessions."

"Well, that's… wait, Susan?" Will said as her head travelled back and forth between the two adults. "Dean?!"

"Please, enter;" Susan told the ginger man. "We will talk better inside."

Will could do nothing but look at how her new history teacher walked inside the apartment and he and her mother sat down in the couch she had been moments before. What the hell was going on? Her mother and Collins were now checking the papers he had brought, and when Collins made some kind of comment, both of them laughed. At the same time. And her mother was looking at him with a very strange look that reminded Will of how Cornelia looked at Ca… Oh no. No, no, no, no, no!

* * *

Collins left around twenty minutes later, Susan accompanying him all the way out, and closing the door only when he had gotten out of sight. Then she turned around with a happy expression, only to meet with her daughter's face; that was looking at her with a deep frown and arms crossed over her chest.

"What?" Susan asked to Will while heading back to the kitchen.

" _What_?" Will said back in a somehow angry tone. "Professor Collins, really?"

"What do you mean with that, sweetie?" Susan asked as she resumed her cooking.

"Don't ' _sweetie_ ' me!" Will said. "You were making ' _goo-goo_ ' eyes at him!"

"Goo-goo eyes?" a confused Susan asked.

"You know…" Will said, suddenly getting nervous; " _that_ kind of eyes."

"Wow, stop there young lady;" Susan said, her sweet demeanor fading away quite quickly. "He's just a man I met today. He's one of your teachers."

"Exactly!" Will said, rising her arms.

"Will, you are exaggerating;" Susan told her. But Will wasn't so sure about that.

* * *

As Will struggled with the not so pleasant possibility of her mother flirting with one of her teachers, Quentin and Jackie had arrived to the former's safe house. Said safe house had turned out to be a bad illuminated, pretty dirtied and messy flat, with the blinds unable to be lifted and the remnants of fast food lying around.

 _And I though Jade was disorganized in her room_ ; Jackie thought as he inspected the stance. The flat was composed of a single, big room, in which center was a small table with a couple of chairs. The 'kitchen' was composed of an old fridge and a sink full of dirtied plates. There was only another door around, and he supposed that was the bathroom, which considering the state the rest of the flat was in, was a place he didn't want to see. The bed was in the opposite side of the big room, and around it were far too many newspapers. Jackie had read about this somewhere, right? The compulsion to storage useless things… Diogenes syndrome, perhaps?

"Take a seat, Mr. Chan;" Quentin said, pointing to the table. "Would you like some beans?"

"N-no, thank you;" Jackie answered him. _This flat could use a bit more of light, and a bit more of air…_

Quentin shrugged and, taking his trench-coat off, he dedicated the next two minutes to open one of the cans of beans Jackie had bought and to take it to the table alongside a spoon. He then approached the masses of newspapers that were near his bed and took a couple of them. He used one as a tablecloth and tossed the other to Jackie.

"See something interesting there?" Quentin asked as he ate spoon after spoon of beans.

"Eh…" Jackie said, skimming through the newspaper; "should I?"

"Page thirty six, small article at bottom right;" Quentin guided him, so Jackie could read it.

"It's… it's an article about a new business;" Jackie said. "A… dry cleaning?"

"A dry cleaning that's situated and has been built over an old subway line;" Quentin explained as he munched another spoon of beans. "Been investigating a bit on my own, pressing some buttons of the scum in the city…"

"Pressing… buttons?" Jackie asked. What did that mean? And how long had this guy been on Heatherfield?

"Mr. Chan;" Quentin said in a respectful tone. "As I said, I'm a big fan of your work, but you're accustomed to big fishes. I don't, I work from the base until reaching the top. I can't go for the big fish directly, so I take smaller fishes, and I use them as bait; and I'm not nice while doing it."

"What do you mean you aren't nice?" Jackie asked. He didn't like what route the conversation was taking.

"There was this guy, couple of days back…" Quentin explained. "Petty thief, small thief. Used to work with a violent teen of the streets named Swanson, but then Swanson disappeared out of sight. So, he continued thieving in his own, and he got messy. I got my hands on him, and pressed _his_ buttons. And with that I mean I tied him up and connected his body to a car's battery."

"WHAT?!" Jackie shrieked, rising from his chair. "Are you insane?!"

"No," Quentin answered plainly. "Please, sit down."

"No! What… you tortured a man!" the archeologist yelled, not believing that Black had sent this guy to help him.

"No," Quentin answered. "I tortured a criminal, Mr. Chan; those are very different from man. And I wouldn't have got the info I got otherwise."

"And what info is that?!" Jackie asked, still not sitting down. Could he get this man unconscious? Something was telling him that he was an experienced fighter, just like any Section 13 agent; but he had as much as experience as any of those.

Quentin tapped the newspaper, pointing to the article. "Sit down, calm down. I'll explain, Mr. Chan. You know the Captain, you know he sent me here. I can show you my badge if you still have doubts. But in this job of mine, sometimes you need to press buttons. The rest of the Dark Hand's boys aren't like that stupid brit of Valmont or his posse, getting involved with dragons, letting themselves to get caught and be sent to a prison so they can free a demon. They're cunning, sneaky, they got a network. This guy I took? Paid a percentage to one of the big bands in the streets, that pays another percentage to a small capo that pays to a bigger one that pays to Chang. Everything's connected, and even the smallest of scumbags knows something when he's part of the chain."

"You could have gone after one of those capos then," Jackie told him. _Then again, Heatherfield is pretty low on criminal activity. What does this man exactly understand for capo?_

"As I said, I go for the small fishes first;" Quentin said. "Listen, Mr. Chan; I've met men like you before. You're a good man, you got a family, a good nature and you work hard. It's to protect men like you that I took the Captain's offer."

"Black contacted you?" Jackie asked, unable to believe him, not wanting to believe him. Why would someone like his friend need someone like this man?

"If the Captain finds something that's involved with magic, he calls you, right?" Quentin asked. "Well, when something involved with the type of organization as the Dark Hand, the real Dark Hand happens, and there's no conventional way to get info on them, he calls me. Now there's Dark Hand and magic involved. So he calls both of us. And don't get me wrong, Mr. Chan, this is not a job for someone nice. If you're gonna work with me, you better get accustomed to a lot of stuff you aren't gonna like."

' _In the same way he doesn't tell you from whom and how exactly he gets all that information_ '; Harold's words echoed in his mind. Is this how Black knew so much about criminal activity? By using men like him? He sighed, knowing that this discussion would end in nothing valuable. "And what did you find?"

"Right," Quentin said, finishing the can of beans. "Guy told me, after a session of electroshock," Jackie shivered a bit after that part; "that the Dark Hand is getting ready for a big score, a big operation. Told me the subway was involved; and then I took to investigate a bit more. Turns out, the business that owns that dry cleaning? Related to one of Chang's multiple public businesses."

"They are using it as a mean to access the subway;" Jackie said. "But why?"

" _That_ the guy didn't know," Quentin said, as he stretched himself after leaving the spoon inside the can. "And believe me; he had reasons to tell the truth. But we need more info, and I think I can't get it by normal means. That's the reason the Captain let me to take this thing;" Quentin said as he searched in his pocket, pulling something out and leaving it over the table.

Jackie's eyes widened in surprise upon looking over the small, hexagonal piece of rock with the image of a red dragon craved in it that Quentin had put over the table. "The Dragon Talisman?" Jackie asked. His voice didn't rise over its usual tone, shock leaving him unable of shouting. What was Black thinking?!

"If the Dark Hand's got magic, we got magic of our own;" Quentin explained. "Black got a presentation of the Talismans' powers a while ago, and the bosses were pretty impressed. They want to know if they can be useful on the field. I got these other three too," Quentin said as he took out of his pockets the Snake, Roaster and Pig Talismans. "But I think they'll be better if shared between us."

Jackie couldn't believe what he was seeing. Was this his life now? Going into a secret war with a crime syndicate while being helped by a man that clearly wasn't right in the head? "What did you have in mind?" Jackie asked, testing his interlocutor. He had made a promise to Black, and if he refused to help, then Section 13 would deploy a whole tag team in the city. They could find the girls, or worse, find Jade's new condition… which was something that Chang had already done. Family was family; that was an absolute in Jackie's code.

"We got plenty of firepower," Quentin said, pointing to the Talismans. "No pun intended. So, in the moment we got the Dark Hand with their hands dirty, we overwhelm them. But in order to do that, I need something."

"What?" Jackie asked.

"That offer Chang made to you?" Quentin inquired. "You're going to take it."

Jackie had sat down in the chair again, arms crossed in discomfort. "You need someone inside."

"And you're the best one for that, Mr. Chan. We need to take the Dark Hand in a situation they can't use their army of lawyers to get off without paying."

Jackie considered this; it… actually made sense. True, he wasn't pretty comfortable with working with this type of man, no matter how respectful he was towards him. But if he was going to do this, it was going to be on his terms. "I don't want Harold to get harmed. He has a family; his daughter is a friend of my niece. He is a good man, just… misguided, working for the wrong side."

"He can't get scot-free, Mr. Chan;" Quentin said. "I must warn you, when you enter an organization as an infiltrate, you got doubts. You see those scumbags in their daily life, you laugh with them, you talk with them about last night's TV show, or how their kids are doing in school. But let me tell you, Mr. Chan, have in mind a simple phrase. A is A, and a criminal is always a criminal. That father of your niece's friend… he should have thought about his family before working with scum."

 _It's because he thought of them that he is working for Chang_ ; Jackie thought, but he decided to shut his mouth. Decisions, decisions… a war in another world, his niece was now a werewolf, he was about to make one of the biggest decisions of his life. He was an archeologist, for the love of God. Yet that hadn't stopped him when the Talismans had arisen, or when the Demon Sorcerers had started plotting to run free.

Decisions, decisions… "What did you do with the man you tortured?"

"The scumbag?" Quentin asked, as if he was genuinely surprised that another human being could care about that man. "Dropped him in the local police, tied up and ready to be processed."

Jackie let out a sigh of relief. Good, that meant that the man was still alive. Just thieving didn't earn you a one way ticket to the morgue. "I will do it," Jackie said, but then he leaned over the table, looking Quentin directly in the eye. "But if I'm going to do this, it's going to be on _my_ terms. And that means that you don't press buttons, until I told you so."

Quentin smiled at the man, and took another cigarette out, lightning it. "Of course, Mr. Chan. You're the one who's in charge here, the Captain told me so."

* * *

 ** _Across the Veil; Meridian, rebel settlement at north; two days later_**

"Move along!" Drake's voice was heard across the improvised camp that the rebels had made out from one of the tyrant's own prisons within the realm's border with the Wild, the dry lands without law were the majority of Lurden tribes used to inhabit before joining forces with the Prince. "We need everything out of here, the sooner the better!"

Rebels moved fast, carrying boxes full of minerals, others with food, and many other goods. Since the moment the Guardians and Jade had helped them to liberate this prison, which basically was a mine at the service of the crown; the rebels had been using it (and several others) as a base of operations out of the Infinite City and as a mean to obtain resources. Said resources were mainly gold, but then again, those new earthling weapons weren't exactly cheap.

Surveying this small transaction operation was Aldarn, who arms folded over his chest; watched with a stern glare how his and Drake's men carried the goods to the wagons if the mine, which were meant to travel through the tunnels until they reached the lowest parts of the mine, where the Mage had opened an entrance to the Infinite City; and then be carried to the main base. This wasn't exactly the ideal place for a settlement. It was a mine opened in a ravine that had to be accessed by using ladders or ropes. Thus, it was very weak to attacks from above. In fact, that had been exactly the way the Guardians and the rebels had attacked it. Holes had been opened in the sides of the ravine and transformed into cells that used to house the prisoners until the rebels had liberated them. Now those former prisoners thickened the Rebellion's lines with their numbers. Drake wasn't so sure about this, but Caleb had given his approval; and for Aldarn, any enemy of the tyrant was a friend. He looked at how another wagon headed into the mine by the rails. As time passed, less and less goods and men were left. This was running smoothly, it was the perfect time for relaxing a bit... or being attacked.

"Look at you all," a feminine, smug and young voice said; "thinking that a couple of easy victories have won you the war. Little flies are always so full of themselves."

Almost every person in the ravine froze momentarily. Then they automatically stopped whatever they were doing and picked up a weapon to defend themselves. Swords, a peak... whatever was at hand. Both Aldarn and Drake had been expending some kind of attack at one point or another, retaliation from the Prince's forces. Lurdens certainly, maybe some guards; this place wasn't very important from a strategic point of view... but this? None were expecting this.

At the top of the ravine five individuals were standing. One of them was Miranda (to whom the voice belonged to), Tristan standing at her right, arms at his sides and hands tightened in fists, a hateful glare surveying the rebels below. Finally, his moment had come.

At Miranda's left was a girl no older than fifteen years old, dressed in a pair of dark blue shorts and a white shirt with too long sleeves. Her skin being pale, and her body a bit skinny; there was no hair over her head aside from a few locks of a dark greenish blond. She was looking over them with a neutral expression.

At the girl's left stood Jordan Johnston, surveying what he had been told was an incoming battle with worry and a hint of fear in the eyes. This was not the kind of freedom he had asked for... fighting that old man's battles instead of fight for himself. But now he had no other option. He was trapped in a different world than his own, a conflict that had nothing to do with him… was this the freedom and power he had longed for?

The last component of the party of five was a teenager of sixteen years, just like Jordan. However, he looked exactly the opposite to him. While Jordan was a thin yet slightly muscular teen, this one had overly muscled arms that, although pretty impressive, didn't dissimulate the enormous round belly that he sported. Clad in a t-shirt and a pair of bluish jeans, long black hair fell over his shoulders in an disorganized manner. A grin and a pair of small eyes looked at them from a round face, and he looked the most eager of the bunch to actually jump into battle.

"Tristan, take Swanson and go on the lead;" Miranda addressed the boy of the kitchens. "Roberta, you are with me and behind them. Jordan," she addressed the teen that had been with them the less and received less training; "stay out and be sure that no one escapes. Tracker should be around the zone too, hunting rebels; so try to not upset him unless you want to die."

"We only need the important ones alive, don't we?" Tristan asked of Miranda, who smirked maliciously to that comment.

"Of course," the Spider answered, making a smirk to appear in Tristan's face.

"You heard that, Simon?!" the white haired boy asked to the fat teen.

"I can sing to that!" the teen's excited screechy voice came as an answer.

The two of them jumped into the ravine, and in the middle of their fall, they roared, and their bodies got surrounded by lightning. And although a white haired thin boy and a black haired fat teen had jumped, the things that landed were very different. Where Tristan had been, was now a large scorpion-like creature the size of an adult man with an scarlet exoskeleton, powerful pincers as hands, a group of six legs to stand up, six eyes in what was supposed to be its head, and a long tail that ended on a stinger that swung right and left, dripping liquid from its end that upon falling land dissolved the stone. Simon, in the other hand, had become something that reminded some of the rebels, especially Drake, of Lord Cedric. Not as large as the Snake of Cavigor, but yes way bigger than the scorpion, this one was an enormous reptile being that stood over his two strong hind legs, a thick tail behind and two powerful claws for hands. The snout was large and full of teeth. Drake had heard about these things, it was a crocodile.

"Shapeshifters!" Drake yelled, alerting anyone that was still in the mine with the wagons.

The two large beasts looked over them, the reptilian delighted in their expressions of terror, the arachnid wanting nothing more than test the power of his stinger. With a mighty roar, Simon charged towards the rebels claws extended and jaws opened. He was received with attacks delivered with the swords and peaks, but the weapons collided with his scales without leaving any mark or injury. Cracking a disturbing laugh, the crocodile Shapeshifter proceeded to take two of the rebels in his claws, pressing them until he heard something snapping, then throwing both of them as if they were ragdolls. More rebels decided to attack him, but they met the same end. A couple of them met the crocodile's jaws even.

"Ahahahaha!" Simon laughed as he got surrounded by six rebels. "So many years wasted in the streets! This! This is fucking awesome! I can't get enough of it!" the crocodile proclaimed as he swung his tail and send the group of rebels flying.

"Regroup!" Drake ordered. "Don't attack him recklessly, he will murder you! To me, men! To…" Drake was cut of mid sentence as he was forced to raise his shield in order to block an incoming attack from his left. His shield did enough to stop the stinger of Tristan's tail, and quickly other three rebels came to his help. However, as two of them charged, Tristan leaned against his two hind legs and rose over them, stooping each man's swords with one of his pincers. He pressed over the weapons and they cracked under the pressure, breaking in two. Tristan then proceeded to hit each one of them with his pincers, sending the rebels to the ground. Scared as he was the last rebel accompanying Drake rushed ahead, sword raised, and yelling.

"No you fool!" Drake yelled in concern, but it was too late. Tristan's tail moved fast, nailing in the man's stomach deep and strongly. The soldier let out a shriek of pure pain as his skin changed from a Half-breed's usual yellowish tone to a one of purple, and his whole skin started to dissolve. When Tristan tossed him away, he was already dead, his muscles and organs having quickly become a pulp thanks to the effect of the venom.

"Serves you right!" Tristan shouted in triumph. "You heard that, rebel scum?! Tell to the ones in the other side that Tristan of Carhaiz sends you to your doom!"

 _Carhaiz?_ Drake thought as he jumped backwards and abandoned his sword in order to lose weight and gain more mobility. _So that's what this is about…_

Drake's thought was left unfinished as something grabbed his shoulders and took him violently off the ground, elevating him over the battlefield. As the rebel looked up, he saw how the creature that had grabbed him was an enormous predatory bird that resembled an eagle, with bright grey feathers that bordered in silver at exception of a part of the head that was black. It was thanks to this little detail that Drake was able to identify her as the pale girl with strange trousers from before.

The bird tossed him aside, and Drake quickly found himself clashing inside one of the holes that served as cells in the ravine. The entrance to the hole was quickly closed by strong spider-web, Miranda landing in front of it and quickly jumping in order to continue the process. Drake was left helpless as he saw how, one by one, the rebels that could be differentiated from the former prisoners were thrown into the cells and trapped by the spider's strong web. Drake tried to break it, but it was impossible, Miranda's web was stronger than an iron chain, so unless you were really strong or have fire at hand to burn it, you weren't in any position to escape. The rebels that weren't being taken prisoners met their end at the brutal hands of the crocodile or the stinger of the scorpion.

"Retreat!" Aldarn said as he made some of his surviving forces to enter the mine. He took one of the rebels by the arm. "Take the wagons and the men to the Infinite City, and then close the entrance."

As the last rebel crossed the entrance, Aldarn heard the unmistakable sound of a projectile breaking through the air, and he jumped just in time to evade an incoming rock that hit the entrance to the mine and crumbled it.

"Going somewhere, chump?" Simon, who had thrown the rock, asked arrogantly. "C'mon, all your pals are down. Don't you wanna take a shot at the big, mean crocodile? Or maybe you want to call for Smee and put a clock in my belly so you can run scared?"

"You filthy tool of Phobos!" Aldarn said as he readied his sword and rushed towards the Shapeshifter. "A rebel doesn't flee!"

"Filthy tool?" Simon asked with a funny tone as he caught Aldarn's sword within his hand and raised the rebel to his eye level. "They've called me a lot of things, pal. Scum, fatass, asshole… but never 'filthy tool'. Hey Roberta! Catch!" he said as he threw Aldarn in the air, who was quickly taken by the bird Shapeshifter, delivered into an opened cell and sealed inside by Miranda like the rest of the prisoners.

Shortly after, a bunch of bodies were dropped into the ravine, and an enormous vulture with black feathers that became red in the edges of the wings descended upon them. This was the beast form of Jordan, who had done as instructed and had taken the rebels that had tried to escape by climbing the ravine and run.

"Are these all of them?" Miranda asked as she and the other three Shapeshifters gathered around them. She and Roberta returned to their human form, while Tristan and Simon maintained their beast forms just in case.

"There are two or three more…" Jordan said as his body changed shapes, became a ball of black feathers and shifted to his human form. His hands were shaking a bit, and his voice was trembling. "The others…"

"The others are mine;" the raspy and somehow demonic voice of the Tracker came from the top of the ravine, were he stood with Sniffer at his side and three rebels, one of them a Galhot even bigger and bulkier than Vathek, tied in the chain of his flail. "You had a good hunt, but these are my prey."

"This mission was mine to accomplish, undead;" Miranda accused the green skinned walking corpse. "You were supposed to help."

"A hunter does not take the prey of another, yet he does not relinquish his own either;" Tracker explained as he turned around.

"Even the abominations have a code, eh?" Miranda taunted. "You know, I heard some rumors in the palace; that said that the one that helped the Guardians to not get killed by those Shadowkhan was you. It could be a problem if the Prince knew that those rumors were…"

"Those are not rumors," Tracker said and then, to the amazement of Shapeshifters and rebels alike, he jumped from the top and landed at the bottom, just in front of Miranda, cracking the ground under him. "That is a fact. Yes, Lady Miranda," the undead said, and his eyes brightened in crimson; "I was the one that fought to a standstill the same creature that the Guardians couldn't defeat; I think that the Prince would found that fact… displeasing, don't you agree?" Tracker said as he saw how Miranda's expression changed from one of pride and confidence to one of anger, then discomfort, and then something resembling fear. "I thought so. Do you know why, over the centuries, everyone in Meridian has feared the Tracker? Why the rebels cower in fear when they heard my name, the titling of my flail? Because I am ancient, I am strong. I am the Hunter, and be a human, Galhot, Oni or even a Changeling like you; I hunt them all. I have faced Changelings that put you or even the Snake of Cavigor to shame, creatures far mightier and experienced than you. You? You are just a child, and these?" he said, gesturing to the other four. "Children that wouldn't have any power if not for Daolon Wong's genius. Don't taunt me, Lady Miranda. You are not at my level."

Tracker turned around and jumped to the ravine's top once again. There he took the three rebels and dragged them out of the scene, Sniffer following him obediently. The Shapeshifters and newly taken prisoners were left speechless in the ravine, not knowing exactly how to proceed now. The plan, of course, was still the same; using the prisoners as bait, but now their minds weren't focused on that.

"Holy crap…" Simon said as his reptilian tail waved over the ground. "That was fucking awesome!"

Miranda, meanwhile, resisted the urge to put some of her web around the reptile's mouth.

* * *

 ** _The Infinite City_**

"Five? Five of them, are you sure?" Caleb asked of one of the rebels that had arrived to the Infinite City. He had been waiting for them, but in the moment he saw some of them were injured and carrying weapons in hand, he knew that something had gone wrong. However, he wasn't expecting this. "Five Shapeshifters?"

"Yes sir," the rebel answered. "They took us by surprise. A spider commanded them; and some other kind of insect seemed to be second in command. The biggest one was a lizard like Cedric, but with legs and a bit smaller. Then there two birds…"

"Alright, I understand if you don't remember all the details," Caleb said as he put his arm around the man's shoulders. "Take this man and the others and bring them to Sephiria and the other healers!" he ordered, and the rebels in the base were in movement seconds after. Caleb didn't waste any time and met with Rhouglar and Tharquin.

"Anyone knows what are we up against?" Caleb asked the two men.

"Two Insectoids, a Reptilian, two Mammals;" Tharquin explained, passing a hand over his grey hair as he did so. "Aviary variant, in the last case. Dangerous, if you asked me; we will need long ranged weapons in order to bring those down. And nets, nets will be needed. As for the Reptilian, enough damage won't be enough due to his regenerative abilities, and the men reported about hardened skin. The spider and the scorpion, I believe that's what the other is, should be the easiest ones to deal with combat wise."

"Phobos' Archmage must have been training them in secret," Caleb muttered, taking a hand to his mouth. "This is worrisome, why didn't Vathek inform us about this?"

"I'm afraid I have been a little busy lately…" they heard the blue Galhot's unmistakable voice, and the three men turned around in due time to see Vathek leaning against a wall out of tiredness, Salazar over his shoulder.

"Vathek?!" Caleb asked in surprise.

"I come back here, and the base is nothing but chaos;" the bulky man said as he approached the trio. "Can't you just keep things running without… me…?" Vathek fell to his knees, and Caleb rushed quickly to his aid, helping him incorporate. "I'm sorry; I haven't eaten in almost two days…"

"I'll bring you something," Rhouglar said, running and coming back with the remnants of a chicken and a pitcher of water in hand. Vathek proceeded to devour it with eagerness. "You could have eaten the falcon…"

"What happened?" Caleb asked, ignoring Rhouglar's last comment.

"I was found out," Vathek explained as he emptied the pitcher. "Tynar and some guards caught me when I was going to send Salazar with the message about the Shapeshifters. I was going to report about a group of four, not five though."

"Phobos' Archmage must have acquired the other one in the last two days," Tharquin deduced.

"And now our only source of information in the palace is that Trill woman," Caleb said, angered by this turn of events. "We have to rescue Aldarn and Drake…"

"You know this is a trap, right?" Tharquin said, not without condescension. "No one mobilizes a band of five Beasts just to retake a mine in the border; they want to drag us out."

"I know," Caleb said.

"Do we use the new weapons against them?" Rhouglar inquired, his lips starting to form a grin of eagerness.

"We have new weapons?" Vathek asked.

"I will fill you in the details later," Caleb answered. "But we aren't using them; I don't want to risk one of the Shapeshifters escaping and informing Phobos about before we are able to make a real difference with their use. Tharquin, gather your men and the archers, form a ring around the zone and be ready to get any of those Aviary variants from the sky. Rhouglar, take your men and band them with mine, wait for me in the exit. I will find Blunk and tell him to bring the Guardians to this world. We won't attack until the five of them are here, understood?"

"Yes," Rhouglar answered bluntly.

"Yes," Tharquin said too, albeit a part of him felt… uncomfortable. The scars on his back had started getting itchy again; the Wolf was surely to come too.

"Vathek… I need you here, taking care of everything;" Caleb told the blue Galhot.

"I'm not objecting," Vathek answered, munching over a chicken leg.

"I want you all ready in fifteen minutes, go!" the rebel leader said to his fellow members of the Small Council and the three of them parted in different directions. Caleb turned around several corner, to one of the parts of the Infinite City where he knew that Blunk had established his 'shop', for the lack of a better term. This situation was troublesome… Maybe it would be good to postpone their attack over Torus Filney a couple of weeks until they had their forces more wrapped and prepared. That operation wasn't one he wanted to risk failing. It was, after all, the first big operation he had planned without the Mage guiding him.

* * *

 ** _Northern quadrant of Meridian, hours later_**

"Seriously, can't we just have a normal afternoon?" Cornelia said as her friends and she flew across the skies of Meridian, the sun already preparing to disappear in the horizon. Blunk had localized Hay Lin in the Silver Dragon as soon as he had smelled a Portal, and as soon as the Air Guardian had been informed of the situation, she had called the others and Jade, and crossed to the other realm as soon as they could find a quick excuse for their families, now flying over as Blunk guided them from the ground. "Just when I was preparing for a beauty treatment…"

"Corny, saving people is more important than putting sliced cucumber over your eyes," Irma, who was carrying Jade in her arms as they flew, said to the blonde after approaching her, making the Earth Guardian to roll her eyes.

"I agree with Cornelia," Taranee said. "I know this is our duty, and all that, but I was just in the middle of finishing my project for science class."

"No one gets what she wants," Will said, a tad more abruptly than normally. "We need to get this done."

"Whoa, someone's in a grumpy mood;" Irma commented, making Will to close her eyes momentarily and let out a deep breath.

"Sorry," the redhead apologized. "But these last two days have been… ugh! It's my mom's entire fault!"

"How come?" Hay Lin asked the redhead.

"Because she apparently has the hots for our history teacher!" the redhead said in an angry flush.

"Really? Go Will's mom!" Hay Lin cheered until Will shot a glare towards her. "I mean… booooooo, Mr. Collins."

"How could my mom do that?" Will asked, her anger growing.

"Yeah, how does she have the nerve to date people?" Taranee asked sarcastically, earning another of Will's glares. However, it didn't have the same effect over the Fire Guardian as it did over the Air one.

"I think Will is right here," Jade intervened while concentrating into not falling from Irma's arms.

"Thank you, Jade;" Will said.

"I mean, have you seen your mom? Mr. Collins is so out of his league;" Jade commented, making any traces of Will's thankfulness towards her to be shattered.

"Let's focus into saving rebels," Will said as she saw how Blunk had located Caleb and the other rebels. The girls descended to the ground level and joined with them, Jade jumping out her friend's grip and shifting to her beast form.

"Guardians, finally;" Caleb told them as they approached.

"What's the situation?" Will asked of Caleb. "This is a zone we were not even a few weeks ago. Blunk told us that there was an ambush…"

"An ambush by scary Changelings," the Passling said. "Scary, scary… Blunk could be eaten! Passling meat very valued between Changelings."

"No one's going to eat you, buddy;" Hay Lin told the Passling, tranquilizing him.

"Aldarn and Drake were using one of the mines you helped us to liberate as a settlement when they were attacked by a band of five Shapeshifters," Caleb informed.

"The spider-girl?" Jade asked as she sat over the grass of the ground in her wolf form. Not many meters away, Alistair Tharquin directed a hateful glare towards Jade, albeit the girl didn't notice it.

"Among others," Caleb said. "I suppose that, after all that happened with that Shadowkhan Mask, Phobos must have put Wong to work without rest into creating new Shapeshifters."

"Are they as strong as the snake-guy?" Hay Lin asked.

"No," Caleb answered. "Maybe the Reptilian, but we think none of them are at Cedric's level… for now. They are still in the ravine, surely setting a trap for us. I don't know if they are expecting you or not, though."

"The best way we can go now is activating the trap," Will said. "Where are the prisoners?"

"According to the people that were able to get out, in cells sealed with spider-web," Caleb told the redhead.

"Okay… Taranee, you're with me, we'll open those cells and gave you a distraction; girls you take the rest of the Shapeshifters out along the rebels;" Will ordered her teammates.

"Got it!" Jade's enthusiast confirmation came from her mouth as they started to mobilize. However, as the girls took to the air again and Jade dashed ahead with the help of her animal speed; Caleb noted how Blunk was following them.

"What are you doing?" Caleb told the Passling.

"Blunk fight!" the green dwarf answered. "Blunk help, even if he is scared of scary Changelings!"

"No offense Blunk," Caleb said, trying to not sound patronizing. "But you will be safer if you stay here with Tharquin and help his men."

"But Blunk can fight!" the Passling protested.

"It's an order, Blunk;" Caleb said harshly, turning around and leaving.

Blunk was thus left behind, and he looked into the direction of Tharquin and his men, who were too busy setting up some kind of large crossbow. The Passling tried to approach them, but he was quickly stopped by the one that among the rebels was called Old Worm.

"What do you want?" Tharquin asked of the Passling.

"Uhm… Blunk wants to help rebels?"

Tharquin raised an eyebrow in a mixture of confusion and amusement. "You? Help?" the old knight let out a dry laugh. It seemed like a sound his throat wasn't accustomed to emit. "The only thing you could be good for, would be been bait for those sinful creatures," the man said, referring to the Shapeshifters. "Get out of the way, smuggler."

"Businessman… ouch!" Blunk protested when Tharquin kicked him in the gut. After that the Passling just looked around and, hurt, turned around and left for the Infinite City again. At least there were some people there that were nice to him. Perhaps he could find a Portal and visit Mr. Ludmoore? He was always kind to him… and the Passling was sure man of the strange eyes would like to hear about all this.

* * *

 ** _The ravine; the cells_**

Aldarn was starting to feel hungry. He didn't know if that was worse than feeling thirsty, which he also was. The Shapeshifters had built a small bonfire and were now sitting around it, talking. Well, four of them were. The fifth one, the black boy (albeit Aldarn suspected he wasn't much younger than himself) was distributing water and what seemed to be some kind of food among the prisoners. He supposed they weren't useful if they starved to death. After all, why else would a servant of Phobos be distributing food among prisoners?

"Hello," he heard at the entrance of the cell. Between the holes of the spider-web, Aldarn spotted Jordan, who had a wooden bucket in watch hand. "I know it's not much, but if you want water or some fruits…"

"Go away," Aldarn said as he clutched his stomach while sitting down and his back lying against the cold of the stone wall; in order to restrain the noises it produced. "I don't need your food, I bet is poisoned anyway."

"It's not," Jordan said. "Hey, there's no one that understands being hungry more than I do. Just take something to eat, c'mon man."

"I said," Aldarn said picking a rock from the ground and using the little strength he still had, he threw it into the cell's gate direction. "Go away!"

Jordan shook his head and decided to continue. _Jerk_ , he thought. _I'm just trying to help, if it was for Miranda or Tristan, you wouldn't be receiving anything, or maybe Simon would already killed you all_.

"You will have to forgive him," Drake, who was inside the next cell, told the black teen when he arrived at the gate full of spider-web. "Many of my companions don't hold the best of images about you; we are trying to kill each other, after all."

"Oh!" Jordan said, a bit surprised by the fact this was the first person that had actually spoken to him nicely. "I mean, sorry about that…" _Sorry, really? That's the thing you say?_

"It's not like you have killed any of my men," Drake said. "The lizard and the scorpion did that, if there is someone I should blame, it should be them." _Even if it's hard to blame the scorpion… if he is who I think he is_.

"Yes, Simon is not exactly right in the head;" Jordan admitted in a whisper as he glanced back at the bonfire. Simon hadn't shifted back to human form, instead maintaining the crocodile one as he rested near the fire. "And Tristan hates your guts like there's no tomorrow."

 _Yes, and I believe I know why_ ; Drake thought as he approached the gate. "So, what did you bring?"

Jordan got the two buckets near him. "It's not much, just some fruits and water I picked up."

"That's enough for me," Drake said, taking a fruit and sinking his palm in the bucket, taking water to his mouth across the holes in the web. Jordan threw another couple of fruits at him.

"Don't worry, many of the others just yelled at me when I came," Jordan said. "There's pretty much fruit in spare."

"I'm not complaining," Drake said as he munched on the fruit. It was still a bit green, but in this time of the year, fruits like these should be mature enough. That combined with the clothing… "You are from Earth; aren't you, boy?"

Jordan looked at him with a mix of emotions in his eyes. Nostalgia, anger, shame… and fear. Fear over all other, the fear of not being able to recuperate something that had been lost. "Yes," the teen answered slowly.

"I thought so," Drake said while finishing the first piece of fruit. "Wong, the wizard;" Drake specified due to the possibility of Jordan not knowing what the Archmage's real name was. "Did he kidnap you?"

"No," Jordan answered in sincerity. "He... came to me, located me in the streets. He told me that magic was real, that I had been chosen... and that he could gave me freedom. He got me with that last one."

 _Freedom_ , Drake thought. _Yes, that's an ideal I can relate to_.

"He then injected me with this thing," Jordan continued his explanation; "fire in my veins. And then he took me here, to this new world and told me that, until I completed my part of the deal, I'd be here; Trapped in this Meridian. He told me that this world was at war, that there were rebels out there that I was supposed to... _kill_. But I never wanted to do that. I never wanted to do," Jordan said, looking at the cells, her hands trembling and making the buckets to do so too; " _this_. I just wanted to be free."

 _He doesn't even know how this war is played, does he?_ Drake thought with compassion. "You could go away," the rebel said. "You can fly, I saw you."

"I do," Jordan admitted. "But if I fly away, then where I should go? This is not my world."

"But you could wait or search for a Portal..." Drake explained, just to get a strange look from Jordan. "You know what a Portal is, right?"

"The old man told me..." Jordan said, a bit scared; "told me that those had to be opened by him. I was unconscious when he brought me here."

"I heard that there are ways of opening Portals, but only very experienced or immensely powerful sorcerers can do that, and they need to usually use a trinket;" Drake explained. "Normally, holes in the Veil open naturally."

"I... I can go back?" Jordan asked, perplexed. "But the others won't let me. Roberta will catch me, she's faster, and smarter..."

"Listen boy, you should go back immediately," Drake told him. "Because my other friends are coming and they are going to bring dangerous people. And some of them hate anyone with the ability to do what you do."

"And you don't?" Jordan asked.

"Before being a rebel, I was training to be a guard;" Drake explained. "Lothar, the man now in command of said guards, was something I would call a friend. Then my mother, who I hadn't seen in more than a year, was discovered helping the rebels to evade the forces of the Prince;" Drake's hands were the ones to tremble now. "I rushed to her side, hoping to find a way for her to not be sentenced. But a man, a Shapeshifter named Cedric got to her first, and killed her in front of me and a dozen of the men accompanying him. But sometimes I think that, if my mother hadn't been caught... I would probably be out of this cell, in the Capital, commanding guards and trying to kill the people I call friends now. The only reason I'm on this side, is due to an unexpected turn of events, in the same way you are on that side. And so, I'm smart enough to put two and two together and know not to put the rotten, half-rotten and good apples all in the same sack. Speaking of apples, these are pretty good," he concluded, spitting the seeds.

Jordan looked at Drake, then at the floor. "Thank you," the teenager said; "for telling me this."

"Don't thank me," Drake said. "Just escape, because if I get out of this cell and I have to kill you, then I will kill you. Mark my words, this is a war and even if gentle, I'm not a good person. The knowledge of the guards having families hasn't stopped my hand before, because otherwise I would be the dead one. So escape, vulture of Earth. Escape and live."

* * *

 ** _Minutes later_**

Jordan had resumed his place around the bonfire, with the other Shapeshifters in there sharing some words, mostly their stories; although Simon was the one that was mainly speaking.

"So, I worked with Travis since I was ten," the crocodile Shapeshifter said. "And then he got me in some trouble, and as always, I had to get out with punches. And man, I was growing tired of that. Not of the punching, but yes of working with Travis, he's an asshole! So, the Wong-hag came I and offered me this job," he said gripping his right claw; "And I accepted, of course I did! I mean, look at me! I'm like, super-strong! I bet I could get your whole band down now, eh Roberta?" he said, elbowing the shorts wearing girl, who looked at him for around fifteen seconds and then simply looked at the fire again. "Oh, yeah;" Simon said; "you don't speak."

"You knew each other before this?" Jordan asked.

"Yep. Heatherfield's pretty small, and the gangs in it are even smaller. Travis and I did jobs for the gang Roberta belonged to once in a while… and I also fought with them a couple of times. And now here we're, being teammates."

 _I wouldn't call this a team_ , Miranda thought. Oh, this was getting really tedious. Phobos had deployed them here in order to retake this meaningless mine, Wong had agreed in order to test his new creations in the field, and she had agreed in order to basically kill time. Tristan wanted to kill rebels; Simon was basically an even more violent Frost with the ability to turn into a large Reptilian, Roberta… Roberta was actually the only one of the bunch that could be considered dangerous in the same way that Cedric was. Never speaking, letting any emotion to be seen in her face or a thought to be read in her eyes. She didn't even smile or frown. And yet there it was, the spark of intelligence, of cunning… something was going on inside that head of hers. Something that no other could hear or see; just like Cedric. Miranda missed Cedric. Maybe she could go and use that intersection point at the palace's library in order to pay him a visit?

The quintet of Shapeshifters was so focused either on their own thoughts or in Simon's never-ending verbiage; that they completely missed the two lonely figures flying across the sky and landing just in front of the cells containing the prisoners. Aldarn looked up expecting another of the enemies coming to taunt him again, yet he was met by Will and Taranee.

"Guardians!" Aldarn called in rising hope, but Will put a finger over her lips, indicating that he shouldn't use such a tone of voice. Right, still in enemy territory. "What are you…?"

"The others should be here any moment," Will said. "Taranee, when you are ready. Make the signal."

The Fire Guardian nodded, and then she focused her attention in the bonfire the Shapeshifters were sitting at. She concentrated, extending her arms towards it. _Concentrate, concentrate…_ she thought as she closed her eyes, remembering Tohru's lessons. _Magic can be used in many ways… Now, UP!_

All Shapeshifters except of Roberta shouted and jumped back in surprise as the bonfire they were around had shot towards the sky in the form of a powerful pillar of pure fire. Except for Simon, who already was transformed, all of them shifted to their bestial forms.

 _Finally, the main event_ ; Miranda thought. "It's the Guardians! Everyone on guard, they should be around here!"

"Oh, we're here spider-girl!" Irma's voice came from above. "The question, will you see us if I do this?" she said as she shot a torrent of water from her hands towards the fire pillar, creating an enormous curtain of smoke as a result, blinding the enemy and making them cough.

Both Jordan and Roberta shot towards the sky then, but as soon as they were up, a rain of arrows shot towards them courtesy of Tharquin and his men, forcing both Aviary Shapeshifters to reenter the ravine, and try to dissipate the smoke with their wings. Hay Lin beat them to it, though; as she charged a powerful stream of wind and shot it towards them, not only dissipating the smoke, but also destabilizing them, making them crash against the ground due to air pressure. Once the smoke cleared, the Shapeshifters found themselves surrounded not only by three Guardians, but also by numerous rebel soldiers, led by both Rhouglar and Caleb.

"Attack!" the rebel leader ordered, and with a battle cry, Rhouglar and the rest of the men charged against the group of five enemies, much to Simon and surprisingly Tristan's joy.

 _That's the rebel leader!_ , Tristan thought. _That's him! That's him! That's him!_

The scorpion ignored the men around him and rushed to meet Caleb's blade with his stinger. Simon was the one to meet with Rhouglar and the other rebels, cheerfully flipping his tail and hitting sending some of them flying. However, in a total opposition of how the rebels he had previously fought; these ones didn't show any fear. His eyes met with Rhouglar's for a moment, the muscular Galhot standing just in front of him with a large axe in hand, sporting a smirk from ear to ear.

"Attack without fear!" the Galhot yelled and he and his men rushed towards the crocodile. Simon's scales did much of the job of stopping the attacks, but he failed to notice how, just in the moment he was preparing to shred them with his claws, vines shot from the ground, enveloping his arms, legs and tail and restraining him.

"What the hell?!" Simon shouted. Wong had warned them all about the Guardians, about the strength they possessed and the magic they wielded; but he could tear stone apart as if it was butter now!

"Ah, big scary crocodile can't fight a bunch of plants?" Cornelia taunted as she floated over him. "What about some rocks?" the blonde said as she used her powers to detach a large rock from a nearby formation and threw it towards Simon, who could do nothing more than gulp as the large rock came towards him and hit him in the face, sending him flying this time. She repeated the process a couple of times, and soon Simon was on his knees, panting and hurt to the extreme. His Reptilian quick regeneration kicked in, but it wasn't fast enough to let him rejoin the fight automatically.

"You idiots!" Miranda yelled as she saw Simon's condition, how Tristan was in the middle of a exchange of blows with Caleb, and how Roberta and Jordan were now in the middle of an aerial fight with Hay Lin and Irma. "Form a combat formation just like we…"

"Who's the biggest idiot? The idiot or the one that leads a team of them?" Miranda heard behind her. Turning around slowly, her four clue eyes were met with a pair of a potent gold color; Jade standing a few meters away from her in her wolf form.

 _Blast!_ , Miranda cursed internally.

"SURPRISE!" Jade said, paraphrasing Miranda when they had both met for the first time. She then charged against the spider, imbuing her body in white chi as she did so, and once her body collided with the spider's she send Miranda flying and clashing against a wall of the ravine, which she cracked, letting out a shrill of pain and reverting back to her human for. While still conscious, Jade could see from a distance that blood was dripping from Miranda's mouth. The blue eyed girl spat the red liquid in the ground and eyed the wolf with hatred in her eyes.

Jade prepared for another round, but up in the cells Miranda saw how Will and Taranee had burned her silk and started freeing the prisoners. Miranda looked around,; Simon was back on his feet, struggling with Cornelia's attacks, and the two birds continued with their fight against the two Guardians in the air. Tristan had maimed and defeated many rebels, but he was having trouble against an experienced fighter like the rebel leader. This battle was lost. "FALL BACK!" she yelled.

Hearing their commander's words; Roberta descended to the ground and shifted back to her human form. Tristan, albeit angrily; delivered a powerful blow towards Caleb with his stinger, that the rebel leader blocked with the blade of his sword; albeit it send him a few meters back.

"This doesn't end here, rebel!" Tristan said as he shifted back and ran towards Miranda. "Carhaiz remembers!"

"I said, fall back!" Miranda yelled again as Tristan and Simon, still in her crocodile form and serving as a last line against the rebel soldiers, joined with her and Roberta. Her yell was directed at Tristan, who was still in his vulture form and flying over the battle. Hay Lin and Irma had stopped attacking him, instead going down and deciding to form with the rebels around the Shapeshifters.

But Jordan, now seeing his way free of any obstacle directed a glance towards the four people that were supposed to be his companions. "No," he said. And then, using every bit of strength he had in his body, he flew out of the ravine and towards the horizon.

One of Tharquin's men spotted him and prepared the large crossbow to be shot. However, he noticed a strong grip in his shoulder, and Tharquin whispered in his ear. "Not here, not now. Take a horse, follow him; I will follow your trail when this has ended. Bring him down with the poisoned arrows."

Back in the ravine, the four remaining Shapeshifters had been completely surrounded by the Guardians and the rebels. Miranda's eyes changed frenetically between looking at them and looking at the spot the coward vulture had been moments ago.

"Surrender!" Caleb ordered as he pointed his sword at them. Around him the Guardians stood, each with their respective element between their hands, except for the Keeper. Behind them, Rhouglar and Jade waited for Caleb to give them the order to attack, and so did the rest of the rebels.

Miranda's hand slipped inside her pocket, gripping the small flask inside. She took it out and looked directly at her numerous enemies. "This won't be as easier as it is next time."

Before Caleb had time to say that there wasn't going to be a next time and order his men to seize them, Miranda threw the flask down; and a cloud of purple smoke enveloped her and the other Shapeshifters, and when it dissipated it was already gone.

"What?!" Caleb said.

"That's Wong's thing," Taranee said. "He did it once when Jade kicked his and Cedric's butts."

"The Archmage must have given them a means of teleporting away," Caleb stated. "We lost them."

"Buuuuuut," Will broke in in order to soften the boy's mood. "We won."

"Yes," Caleb said, rising his sword in triumph. "Victory!"

Cheers erupted from the soldiers; not every day one faced a group of five Shapeshifters and lived to tell another day. The celebration was short-lived though, as the rebels quickly turned their attention to the injured. The Guardians and Jade, wanting to collaborate, helped them to patch the people that were still alive. So this was what Phobos really was capable of, attacking people with a force so superior to them and killing indiscriminately? If some of them had still any doubts of being in the right side of the war, then they had been obliterated by now. After a while, Caleb told them that they could go home, that the rebels would handle the injured on their own. The girls retorted that they wanted to help, but Caleb told them that they had lives back in Earth, and that they had done enough. After that the six girls left in search of a Portal.

"Caleb!" Aldarn called for his leader, and the son of Julian saw both him and Drake approaching him. "How did it go? I'm so ashamed of not had been able to help…"

"You two were imprisoned," Caleb said. "I think that's an excuse good enough for not fighting."

"True," Drake said then, not hiding a smile. "How many casualties, aside of the ones that…'"

"Excepting the ones those monsters killed in the first attack," Caleb informed. "Not many, actually; mainly injured. The Shapeshifters left without a casualty. Four of them escaped using one of Wong's spells, I believe."

"Bastards…" Aldarn said through teeth gritted in hate.

"Wait, four?" Drake said. "What happened with the fifth one."

"The vulture left them," Caleb told him, and for the smallest of seconds Drake's expression lightened. "He flew and evaded Tharquin's squad. I don't know what happened to him after that."

Drake hide a pleased smile the best way he could. The three men started to walk and help the injured, and as they did so; Caleb's mind travelled for a moment to the last words the scorpion had directed to him before disappearing. Carhaiz… that had been the place he had lost his father in. And yet the scorpion had said that Carhaiz remembered. His mind travelled back to that confrontation with Raythor in the Abyss of Shadows, and the shocked expression of the former Captain over the mention of the place. Why had Raythor sounded so surprised over his explanation? Why had that boy yelled at him with so much hatred?

What happened in Carhaiz?

* * *

Alistair Tharquin wasn't a man that liked the wild. Woods, sea, sand… not, he wasn't a man fond of them. He had been birthed and raised into houses of stone, his first steps had been given over floors of stone and he had grown as a man while over stone. The palace, the barracks where he had received training as a young man… all of them were stone. He felt comfortable in the Infinite City, in opposition to many of his fellow rebels, because it was a place of pure stone. The wild was judged by him as something impure, chaotic and unpredictable. Many beautiful flowers could be poisonous, the sea treacherous… the woods deceiving. He was a man of stone, and thus he had hardened his heart and spirit when he was Captain of the Guard under Queen Weira; just like the teachings of the Light of Meridian indicated. ' _Be faithful and sincere to your land and your Queen, to the Light of Meridian_ ', ' _Protect the land and the Light from the sinner_ '; those teachings said among other things. That was the reason he preferred the stone over the wild. The wild was forever changing, unstable. The stone was the firm and sincere material, but only when carefully crafted by the ones that knew how to. That was the reason why, for Alistair Tharquin, humans were superior to any other species, especially Shapeshifters. The Changelings, as their many names indicated; were creatures of deception, the beauty of their human form in contrast with the bestial ones was proof of that. How could his dreamed humanity of stone and true faith flourish if such beings existed? How could humanity grow in Meridian if the Prince had taken their Light and called the Changelings to their side? And how could the Rebellion be any better if they had one of those abominations fighting on their side? Blasphemous, heretical! He was a pious meridianite, he had always been! His hand shot towards his back as the scars started to be itchy again…

"Sir?" he heard the voice of one of his soldiers, one of the followers, of the true soldiers for the Light, called for him; taking him out of his thoughts.

"Yes, it's me;" Tharquin said as he approached him. His faithful was there as he had instructed, with a horse and bow and arrows. "Did you bring him down?"

"He shifted back to human form once he hit the ground," the fellow rebel explained. "He hasn't been able to shift back."

"Good," Tharquin said. "Did you bring my sword?"

"Here it is, sir;" the man answered, handling Tharquin a large, sheathed double edged sword. Unsheathing it the Old Worm inspected the weapon, its end curved instead of sharp, but he was sure that the edges could cut through the thickest of trees.

"Return with the others and if Caleb wonders where I am, tell him I'm scouting the zone searching for spies that could be around in order to follow us," Tharquin instructed him. "Leave the horse here, I will need it."

"Yes sir," the man answered, a bit disappointed but unsurprised that he had to return walking.

Tharquin, meanwhile, continued walking for a while until he reached a clearing in the woods, where Jordan had been left, neck chained to a nearby tree and arms and torso with several arrows nailed in them, a result of Tharquin's man aiming for the vulture's torso and wings. He seemed to be in pain, as evidenced by the tears that were rolling down his eyes. The poison was making its job, making sure that he couldn't transform.

His expression of sadness became one of fear when he saw the Old Worm approaching with the enormous sword ready to strike him. "No… you're a rebel right? I'm sorry… I didn't want to hurt you… please, oh please! I've a family!" _Please… I want to see them again… Please, this isn't my fight…_

Tharquin didn't say a word. He didn't make any proclamation, or let the words of the young Shapeshifter to evolve to something that wasn't pleading. He raised his sword over Jordan's neck… and strongly delivered a descending blow. The boy didn't even have time to scream as his head was detached from his shoulders, fell and rolled over the ground. No pleasure, no laughs; just the duty of a pious meridianite, a man that had been raised since birth to be a faithful follower of their beliefs. Ruthless, implacable. That was the type of person Alistair Tharquin was. Truly, a man of stone.

* * *

 ** _Across the Veil; Ye Olde Book Shop_**

While the girls were fighting Shapeshifters in Meridian, another girl, Elyon Brown; had been helping (albeit without knowing it) another Shapeshifter in the bookstore that he owned.

Ye Olde Book Shop had turned out, much to Cedric's surprise, into being quite popular. If the customers had turned out to be women like the Guardians, the wolf girl or the (potential) Princess, he could have understood, due to his human form's beauty. But as he had pleasantly discovered, this city's inhabitants had yet to lose the pleasure of reading words over paper. He supposed that had to be one of the last things enjoyable things about Heatherfield.

"Mr. Hoffman, where do I put these ones?" Elyon asked him while carrying a bunch of exemplars of 'Fifty Shades of Grey'. Ugh, note to self; even if Heatherfield still appreciated the written word, some people were accustomed to the worst aspect of it. Had those fools never heard of _good_ erotic novels? Had they never taken time to dwell into Greek literature?

"Oh, leave them there," Cedric said, indicating to the lowest part of a bookshelf near the girl, where she proceeded quickly and dutifully to put the books. "Thank you for everything, Elyon. But are you sure you should spend so much time here? It's already closing time and there aren't more customers. I could do it myself."

"Oh, don't worry Mr. Hoffman;" Elyon told him as she put book after book in the shelf. "My parents have no problems with me arriving just in time for dinner, and they're very happy with me getting a job here. I was planning expending some time with my friends, but I texted them and no one answered. I know Alchemy was in her violin classes, but the rest..." For a fraction of a second, Cedric could see a small shadow crossing over the girl's face. Doubts, fears, maybe simple lack of confidence? Or perhaps something that ran deeper? Anyway, it was a weakness, and weaknesses were exploitable. Anyway, first Cedric needed a confirmation about her being what he was supposed to find here.

"They are probably busy, Elyon;" Cedric told her. "And I told you to drop the 'Mr. Hoffman'; you can call me Rick."

Elyon's cheeks blushed for a brief moment. "Alright... Rick. But it's true, they must be busy. There, this is done;" Elyon said as she put the last book in its place. Anything else?"

"See those tomes in the Science Fiction section?" Cedric said, pointing to the last level of a bookshelf. "Can you pick the one titled 'Ubik', please?"

"Of course!" Elyon said with a smile. She walked to the shelf, and picking a ladder, she climbed and took the book. Once with one of Philip K. Dick's numerous masterpieces in hands, the girl descended down the ladder.

And Cedric made his move. Concentrating, he called upon one of the few spells he was able to cast, a simple telekinesis incantation. Not that he had anything against magic users, his brother was one and so had been his father, but he had always preferred to fight hand to hand. Anyway, some basics spells were always useful, especially for these situations. And so, as Elyon pulled the ladder away, Cedric used the simple spell and the bookshelf shook under its influence, starting to come down towards the girl.

"Elyon, careful!" Cedric shouted, faking fear and concern, and the girl in purple clothes turned around just in time to see the bookshelf falling towards her. What followed made the animal instincts inside of Cedric to go crazy.

As the bookshelf fell over, the girl did what any normal girl would: scream. Yet what she did after wasn't something proper of any normal girl. It was small at first, a white bluish glow in the eyes. Then the glow expanded from the eyes to the mouth, the face, hands... and finally her whole body. Time seemed to stop, and a millisecond felt like an hour as a scream which sound couldn't be heard in the material plane escaped Elyon's mouth, and the bookshelf was thrown back with a push that seemed to distort the space itself between the girl and the furniture piece.

The shelf fell in the opposite direction it was supposed to, and Elyon ceased to glow; falling back without any energy left in her body. She would have hit the floor had Cedric not been there to catch her in midair. When her eyes met his, she looked disoriented and tired.

"Elyon!" Cedric said as she clutched the girl between his hands. "Elyon, can you hear me?"

"Uhg... What... what happened?" the girl asked in confusion.

"The damn bookshelf fell," Cedric explained, helping Elyon to incorporate. "It's a miracle it didn't fell over you. Are you alright? Are you hurt?"

"I'm alright..." Elyon answered, tumbling a bit over her feet. "Just a bit dizzy..."

"I think you should go home and rest," Cedric told her, putting both his hands over her shoulders and guiding her to the door.

"Y-yes..." Elyon said, opening the door by herself. "Thank you, Rick."

"It's nothing," Cedric said as Elyon left the bookstore and disappeared out of sight after a few seconds of walking. Then he put the 'Closed' sing over the door and head to the back of the shop, where the orb he used in order to communicate with Phobos was. He took a small amount of sand and repeated the process, activating the trinket. Phobos didn't last long until appearing.

"Cedric," the Prince said, and it was clear in his voice that he was angry. "I hope that you call bearing good news."

"Yes, my liege;" Cedric said, kneeling down. "Has… something happened?"

"Another of Wong's failures," Phobos declared. "I'm starting to consider if that wizard is not more of a liability than an advantage…"

 _Keep thinking like that_ , Cedric thought; _and maybe Wong will like to be my family's wizard instead of yours_. "You shouldn't worry about those details, my liege. Soon you won't need to worry about rebels or Guardians, for I have found your sister."

Phobos' expression changed from one of anger to surprise, and finally to pure glee. "Are you certain of this, Lord Cedric?"

"I have witnessed the power of the Heart of Meridian firsthand, my Prince;" Cedric explained. "Her name here in Earth is Elyon Brown. Her powers have yet to manifest fully, it seems." Else my bookstore would be a bunch of ashes.

"Splendid, Lord Cedric;" Phobos declared. "Now, you must focus in isolate her and bring her to Meridian willingly."

"Oh, don't worry about that, my liege;" Cedric answered with a calm smile. "I won't have any problem with that, not as long as the Guardians stay away from here due to their presence in Meridian." _After all, I'm a Ludmoore, and if I there is a passion that equals the one we have for literature; that is deception._

* * *

 ** _Lair residence_**

"Hey dad," Irma greeted her father, Tom Lair, as she entered her home and headed to the kitchen. There was Tom, still in his police suit, his eyes inside a bunch of paperwork. He usually did that in the kitchen, where he could get himself a sandwich if he grew tired. Irma looked around and saw no proof of anyone else being at home. "Mom and Chris aren't here?"

"Hello Irma," Tom greeted her. "Anna and your brother are out."

"Right, right..." Irma said, approaching the fridge and getting herself a bottle of milk that she proceeded to drink entirely, earning herself a quirked eyebrow from her father. "I know, I know. 'Drink from a glass'; sorry dad."

"It's nothing," Tom said, waving his hand and letting the matter go. "Tough day, eh?"

"Just a veeeery long one dad, nothing out of the ordinary;" Irma said. She was tired, that was true. Fighting those creeps in Meridian had turned out to be tiresome to the extreme. It was easy to handle while being a Guardian, but once back in human form the body really showed how much strain they put in them during their fights. At least this victory had been much more straight than the one against that Japanese Boogeyman. In that one, they had won thanks to the zombie and those butterflies. Here they had won because of their strength. It felt... really good, actually. "How're you doing?"

"It... has been a tough day for me too;" Tom confessed, rubbing his neck. He then decided that it had been enough time dedicated to work. "Hey, tell you what. Do you want to make some vanilla smoothies and watch TV with your old man?"

Irma stretched herself, letting put a long moan. "You know what? That sounds awesome right now."

"Then you should go to the pantry and take some milk," Tom told her, smirking; "since you drank the whole bottle just now."

"Hey, I was thirsty;" Irma said as she walked out of the kitchen.

Tom proceeded to organize his paperwork then, deciding that it was for the best to finish his work for today. He shook his head one last time at the cases he had been given that day. A homeless teen named Jordan the police had been searching for in his parents' behalf, who apparently were worried beyond belief. A couple of his agents had picked a trail of the kid, and then he had simply disappeared, banished in thin air. Even worse, that very same morning they had received a delivery in front of the door of the police department, a man that was a known petty thief in Heatherfield. He was alive, but so beaten up that they had to send him to a hospital, where he had been put in an induced coma. They had found him with a small note saying 'Scum ready to be thrown in the dumpster'. Tom let out a long breath; this was exactly the last thing that he needed now, people taking justice in their own hands. Which direction was his Heatherfield taking?

* * *

"He is insane, Captain Black;" Jackie said as he spoke with his old friend on the phone while on Heatherfield's streets. These had been such long days… Uncle and Tohru had left for Japan, and Jade had been busy helping the girls with their missions again. And he? He had been forced to spend those entire two days with Quentin Ross, the man being so damn paranoid that he had forced Jackie to make routes of at least one two hours before meeting for real.

"Jackie..." Augustus Black's voice came from the phone. "I know that Quentin has his... eccentricities, but he's a man that gets the job done."

"He tortured a man!" Jackie said in the phone. "And you gave him four Talismans! Why?!"

"Jackie, in this job of mine you have to learn that sometimes, when there's an enemy as the Dark Hand to bring down, you have to share your bed with strange companions," Black told him across the phone. "And those strange companions can turn out to be people as pleasant as you, or people like... like Ross."

"Who is he?" Jackie asked. In the phone he heard Black sighing tiredly.

"We picked him in New York," Black explained. "He was operating there as a private detective, nothing very loud. Or so it seemed in the surface. He was using that as an alibi, and he dedicated himself to do a one man crusade against crime. He was... pretty successful. That's why we picked him up. I don't like the man, and sincerely almost no one in Section 13 does."

"Then why...?" Jackie asked, but Black, knowing what his friend was going to ask, answered before the archeologist could formulate the entire question.

"Because you are soft, Jackie;" Black answered. "Don't get me wrong, I like that about you and I want to see Chang and his peers in prison, not in the morgue. But this isn't Valmont we are talking about. Chang is not a man risking everything for getting in the good side of a dragon so he can be rich in a world burned to ashes. Chang is someone that uses everything in his hands to win, and that includes magic. Forgive me if I use everything at hand too."

"Alright..." Jackie answered, not very convinced. "But you promise me that he will restrain himself?"

"In the moment he gives you problems, you give me a call, and I take him out;" Black assured him. "Anyway, for all the problems you have with him, you agreed to his idea."

"That's because it is a good idea," Jackie told him. "Ross has explained to me what I need to do and that is better to not maintain direct contact. I suppose this is the last call I give you in a while then."

"Yes," Black answered. "Good luck, old friend."

"Thank you," Jackie answered, and as soon as Black hanged the phone, he threw it in the nearby trash can.

Walking a few more minutes he arrived to his destination, the building that Bartholomew Chang used as headquarters. He entered with determination and asked to the receptionist if he could see Chang. Even if she gave some excuses at first, she agreed to let him pass once he told her to tell Chang that he was Jackie Chan. Once inside he noted how the elevator still had the marks from Harold's hit days ago. And speaking of Harold, he was there too along with Chang, discussing over some papers. Both men looked up upon hearing him enter and a smile that would put the Devil's to shame formed over Chang's lips.

"Mr. Chan," he said politely, even if Jackie knew it was a faked emotion. "Glad to see you again. Have you given some thoughts to my proposition?"

Jackie folded his arms. "What are your conditions?"

"Simple," Chang answered, rising from his seat. "You are going to start working for me. You can continue with your work in archeology, you can continue with taking out demons and the like, but if I tell you to don't do it, or if I'm the one that needs your assistance... then you will provide it. No questions, no objections; and everyone gets what he wants. Deal?" he said, extending his jade hand.

And there it was the decision that would probably turn Jackie's world even more upside down than it already was. The green, inanimate hand was waiting for him. It meant for him to enter a world he had never wanted to be a part of, even more than the one of magic. Jackie Chan was a man with a code, a strong code. Yet coming to Heatherfield and the reveal of Meridian's existence had ripped another veil around the world, and behind it a horde of people and choices he would never had thought of existing had appeared. He thought about those photographs of his niece one last time. No Dark Hand meant no photos, and a safe family. He extended his own hand and shook Chang's.

"Deal."

* * *

 _My mom usually tells me: Honey, life's like a stampede. No matter how much you think things are going according to the plan, the most likely is for something totally unexpected and unstoppable to come out and completely roll over you_.  Irma Lair

* * *

 **Author Notes: This chapter… I don't how exactly feel with this chapter. I was planning to finish it and publish it on Tuesday, but then I got a family emergency. So here we are taking another step in the story, on Saturday. As said before, I hope the people that didn't read chapter ten did read it before this one. Also, hope that you enjoyed this chapter and the twists I'm adding.**

 **On another note, Quentin Ross is an Expy or Rorschach, from Alan Moore's fantastic work 'Watchmen'. His first name is based on The Question, from DC comics, but Rorschach was based on him, so… I suppose it has come full circle.**

 **That battle with Miranda and the other Shapeshifters in the ravine is supposed to mirror the one that the Guardians and Caleb had with the Knights of Vengeance in B is for Betrayal, and the reason I did it so early is because, in the moment my adaptation of season two comes, a lot of things are going to play differently. For starters, the Knights of Vengeance are going to have new members added, and some others are not going to be among them.**

 **I must admit, I'm actually pretty proud of how this story is turning out to be. Anyway, next chapter won't be this long, since it will be mostly dedicated to lore, relationships and a couple of surprises, with just a pair of action scenes… and then we are going to Torus Filney, where I'm planning on dropping a lot of bombs.**

 **Hope everyone is enjoying how I'm handling things, and please leave a review to tell me your impressions. Bye, bye!**


	9. Chaotic Magical Rumble

**Disclaimer: I own neither the WITCH cartoon-show nor Jackie Chan Adventures; they are the property of their respective creators, writers, and producers.**

 **Author's Notes: It seems that I'm concentrating in this story more than in my other ones, but to be fair this is due to a serious writer's block I'm having with them, among other things. This chapter is another step before the chapters of Torus Filney, dedicated to build things even more and actually having just a couple of action scenes, even if big ones. Having said that, many thanks to all the reviewers that take their time to read this and leave their opinions, follow this story and/or favorite it. Enjoy your read and please, leave a review.**

* * *

Guardians, Wizards and Kung-Fu Fighters

Episode Nine

Chaotic Magical Rumble

* * *

 ** _Japan_**

Tohru had to admit that he had missed his motherland. He had missed the bustling yet organized streets of Tokyo, the smell in the air, the sounds that the wind made and that sounded different to his ears than the ones of San Francisco, Heatherfield or any other American city. He had left way too many years ago, when he was much younger, seduced by the promises of a good life for him and his mother that cruel men had proposed to him. The sumo had started doing simple things, usually serving as muscle for some robberies, protecting the above-average thug as a bodyguard… then Finn showed up one day, the Irish-American man telling him that the 'Big Shot' wanted to see him. And so Tohru entered into Valmont's service. The first months were actually way better than the rest of the time Tohru had spent immersed in the criminal underworld of America. Then came the jobs that he and the enforcers had to do for Valmont in person. Tohru hated himself both for the fact he had carried out those orders, and because he hadn't been able to protest. So many years in the service of the Dark hand had made him to grow cynical, and to accept his fate as if the only way out was prison. Then Jackie, Jade and Sensei had come tumbling upon his life and had given him a second chance. And he loved each one of them for that; he loved them as if they had been his family since the moment he gave his first steps.

His mother, however, was a completely different story. At each moment the mountain of a man looked behind, he spotted the thin old Chinese man that his teacher was in constant debate with a short, overweight Japanese woman of advanced age, albeit not as old as Uncle. Dressed in a maroon coat over a white shirt, a maroon dress, and black shoes; the Japanese woman had black hair which she wore tied in a topknot, and possessed facial features that clearly proved her family relation to Tohru, only complemented by a small mole under her left eye. This was his mother, the woman who gave birth and raised him; the woman he had called after spending several days in Japan without finding anything related to the Oni or those Masks. As it turned out, his mother had a contact with a woman in Tokyo that seemed to be an expert in Japanese folklore and legends.

"We don't need legends!" Uncle yelled, moving his arms up and down incredibly fast. "We need facts, formulas! And we are wasting too much time! Uncle knew that following apprentice's mother was a bad idea!"

"And I told the talking goat to stop complaining and to walk faster!" Tohru's mother yelled back.

"Uncle's not a goat!" the other elder retorted.

"Oh, I think he is a goat," the short Japanese woman said mockingly. "He is an old, angry goat that talks and owns nothing but an overrated shop!"

Uncle's eyes widened in anger as he had felt that his beloved antique shop had been insulted. "Apprentice! Tell your mother to take back what she saaaaaid about Uncle's shop!"

"I'm not taking it back, goat!" the woman shot back. "I will never understand how my son has been able to tolerate you this long, magic or not!"

Tohru shook his head in exasperation. Yes, of course he had told his mother about magic, his apprenticeship with Uncle and the Dark Hand; hiding those facts anymore would have been pointless. Surprisingly (or maybe unsurprisingly), his mother had been way angrier at him for the fact that he hadn't told him right away than for the fact itself. Not confused, not shocked... a couple of simple spells and a couple of tales were enough to convince her. Rough as she was, the sumo knew his mother was a kind and understandable soul.

"Mrs. Higashikata!" Tohru heard his mother's surname being called ahead, trying to not let the discussion behind him to get on his nerves.

At the entrance of a small restaurant, he saw a Japanese pale woman in his late twenties with wavy black hair falling over her shoulders and dressed in a pair of light blue jeans and a simple T-shirt of an orange tone. Accompanying her was a tall, slim blond man with dark skin and deep green eyes, his hair falling; dressed in a pair of black pants and a formal shirt; carrying a brown leathery briefcase in his right hand. He was clearly not Japanese, yet Tohru couldn't exactly discern from where he was. Middle-eastern, maybe? He couldn't be sure, as he couldn't figure his exact age either, even if he looked to be around his companion's age. There was something about the man that bugged him. No willies, so no danger; but there was something... mysterious.

"Finally! Decent bystanders!" Tohru's mother said. "Hello Mariko. Son, this is the daughter of my good friend Foreman Takeda: Mariko Takeda," she said while signaling the young woman, "and her fiancé," the short woman said, pointing to the man; "Liam."

"Good morning," the young man said politely.

"Hello!" Mariko said happily. "So, Mrs. Higashikata told me you were interested in something concerning the legends of the Oni..."

"Yes!" Uncle said, eager to get to the matter, advancing quickly towards Mariko, putting his hands over her shoulders and shaking her. "Anything regarding them, eeeeverything!"

"Sensei!" Tohru called for the elder, stopping him before he made the young woman puke. "I'm sorry," the sumo apologized; "he is just... too much of a lover of the subject."

"So am I," Liam said with a warm smile. "I'm actually quite thrilled to discuss this theme with you."

Tohru and Uncle stopped their movements and focused in the man in front of them. "You are the expert?" the sumo asked in a puzzled tone.

"Well, yes;" Liam answered.

"Then..." Uncle said, while his and Tohru's faces looked towards Mariko.

"Oh, I'm a doctor," Mariko answered. "Just like my dad... that's how I met Mrs. Higashikata. I helped her getting rid of a virus by using applications of my father's theories... Why don't we talk while having lunch?" Mariko said, noting how awkward the situation was getting.

"Excellent idea!" Tohru's mother sentenced, heading inside the restaurant. "Today's menu is in the goat!"

"Everyone's but yours!" Uncle retorted in a yell.

"Ha! So you admit being a goat!" the short Japanese woman said, while Uncle yelled something in Cantonese and Mariko contained a snort.

Liam gestured towards the entrance. "After you," he told Tohru. The sumo headed inside while rubbing his temples. This was going to be long...

* * *

Thankfully, lunch had turned out to be quite pleasant. Aside from the time-to-time bickering between his mother and his sensei, Tohru had been able to enjoy the conversation they had with the young couple. Mariko had turned out to be a cheerful and kind young woman, while Liam was very calm in comparison, a man of few words in Tohru's eyes.

Mariko had met his mother due to some rare disease that the old woman had contracted almost a year ago. Mariko, a talented and successful doctor thanks to the applications of her father's theories on cryogenics to medicine; had come to her help, curing her in no time.

Liam, in the other hand, had met Mariko two years previous to the sumo's mother illness. He had apparently come to Japan in pursue of information on the country's myths and legends due to an analysis he did for some newspaper, meeting and falling in love with Mariko in the process. Deciding that he loved her more than anything, he had moved to Japan and settled down here alongside Mariko. And so, the expert they had been waiting for was him. Knowing that, it was only a matter if time before the conversation took in only one direction.

Oni.

Liam had pulled out documents from his briefcase and had started with what Tohru and Uncle already knew thanks to their investigation and the sumo's own knowledge in the subject due to his childhood stories; retelling that Oni were humanoid beings from the legends that resembled ogres and that possessed inhuman strength and a driving desire for battle. However, as the young man continued their explanation, his words started to dwell into a much more interesting subject. And in the moment the words 'Shogunate of Shadows' left Liam's mouth, Uncle interceded, asking for more detailed information on that term.

"The Shogunate?" the dark-skinned blond asked. "Oh, but that's just a very old and ridiculous legend. I mean, it mentions Murasaki Shikibu fighting against the Oni."

"The poet?" a confused Tohru asked, having studied the name of the famous woman long ago.

"The very same," Liam said; "I don't think it can be of any use..."

"Uncle would like to listen to that old and ridiculous legend!" the elder proclaimed loudly, earning himself a couple of glares from the other customer that he obviously ignored and didn't apologize to. Privileges of being a senior.

Liam shrugged and pulled more papers out of his briefcase. "I suppose it's not a problem... why so interested in it, anyway?"

"Oh, Uncle has received antiques related to Oni myths in shop," the elder lied. "He needs more information in order to know how valuable they are."

Tohru directed a sly gaze to his mother, who was still finishing her dish. She didn't seem in any urge to say anything. Good, the last thing that they needed now was to have to explain about magic to two complete strangers.

"Well, the legends regarding the Shogunate of Shadows," Liam explained; "start with a tale about a single Oni and how he gathered a group of other nine around him. It's pretty vague about how, but they were able to master control over something called... eh..." Liam searched through the papers once again before finding what he was searching for. "Ah! Here it is, by mastering something called Jigoku no Kage, they were able to conquer much of Japan from the hands of the Emperor of the time and establish a Shogunate... but according to the tales they were expulsed from Japan and never seen again. There is mention of some masks and a group of famous Hana Fuda cards... yet very little else."

Jigoku no Kage… Shadow of Hell. Because the whole situation wasn't problematic enough, that had to pop out. Had the power to summon Shadowkhan not originated from the Oni? And those Hana Fuda cards, Tohru had read about them about them somewhere, and if there was a relation... Master and apprentice shared a momentary look and both decided that they had enough to work with.

Rest of their meal's conversation revolved around trivialities, and when it finally ended Uncle did treat them all, to Tohru's mother amusement. After saying their goodbyes, the two wizards departed alongside the short woman, leaving the young couple alone in the restaurant enjoying a couple of drinks. And as the two of them drank, they noticed how the people around them were acting in a strange manner... or rather weren't acting at all. As if they had been frozen, unable to move. However, this didn't seem to surprise the young couple, as Liam just rolled his eyes and continued drinking, while Mariko let out a long sigh and leaned back in her chair.

"What did you do now, stop time?" Mariko asked.

"Stopping time is beyond my abilities," a woman's voice said, and shortly after a purple butterfly descended towards the chair Tohru had been sitting in, a whole swarm of the insects following it until the guise of Nimue was at the table with the couple. "Even I have my limits, and those include playing with something as strong as time. I just ordered their minds to tell their bodies to stop moving, seeing and hearing. It's pretty useful, even if only works with the weak minded and the unaware of magic's existence. But you should now; you have been my best pupil in decades, Mariko. And seriously, no greetings for the woman who taught you how to fight? I was expecting better manners from Foreman's and the White Queen's daughter."

"Yes, yes... sorry about that;" the young woman said as she stopped leaning back in her chair and eyed the purple eyed woman dressed in white. "It's just... I'm still a bit angry about this whole mess."

"Because I made that woman grow ill with a sickness only you could cure? I told you, it was necessary, and there was no real risk. At that time that family had just defeated the Fire Demon, and that monster's siblings were starting to join the game. I was busy dealing with that stupid Cult of Nihila back in Egypt, and we needed to get close to that family."

"I do understand," Mariko said; "but it goes against everything a doctor must do." The young woman let out a long sigh again, knowing that her mentor had the reason there. "Anyway, we did good sending them after the Hana Fuda, right?"

"Absolutely," Nimue said. "That set of cards was designed in order to have a defense mechanism in the case a Mask got stuck into someone's face, and that should help them."

"But the goal is to destroy the Oni inside the Masks;" Liam stated.

"Of course," Nimue confirmed. "And that I shall do, when the appropriate time comes. It would be way easier if the Masks are gathered in one place and without Kandrakar's interruption." _Enough has Himerish done to hinder my task over the passing centuries to have him stick his self-righteous and controlling nose into all this_ , she added in her thoughts. With a Veil around Meridian and Earth so near to that world, travel between the Infinite Dimensions is incredibly hard, as you can attest, Liam."

The dark skinned blonde rubbed the back of his head. "Yes, that I can do. For thirteen years I have longed to return to the Fast Realm, but I won't complain about," the man said, eyeing his beloved Mariko; "the task Lady Arkaam gave me."

"Yes, yes; I know you are grateful to mother for making both of us meet…" Mariko said, smirking a bit and pocking the young man in his cheek. "You adorable and sexy bodyguard boyfriend of mine."

Nimue let out a small laugh, but quickly returned to the matter at hands, putting an end to the lovers' flirting before it escalated. "I need to return to Heatherfield after this. I was able to locate another Mask, yet someone got to it before me and changed its whereabouts to Heatherfield, where it has been hidden. Which means I need you two here to make sure nothing bad happens to those two Chi Wizards."

"Will I need to put on the armor?" Mariko asked, and after getting an affirmative nod from her former tutor, her confusion grew. "Why? I mean, it's supposed to be used against really strong magical users."

"I have been having a strange feeling lately," Nimue spoke; "as if something or someone has crossed to this plane. It's similar to the feeling an opened Portal leaves… just weirder, older; not from any of the worlds I know about. I don't like it, it could be a problem."

"Mariko and I will look into it, Lady Nimue;" Liam told her. "But I'm curious, who would take a Mask just to hide it again?"

"Isn't it obvious?" Nimue said, starting to break into purple butterflies that quickly disappeared out of sight. "Someone that needs the Mask as bait."

* * *

 ** _Heatherfield; Ludmoore manor_**

 _Today is full of surprises_ , _and oh do I love those_ ; Charles Ludmoore thought while sitting behind his desk and as his almost completely blackened eyes surveyed the trio of people in front of him; the golden dots in that blackness that served as his pupils shifting between the guises of Daolon Wong, Tristan and Roberta. Night was starting to fall over Heatherfield, and even he wanted to get a bit of free time in order to proceed. Then again, work was work. _Well, let's see if we use this man like we have used the boisterous one. If what young Miranda wrote a few days ago was true, these two are Changelings…_

"What can I do for you, Archmage Wong?" Charles inquired in his faked cold and emotionless voice.

"Weeks ago," Wong said, hands resting over the twisted root he used as a magic staff; "you found a Mask containing the power of one of the Nine. If you were able to get a hold of one, then you should be able to get a hold of another, correct?"

Charles tilted his head in the slightest of manners. Truth to be told, behind his usual mask of coldness the spark of curiosity had ignited with fury upon the old man's words. Considering the previous conversation he had today around the Masks, this was too much of a coincidence, yet it couldn't be anything else. Maybe fate was conspiring in his favor? "I thought that, after the problems that the last Mask gave its user, the Prince wasn't interested in them anymore. Unless… it's not the Prince but you who is interested in the Mask."

Wong narrowed his eyes upon his interlocutor's comment and accusation. Charles Ludmoore never employed an offensive tone of voice, and his phrases passed more as mere observations than anything else. Yet Daolon Wong was no man that took lightly to taunts and accusations, no matter how light they are.

"The reason for this does not concern you, King Smuggler," Wong told Ludmoore. "I'm prone to pay generously, so give me an indication and I shall take my leave."

Ludmoore hold the ancient man's gaze for a few seconds before snapping his fingers and materializing a map over his desk. It was a map of Heatherfield and its surroundings, representing thus a large area. Ludmoore pointed to a small mountain that was part of a massive mountain range. "I didn't put much effort into it, but supposedly, there is another Mask hidden within this mountain range, near the feet of Mount Thanos. Since both sides lost interest in them, I don't know exactly where."

 _My spells should do the rest_ , Wong thought, memorizing the image Ludmoore had provided. However, a small doubt was born within him upon knowing this. "How do you know where it is?"

"Because it's my work, Archmage Wong;" Ludmoore answered without really answering. "If I told you how I know things, then my existence wouldn't be needed. And I can't make a profit if I'm dead, don't you think?"

"Indeed," Wong answered after a while. "But I feel considerably convenient that there is another of the Nine so close to this city."

Ludmoore shrugged. "Heatherfield has always possessed a strong affinity for magic. The fact that the entire last two generations of Guardians had been born here is proof of that. I suppose that's the reason my ancestor decided to establish himself here. "

Wong didn't push the matter anymore. No matter how much he tried, men like Ludmoore were more reminiscent of tombstones than of regular people. No secret or word that Ludmoore let out his mouth was going to be something useful against the so-called King Smuggler. Due to his ancestry, Wong always felt respect for him; yet through that respect came along the acknowledgement of the threat that an unknown factor like Ludmoore, with so many secrets, so many deals; was. A threat that nobody else seemed to acknowledge. No, they only saw the greedy man... yet Wong could see more. Ambition, yes; yet not for mere power... there was something else there, a desire for something far beyond such paltry things. Was it because he, with all his experience, was also not seen as a threat either?

Deciding that those thoughts were better reserved for another time, Wong searched in the bag he was carrying and pulled a small, spherical orb of dark purple crystal out of it. He proceeded to hand it to Ludmoore that looked at it with a pleased glint in the golden dots of his eyes.

"This should suffice as payment," Wong explained, turning around and taking his leave; the scorpion and bird Shapeshifters following in tow. _I have to get that Mask. If what I have investigated in those scrolls of the Fire Demon Sorcerer, then there is a way to siphon the power of a Mask without wearing it; and that combined with my own powers, the small team of Shapeshifters, even if Jordan has been lost... that pathetic Escanor brat!_ Wong's hand shot instinctively to his chest, the burns under his robes, product of the ire of the Prince upon his creations' defeat against the rebels and Guardians. If he was so tired of failures, then why didn't he take to the battlefield himself? _Who does he think he is?! I bring the Changelings back from the verge of extinction; if not for that Ben-Shui girl I would have obliterated the Guardians on my own! But nothing is enough for that arrogant boy! Yet he is stronger than me... an Escanor is an Escanor, even while being a failure. But when I have that Mask…_

"Ah, I almost forgot;" Charles said while inspecting the sphere and the energy within it. "A man named Hak Foo was here before, asking for the Mask too. He paid, so I indicated the way to him." The King Smuggler pointed to the orb. "So the only thing I have to do is break it and the energy will summon..."

"You did what?!" Wong exclaimed, eyes lighting in dark chi. "How dare you?!"

"A client is a client," Ludmoore retorted calmly; "and he is a normal human being, which means that he will waste a lot of time getting there. While you can..." Ludmoore explained, but before he could end his phrase, Wong waved his staff angrily in the air, enveloping him and the pair of Shapeshifters in dark bluish smoke and disappearing out of sight; "do that. These wizards of Chi Magic and their theatrics..." Ludmoore threw the sphere to the air and caught it with the other hand. Whistling, he sat up from the desk and started to walk around it, playing with the sphere as if it was a ball. He concentrated magic for the briefest of moments and materialized the blue book over the desk.

"Cyrus, can you talk?" Charles inquired to the blue book.

"Briefly," the voice of Charles' youngest brother emerged from the book. "The Infinity City has been pretty busy these days. There are more and more rebels as each day that passes, mainly villagers from the borders that have grown angry of their homes being transformed into prisons or being destroyed."

"And the medium ring?" Charles asked. Meridian had always been divided in three rings, an external one, medium ring and central one.

"Nothing," Cyrus Ludmoore's voice came from the blue book. "The nobles hold it pretty tight. No opposition to Phobos, yet only the smallest support in order to guarantee no retaliation from the Prince."

"That's a problem, and you know it," Charles said, still playing with the ball.

"Our attack over Torus Filney is imminent," Cyrus explained. "And that Viscount lives there. According to Cedric, he's the key to the nobles' success in holding this whole business together. We take him out, and the conflict escalates into a real war. We will need to thank Caleb about that eventually, you know? This whole operation has been his sole idea, even if he doesn't know anything about what he's going to accomplish with this."

"Excellent," Charles congratulated his youngest sibling. "I will inform Cedric about this, he has been too busy with the Princess as of late."

"Speaking about Cedric," Cyrus' voice continued to come from the book; "has little Miranda asked you about him lately?"

"Constantly," Charles said, putting the sphere under his jacket.

"Do you think... she will be, you know; 'the one'?"

"I told Cedric not to rush things with her," Charles explained; "but in the end that will be his decision, not mine. I'm going out, Cyrus."

"You are going to get involved? And going out at this hour of the night…" Cyrus asked. "All this you have planned just for a sword..."

"Not a mere sword," Charles said as a smirk formed in his lips. "The Sword of the Berserker, of old Thanatos."

* * *

"Cheetah dashes across the land!" Hak Foo yelled as he ran over a road. Evading cars and the like in the approaching night, the redhead and muscular man was back in his usual bodysuit, moving in it much easier that he did in that horrible formal suit Chang forced him to wear. He saw a car's lights ahead, and he heard the surprised and angered driver to sound the claxon with fury, and even if Hak Foo couldn't see him, he was sure that the driver was calling him crazy. "Monkey evades rhinoceros!" Hak Foo said as he jumped over the car, and as soon as he hit the ground again he continued to run. Some may call him inane for making all the way from Heatherfield to the nearby mountains by feet, but the enforcer considered it a good warm up, a testament of his strength and skill, which he had been honing since his more tender childhood.

Yes, since he had use of reason, Hak Foo had nothing but one goal in his mind, to become the ultimate warrior, the most prominent and powerful master of martial arts in the world. Of course, he had grown up to know that training alone was not the mean to achieve this, he needed to prove that he was the best, the strongest; and for that only defeating the strongest was an option. So Hak Foo had been fighting without rest, always seeking the strongest warriors, defeating each one of them until his body had been tampered into becoming the ultimate weapon! At least until he had met Jackie Chan. It hurt his pride to admit it, but Hak Foo was conscious of his adversary's superiority. Each time they had met, Chan had bested him. Even his old and frail Uncle had bested him once! But Chan seemed to have grown stronger with each clash they had, while Hak Foo had only grown… weaker? No! That was ridiculous! Yet a possibility that haunted him day after day. And now Chan was part of the same organization he served, and considering Chang's politic of no in-fighting, he couldn't just challenge his nemesis to another duel. But Hak Foo knew there were mightier foes than Chan. Yes, his discovery and acceptance of the existence of magic had made the enforcer realize that the world and the universe were populated by far mightier creatures, waiting to have their thrones taken by him. But the existence of said mightier beings had made Hak Foo realize that he was just a human competing against titans. At first he had refused the use of magic, judging it as a weakling's trick… but reality had proven him wrong. And he had started to ask himself, what could have happened back when Shendu had first possessed Valmont, if he had been disposed to use the most powerful Talismans? What could happen if someone as him who already was the pinnacle of human prowess, used magic? Wouldn't he become a titan too?

Yes, that was the conclusion he had reached long ago. That was the reason he had entered into Chang's servitude, a man more willing to use magic in his favor than to serve a magical being. That was the reason he had wanted that Mask… and that was the reason he wanted this one too. That was the reason he had made no questions when Ludmoore had come to him with the information of another Mask laying around near Heatherfield. He had just paid the man and ran out of the building in search of his ticket towards his upgrade.

The thought of finally transcending the limits of the human body made his lips to form an animalistic smirk. He looked onward and, even if it was night, his eyes could distinguish the form of the mountain range ahead, crowned by Mount Thanos. Reports indicated a blizzard that night, but a mere storm wasn't going to stop a man like the Black Tiger. His prize was waiting for him, and a new horde of mighty adversaries that would make him grow as a warrior were waiting alongside it.

"Tiger pursues his prey!" he yelled as he increased his pace, running through the road at night.

* * *

"Are you sure you have nothing else to tell me?" Quentin Ross asked of a man tied to a chair in front of him. The violent agent of Section 13, wearing the same attire as the day he had met Jackie, was sitting in front of his source of information, the scum's comrades already knocked out around them. The agent had to admit, these Talismans really were a help in order to take info from some thugs. Snake in order to get close to them without being seen, Pig and Dragon if he wanted to create a fire and drive them out, and Roaster… well the roaster had turned out to be his favorite one. "I'll ask again. Dark Hand, Bartholomew Chang. Information, now." Quentin touched the Roaster Talisman inside his right pocket, where he usually kept it alone. The neck of the thug in front of him tensed up and soon the scumbag found himself gasping for air as he was choked by the telekinetic power of the Talisman. The eyes of the thug bulged a bit until Quentin stopped the magic, making the man able to breathe once again. The agent had been doing this since around an hour, only starting making questions

"I told you already, you crazy asshole!" the thug yelled between a couple of coughs. "We don't work directly for Chang! No one works directly for the Dark Hand!"

"But you can know who does, don't you?" Quentin asked, this time getting up and approaching the captive, taking the man's right hand's fingers. He took the index one. "And who's the easiest one to approach, right?" he twisted the finger upwards, making the thug to let out an agonizing scream. "And where to find that…"

"Hak Foo!" the thug yelled in pain. "It's Hak Foo, that guy is batshit crazy, believes himself to be some kind of shitty comic book villain! He's gone to the mountains! Please, no more voodoo shit, please!"

"Mountains?" Quentin asked as his hand shot instinctively to his pocket. "Are you sure?"

"Yes!" the thug answered, and as a retort, Quentin shot a quick and strong punch towards his face, breaking his nose and sending him and the chair to the ground, the scumbag unconscious. The agent turned around and left the place while searching inside his coat and taking a small notebook and a pen out. He looked for the final entry and continued writing where he had left it.

Diary of Quentin Ross. Entry 137

 _Assaulted a nest of scumbags today, nothing serious, only thieves. Got a man tied in a chair, made him talk. Choked him, broke his finger and nose. Felt good. Better answers than in the last two, Talismans continue to make the job easier. Part of me doesn't like that, another part likes it. Still not allowed to dispose definitely of scumbags, Chan insists. And I respect Chan. He's still undercover, better if we met only a few times. Never know when they are watching. I got a name this time, Hak Foo. Chan talked me about him. Strong, resilient, fast… stubborn and determined; but he'll talk, like the rest do. Mountains, what's in the mountains? Better get going. Talismans should help me to get there. Roaster is pretty useful for that, and the most versatile._

Diary of Quentin Ross. Entry 137, End.

* * *

 ** _Japan_**

A bit of investigation had given Uncle and Tohru the exact whereabouts of the Hana Fuda cards they needed to find. Apparently, the cards were in some kind of holy shrine... or at least they used to be. Because after two trains and a walk, the two wizards and Tohru's mother (who had insisted into accompanying them because 'her baby boy wasn't around enough' and she wanted to be with him) were met not by the sight of a holy shrine, but by the one of...

"A car company?" Tohru asked aloud. Indeed, it was as the sumo had just said, in the place of the holy shrine used to stand a car company had been built; a proof of Japan's continuous growth and advancing development.

"Aiyah!" Uncle yelled, taking his hands to his head. "How are we supposed to find cards now?! We have lost to Forces of Darkness!"

"Well, why don't we go inside?" the sumo's mother said. "Maybe the loud goat is just exaggerating, and we won't lose anything for asking, will we?"

Tohru proceeded to watch how his mother took the lead and his annoyed sensei followed her reluctantly, not wanting to recognize that the woman had made a good point. Shaking his head, the sumo started to follow the pair, but he halted momentarily. A shiver ran all the way up his spine, his muscles tensing, and eyes growing wide for a second. And as soon as it had cone, it disappeared, the Chi Wizard in training looking around as if searching for something in the area that could have caused that reaction. But he saw nothing. Still suspicious, his hand searched in his pocket for his faithful blowfish, gripping it with strength. Even if small (especially in one of his enormous hands), the trinket he used to cast spells gave him confidence.

And maintaining vigilance for any incoming attack or enemy, Tohru restarted his walk; not able to see the pair of feline eyes of a yellowish color following him and his two companions from the shadows.

* * *

The insides of the car company were mostly silent. Fitting, considering the trio had spent almost the entire afternoon collecting information about the Hana Fuda, locating the shrine and travelling to it; thus giving enough time to the sun to disappear into the horizon. There were no workers, the machines deactivated and not moving, and the only person in the building a man in his forties that clearly was the lead of the company; who always was the last man leaving the place, using a couple of hours of the night to fill some paperwork. He wasn't accustomed to have any visits during this time.

That was the main reason he was so surprised when a man as large as a sumo fighter, a short wrinkled woman and a Chinese old man walked into his factory. Being a man that valued politeness and civism above all else; the owner of the company stopped what he had been doing until then and exited his office, slowly walking towards the three visitors.

"Good afternoon," the owner of the company; a short and scrawny Japanese man dressed in a formal shirt and a pair of pants; with dark curly hair and a Van Dyke styled beard of the same color, greeted them. "Do you need something? Because I'm afraid we're closed. You will have to come in another moment..."

"We don't have another moment!" Uncle yelled, taking a few step ahead. "We need to obtain Hana Fuda cards in order to stand against Oni!"

The owner found himself speechless, mouth slightly opened over hearing the elder's proclaim. Oni? As in… the mythological creatures? Oh for the love of… was this a joke? He didn't have time for some weird prank perpetrated by some weird old man, a sumo and a woman that could be the big man's mother! He had work to do! Yet he was a civic man, and if this was a joke… better to react to it as you were supposed to. So the man laughed, maybe a bit forcedly, but laughed. "Oni? Oni are nothing but a children's tale, things that people invent so their sons and daughters go to sleep with their teeth washed. My family has owned the Hana Fuda cards since we bought the shrine that was here before this building, and I still have them in my office, since they are a rare and valuable object… but Oni? Look, I don't have time for this kind of games. Oni are not real."

"I take objection to that."

Before Uncle could start one of his usual rants, or before Tohru or his mother could step in and try to obtain the cards without recurring to something as to tell the truth right away, which both believed wasn't going to convince anyone; the voice made them all stop. It was a deep, sonorous voice, but what made the two wizards realize that they were about to be attacked was that the voice remembered them about the ones of Shendu and his siblings. It clearly wasn't the voice of a human being. And in that moment, upon hearing that voice, the shiver returned to Tohru's body with a much greater strength that it had done before, or in the battle against Uta. The shiver ran through his spine as if a lightning had struck him, and his head was clouded by fear.

"Apprentice…" Uncle directed himself to the mountain of man. "Are you… having the willies?"

Tohru didn't answer to his mentor; the willies were being too strong this time. Whatever was coming, the sumo knew it to be powerful. Directed by his magical instinct, Tohru looked towards the ceiling, where traces of Dark Chi had started to manifest, making shadows to move towards a single point. In that point, the shadows joined and merged with the Dark Chi, moving and bending until their shape formed a symbol. A symbol Tohru and Uncle had seen before over the cover of Shendu's Demon Archive; the same face-shaped mark that had given Jade power over the Shadowkhan and corrupted her. However, this time the symbol, very similar to a face in its own, started to gain depth, quickly getting itself out of the ceiling and descending over the people below it. Except it wasn't a symbol anymore, this time being a large, brownish-orange floating head with yellowish eyes. The head had a large white beard with what seemed to be unruly eyebrows and a mustache of the same color, black marks decorating the corners of the mouth and eyes. And the head was alive, looking at them with an expression in between of amusement and slight anger.

"Oni aren't real?" the floating head told the owner of the company. "Fool! Know me and know that my race has never been more real! Bow before Tarakudo, King of all Oni, Shogun of Shadows, and Master of the Shadowkhan!"

The boisterous proclaim of the floating head hit the owner with all the strength it was supposed to inspire, making the mind of the man, too accustomed to numbers; to revert to the one of a young boy and reacting as such.

"O-Oni?" the owner asked in fear. "Hiaaaaah! Take the cards, take anything! Please don't eat my soul!" the man said while quickly running out of the scene and the building.

Tarakudo looked at how the man ran cowardly with a quirked eyebrow. "Uhm, perhaps I overdid it with my entrance? Ikazuki always told me that yelling my titles was the best way of announcing oneself…" the self-proclaimed Shogun of Shadows looked towards the other three human beings. "And what do we have here? Two wizards and an old, ugly woman… not the best of receptions, I must say."

"Who are you calling ugly?!" Tohru's mother asked, enraged and offended.

"The symbol of the Shadowkhan…" Uncle muttered, not paying attention to his friendly adversary's complain. He knew that the Demon Archive hold many secrets about ancient Dark Chi Magic, but this was something he had not been able to predict. Even with the discovery of the existence of Oni, the fact that the Mark of the Shadowkhan was based upon the face of one of one of them was something the elder couldn't have predicted in a million years.

"Oh, I'm much _more_ than a simple symbol, believe me;" the King of all Oni asked as he looked in the direction of some car doors that had yet to be assembled to a car. The floating head narrowed his eyes towards the doors, and then space seemed to distort around the head, a telekinetic wave shooting from Tarakudo and making the doors to float and be shot towards the trio, sifting in the moment they collided with them and trapping the three. Then they elevated both the wizards and the short woman; gluing them to one of the assembly lines in the place. With another telekinetic wave, Tarakudo turned on the machinery, making the assembly line to advance and the cutting lasers used to start working, putting the three humans in an advancing path to their doom. "I usually don't go out of my way in order to kill women and elders, but those Hana Fuda cards aren't going to get in my way."

"Apprentice, with me!" Uncle called for Tohru. "At the count of three, lesson thirty four, seventh spell practiced!"

"Understood, sensei!" Tohru answered, and started to concentrate. One, two…

" _Yu Mo Gui Gwai_ …" the two of them chanted, their hands charging in green chi that quickly extended to the bent around them and the sumo's mother.

Three!

" _Fai Di Zao!_ " the two of them exclaimed, and the iron shot from their bodies, shattering into a million pieces charged in green chi towards Tarakudo, who let the attack to pass through him. After all, one of the biggest advantages of being something in between and astral projection and a material being was that there were very few things able to harm him. However, as the holes that the charged shards had left in his body closed, Tarakudo noted how the trio had descended from the assembly line.

"Impressive casting of the spell," Tarakudo praised the wizards as Uncle readied his blowfish towards him. "You aren't a mere novice, aren't you? Perhaps a Chi Master, like the ones of ancient China?"

"Is floating head interested in Uncle's private life?" the old Chinese man asked. "Or does he want a piece of him?!"

"A piece?" Tarakudo said, showing his fangs in a bloodthirsty grin. "I shall take the whole thing, wizard! Show me that modern time has not weakened the likes of you!"

Green beams of chi were shot towards the floating head of the King of all Oni, while Tohru had taken his mother and pointed her towards the office of the now-in-the-run owner. "Mother, take the Hana Fuda cards, sensei needs my help!"

"What?!" Mama Tohru exclaimed. "My boy is not getting into a fight with an Oni!"

"Mother, I'm not a child;" Tohru told her. "And I know a way to fight back the Oni, remember?" Tohru said as he searched inside his clothes and pulled a round onion from them. "You taught me."

The lips in the woman's face formed a warm and proud smile. "That I did. Just be careful when saving that old goat's ass;" his mother told him before going in the office's direction, where a small framework holding the cards inside hanged from the wall.

Meanwhile, Tohru had turned his attention towards the battle between his mentor and the self-proclaimed King of the creatures that terrified him as a child. Uncle was trying his best, but each one of the chi beams he shot towards Tarakudo were either evaded by the floating head or passed through him without leaving a mark. The Oni counterattacked from time to time with a small telekinetic wave, but it was clear that the King was just playing with him. The sumo looked at the onion in his hand and prayed to any deity he knew about that this old trick could work. Without losing more time, Tohru started to charge the onion with his chi, just like he had learned to do with the blowfish, lizard, or even an octopus' tentacle.

"Is that all?" Tarakudo asked of Uncle as the next of his chi beams passed through him, leaving no wound. "Have you considered adding _Japanese_ Chi spells to your arsenal? I bet they could do a better job at harming me than your little _Chinese_ tricks." Tarakudo's only answer came in the form of another beam from Uncle, which made the Oni to roll his eyes. "Not that this hasn't been a good exercise to stretch my 'astral muscles', but I'm growing tired of playing with you. Behold the true power of Oni royalty!" Tarakudo exclaimed as he roared and unleashed another telekinetic wave, this one mixed with powerful Dark Chi, that not only shot Uncle backwards, but also started to shake the whole building, cracking its walls and ceiling as if an earthquake was happening.

"Tarakudo!" Tohru yelled then, grabbing one of the pillars of the building in order to not lose balance. In his hand, the onion had been charged with chi to its limit, and the wizard in training tossed it as strongly as he could towards the floating head.

"Onion? Tohru, use garlic!" Uncle yelled, but his protest proved to be erroneous when Tarakudo interrupted his attack and looked at the incoming vegetable.

"Oh, you have to be kidding…" Tarakudo said until the onion hit his face, exploding and blinding the Oni with chi, the magic stuck into his face. "My eyes, my eyes!" the King of all Oni proclaimed in agony, moving over the place in circles and yelling in pain. "MY EYES!" he said one last time before dashing towards the nearest shadow, entering it and disappearing. Once he was gone, the building stop shaking, the power of the Master of the Shadowkhan gone.

"Is that awful and disrespectful head gone?" Tohru's mother asked as she exited the office, the frame holding the Hana Fuda in her hands.

Uncle sat in the floor, taking air in and out. He was growing too old for this. Fortunately, it seemed like his apprentice was set on the right path to succeed him. Tohru meanwhile, looking around and tried to feel if the presence of the Oni had completely banished. The willies were gone, but he still could feel something, especially from the shadow Tarakudo had used to escape.

"Tarakudo is gone," Tohru said; "for the moment."

* * *

In a hill nearby the car company, Liam was looking at the scene with a pair of binoculars. At his side was Mariko, clad in a black full-body armor designed to look like a metallic dress that hid her appearance behind a mask with a pair of crystal optics that served as binoculars too. She was leaning against a staff which top looked like a circle with a small dot in the middle.

"It seems that they didn't need our help after all;" Liam told his fiancé. "Maybe Lady Nimue exaggerates with this threat?"

"No," Mariko answered, taking her helmet off. She hated to put on the armor for nothing, but she had to admit that this could have unraveled much worse. "That onion thing was a lucky shot. If I had intervened, my clash with the Oni would've destroyed the whole building. And this is an Oni King we're talking about, and I bet he's weakened from having woken up recently. We should inform Nimue in the moment her business on Heatherfield ends."

"Agreed," Liam said, getting close to his lover. Then Mariko hit the ground with her staff three times, and the two disappeared in a glow of white energy.

* * *

 ** _Shadow Realm_**

"My eyes, my eyes, my eyes..."

Tarakudo flew through the Shadow Realm as best as he could considering his current state of blindness. The magically empowered onion had hit him hard, pain coursing through his eyes and nose. However, he knew how to get better.

Once deep in the Shadow Realm, Tarakudo halted and called for the power he had attained long ago. The Jigoku no Kage, or as he knew for its real name, Aidia no Kage; came to him and enveloped his form in a cocoon of shadows. He emerged from the cocoon seconds after, completely healed, any traces from the enchanted onion removed from him. Tarakudo was quick to summon more shadows, forming a window that let him see the humans he had just clashed with. They were leaving the building now, the Hana Fuda in hand. The King supposed they would now go to find rest, enjoying their earned victory. For a second, the King looked serious, eyes narrowed at the image his shadows were letting him see... but then his face suddenly turned into one showing entertainment.

"Bwahahahaha!" Tarakudo laughed. "An enchanted onion! That old trick! Bwahaha! I knew this age wasn't going to disappoint me!" The King dispelled the shadows he had conjured as his laughter died out. "Ah... now that's what I call a warm up. And a measurement of half the enemy's forces..." the King of all Oni called for more shadows, these ones showing him a considerably different image. The one of the Guardians, Jade, Matt and their classmates skiing and playing with the snow while up in the mountains. "Now, for the other half..."

* * *

 ** _Heatherfield's mountain range_**

"Snow!" Hay Lin cheered rather childishly as she took a handful of the white matter in her hands and tossed it in the air. "Who wants to make a snowman?"

"I do!" Alchemy answered, joining Hay Lin in gathering snow in a large ball.

"I'll help;" Jade said, joining the two other girls. "But I swear, if you think I'll call it Olaf..."

"Ah, c'mon Jade, I liked that movie;" Alchemy told her classmate. "The music was really good."

"Yeah, the music was good;" Jade said, giving the girl the reason there. "Hey, how're those violin classes going on?"

"Meh..." Alchemy told her. "I started them 'cause my mom told me so... do you think I should change to guitar? I've been given it some practice after violin, and I really like it, but..."

"If you like it, you should do it;" Hay Lin told her. "That's what my dad says."

"Hey, how do you think the others are doing?" Jade changed the theme of the conversation as the three of them finished putting together the lower half of the snowman.

"Knowing Cornelia..."

* * *

"And that's how you make a Hoffman zig-zag while making sure you don't lose the Beckman posture while descending," Cornelia spoke after executing an almost perfect descent with her skis. In front of her, Taranee, Irma, Elyon and a bunch of other Sheffield students looked at her with their jaws dropped. "Yes, yes, I know;" the blonde said while waving her blond mane, only the top if her head covered in a wool cap. "I'm just too good," she proclaimed haughtily.

"I thought you only do ice skating!" Taranee shouted towards her friend.

"Yes, but I've got practice with skiing and snowboarding too," the blonde cleared out. "I'm not as good as with ice skating, but I can defend myself. Dad even calls me his 'little Ice Princess'.

 _She's gonna be calling herself that all the time we spend here, doesn't she?_ Irma thought, not very hyped to stand the Earth Guardian's bravado during the whole trip.

"Can't we just practice something more... simple?" Taranee asked. "Like... just learning how not to fall from the skis?"

"Alright," Cornelia said. "Now everyone, pay attention!"

"I swear, Knickerbocker owns us an entire day without classes for enduring Miss ' _I'm so better at everything than everyone else_ '," Irma said, crossing her arms over her chest. "Right, Elyon?"

"Uhm?" the other blonde asked, not paying too much attention. "Oh yeah, sure."

Irma tilted her head at the girl's down mood. "Are you alright?"

"Oh, yes; don't worry Irma," Elyon told her, putting on her best smile. "I'm alright." But Elyon wasn't alright. Even since that day she had almost passed out in Ye Olde Book Shop, she had been feeling different. And the world around her had started to act different too. Sometimes, if she was angry or too excited she was sure she could do... things. If she was just upset, a mirror or a window would simply crack. But a few days ago, she had been distracted while crossing the street in her way from the bookstore to her home, and a car had come directly towards her. She had screamed, raising her arms in a desperate attempt to protect herself... and the car had stopped, literally hanging in the air, as if sustained by an invisible force. The phenomenon lasted until Elyon got out of the way, and then the car was left over the road again, driving off as if nothing had happened. These continuous experiences had left Elyon scared, uncertain of what was going on. At first she had thought they had been coincidences, but now she was sure she was the one provoking them. The question was... how? And why?

* * *

While Cornelia had been instructed by Knickerbocker to take care of half the group that had decided to actually learn to ski during the trip dedicated to skiing instead of simply playing with the snow, the other half was in the care of Sheffield's principal, the students that had some experience in the winter sport helping out the ones that hadn't touched snow in their lives. And for a certain redhead, that had turned out to be a bliss.

"And now, you only have to maintain your back tensed up, legs arched like that…" Matt Olsen instructed Will Vandom as he guided her body with his hands. "That's it, I think you have it."

Will struggled a bit in order to maintain balance over her skis, the fact that Matt had to touch her legs from time to time not helping a lot, actually. Every time he came in contact with her made her blush and lose a bit of concentration. The guy had turned out to be even nicer than she had anticipated, the trip on the bus to the mountains being quite entertaining. Mostly composed about trivialities at first, their conversation then had evolved into talking about their hobbies, references, families… they had ended sharing a lot of information with the other about themselves. Matt had lived here in Heatherfield his entire life, with his parents and his grandfather who, as Will already knew, owned a pet shop in which Matt helped out from time to time. The boy had even offered her to accompany him one day after school, since she had mentioned that she liked animals. Of course, she had accepted. A part of Will had been insecure about this, thinking that Matt had been just playing nice with her about the whole 'let's go together in the bus' thing; but she had been proven wrong. And now, she had a new friend. Maybe with the possibility of developing into something else?

"Like this?" the redhead asked, changing weight from one leg to another, and then losing balance and falling backwards over Matt. "Ouch! Sorry…"

"Don't worry; these things happens at first," Matt told her. "But you seriously should stop this habit of yours of falling on top of me;" the teen said, and shortly after both of them shared a laugh.

"Okay, everyone!" Mrs. Knickerbocker called for the students. "Get off from the skis and let's meet with the group we left behind and prepare to have lunch!"

Matt helped Will to incorporate and descend from her skis, the redhead thanking him for the help and the little class before running towards the group composed of Irma, Taranee, Elyon and Cornelia. This left Matt alone until Nigel and another boy came to him.

"Hey Matt," Nigel greeted him. "How did the date go?"

"It's not a date, Nigel;" Matt told his friend with a bit of annoyance, albeit one part of him was not so sure of his own words anymore. "A boy and a girl can't spend time together and not be a date?"

"Nope," Nigel told his friend. "Not when the boy is touching the girl's legs and half of our class is talking about that."

"Wha-?!" Matt choked, blushing like a tomato. "I was helping her with her skiing!"

"Sure, sure…" Nigel said with an amused grin. "Anyway, it's unch time, and I'm starving! So let's move!"

"Yeah, sure…" Matt said before looking over to the other boy accompanying them. He was a boy around their age with slightly tanned skin and deep black hair cut in a way that resembled one of those military haircuts. "Excuse me, who're you?"

"What?" Nigel told Matt. "C'mon man, he's Reggie!"

Matt looked over the other teen for a few seconds before something seemed to spark in his mind. He then proceeded to face-palm himself. "Oh right. Sorry Reggie. How could I say something like that?"

"Hey, don't worry man," Reggie told the other teen. His voice was something really hard to interpret, sounding between masculine and effeminate. "I usually go unnoticed."

* * *

The insides of the inn Sheffield had reserved in the mountains in order for the classes the school had sent to the trip were comfortably warm, almost the entirety of the place belonging to the students. Sitting around a table, the girls were drinking hot chocolate and exchanging their experiences of the day. How the snowman had turned out, how much Taranee and Irma wanted to get changed from skiing practice group, and how Will's little 'no-date' had turned out.

"So, can we make your dating Matt into an official thing?" Jade asked of Will, the redhead sipping from her cup.

"We aren't dating," Will told the Air Guardian. "We're just…"

"Bus-partners?" Hay Lin suggested, making the other girls laugh.

"I was going to say friends, Hay Lin;" Will told her hyper-energetic friend.

"I'm going for more chocolate," Cornelia said then, rising up from her seat and approaching the bar.

"And ask for extra sugar!" Irma told her as the blonde walked way. "You really need it, Ski Sergeant!"

"Oh, don't be a baby!" Cornelia told the Water Guardian, who had grown rather tired of the blonde's way of teaching ski.

Cornelia approached the bar and asked for another chocolate cup. She waited leaning her arms over the wooden bar, making her eyes to go back from time to time towards her friends, still sitting around the table. Now, this was the kind of moments she liked the most. No evil princes, no mad wizards, no giant snakes… just her and her girls, having fun. And what the hell, it was funny to have Irma to be forced to obey her, she enjoyed that. And Will had time to actually be herself and spend some time with the boy she obviously had a crush on. Now, if only she could do that too… but she had to be realistic, what chances were for Caleb to magically appear in that inn?

"Cornelia?" she heard at her back. Maybe her mother really had some reason in telling her she sometimes obsessed over boys. She could almost hear his voice. "Cornelia," the voice called again.

"Cornelia!" the voice said a third time, this time accompanied by a hand stroking her shoulders. Perhaps the chances weren't so unrealistic after all?

"Caleb?" the blonde asked, turning around and meeting face to face with the rebel boy. "What're you doing here? _How_ are you even here? The inn's supposed to be only for us!"

"The owner said the same, but told me he could change his mind if I paid enough," Caleb told her. "This place must be really cheap if he was able to get me in only for two gold coins."

"Gold," Cornelia repeated the word. "You gave gold, to the owner."

"Yes," Caleb told her. "What's wrong with that?"

"Nothing," Cornelia said, shaking her head. She supposed that Meridian wasn't aware of how much gold was valued in Earth, especially if you were just the owner of an inn in the mountains. "Why are you here, anyway?"

A shadow of worry crossed over the boy's green eyes, and as he rubbed a hand over his brown hair, Cornelia saw how the rebel leader Caleb took control over the teenager Caleb once again.

"We have problems," the rebel leader told her.

* * *

"Wong's here again? Agh... that creepy guy doesn't know when to stop or what?"

Now out of the inn, the Guardians and Jade had met with Caleb and Blunk at the back of the building, the small Passling sitting around with a half-rotten apple in his hands, eating it while waiting separated a bit from the group. There, all the attendants shared Irma's opinion on the Dark Chi Wizard's insistence on attacking their world.

"Hey, maybe he likes getting his ass handled to him;" Jade commented, grinning while remembering her first violent encounter with Wong.

"Okay, okay; I'm going to be the voice of reason here;" Taranee said, raising her hands in front of her face; "and ask why, of all places in Heatherfield and its surroundings, Wong has decided to come to these mountains? How could he know that we're here? How have you gotten in here?" the Fire Guardian asked of the rebel leader.

"The Mage has an infiltrate in the palace's kitchens named Trill," Caleb explained. "She told us that Wong took two of the new Shapeshifters and exited the palace via Ludmoore's Portal. Blunk and I crossed here in the moment we found a natural Portal, and when Blunk tracked you in the same direction as Wong's trace, I asked the Mage to cross to this realm and teleport us to these mountains."

"But Wong hasn't attacked us," Will said. And she was really grateful for it, the last thing they needed was for any attack over the students.

"Oh, Blunk hasn't smelled bad man here," the Passling said. "Blunk's smelled him in caves, under big mountain."

"Then he isn't after us," Will said, taking a hand to her chin. "He would've attacked already if that were the case."

"But if he isn't after us, then what's he doing there?" Cornelia asked, but the Passling just shrugged, not knowing the answer.

"What do we do?" Hay Lin asked preoccupied.

"Duh! We stop him!" Jade declared, eager to go into battle.

"How?" Taranee asked. "We can't transform here, everyone would see us!"

"We'll transform after knowing exactly where Wong is," Will said. "Blunk, can you lead us?"

"Yes, Blunk will help nice girls! Because girls are nice to Blunk!" The Passling narrowed his eyes at Caleb for a second. "Not like others."

"Did... did you do something to the little guy?" Irma inquired of the rebel leader, who just sighed while he looked at the Passling walking away.

"I... may have told him to stay out of battle when he wanted to help," Caleb said, earning himself a small poke from Hay Lin; "but only for his own good!"

"You made him feel bad!" the Air Guardian reprimanded him. "Go and apologize!"

"Okay, first wizard from another world, then apologies;" Will told her teammates. Her hand gripped the Heart of Kandrakar as they started to march, the jewel beating against her chest. She had a bad feeling about this.

* * *

Quentin Ross was a man that had forced himself to be accustomed to surprises. To roll with the punches and whatever bullshit life threw at him. However, even he had his limits.

He had been able to track Hak Foo all the way down to these mountains, just by asking bystanders if they had seen someone matching that description. Of course, a man with an enormous spiky red mane dressed in a blue bodysuit stood out well enough to be easily localizable. Following his steps in the snow was as easy, even if the past night's blizzard had done a good job at covering the initial ones, alongside slowing him down, power of the Roaster making him fly or not. And so the agent had been able to follow the trail up to one of the mountains that formed a ring around Mount Thanos, Heatherfield's biggest peak. Using the Snake Talisman to sneak around the students that were having a field trip, the Roaster making him able to float over them, he landed in front of the entrance to the cave (or more likely subterranean net of tunnels) which the enforcer had apparently entered. This was the moment in which Quentin, still invisible thanks to the Snake, was surprised or even shocked.

In the tunnel, he spotted a group of teenage girls and a boy. At first he thought they were just a group of teens that had separated from their main group. Then he spotted Chan's niece among them. He knew of the girl's insistence to pop out in missions she wasn't supposed to be in, but she couldn't possibly knew of this one. Not even Jackie knew of this one! And then the agent saw the Passling. Of course, he didn't know what a Passling was, so he just saw a small, green and weird creature guiding the girls through the tunnels. The fact that the boy was carrying a sword didn't pass unnoticed to the agent.

 _This... I don't know what this is_ ; the agent thought as he took the Dragon Talisman from his pocket. _But better be ready for when the scumbag shows up_.

* * *

"Sniff, sniff… Blunk said he find bad wizard, and bad wizard's here," the Passling whispered, hiding behind a rock and peeking through a hole to the enormous cave that was below. The Guardians, the Shapeshifter Ben-Shui incarnation, and the rebel leader approached the hole too and looked below, kneeling in order to not be spotted.

The hole led them to an enormous chamber inside the caves, numerous tunnels connected to it that formed paths to the exterior and the further insides of the mountain. And in said chamber was Wong, accompanied by the already transformed Tristan and Roberta; the bird Shapeshifter flying around as high as she could (which wasn't very much thanks to the size of the cave) and the scorpion walking at the Dark Chi Wizard's side. Wong was pointing his staff in every direction, waiting for the dark magic tat pulsed inside it to light up or not. In the moment it lighted up, he walked into that direction, repeating the process shortly after, until he halted, the staff having suddenly stopped doing its work.

"Something wrong?" the girls and the invisible Quentin (patiently waiting behind them in the tunnel) heard Tristan ask of the Dark Chi Wizard.

Wong looked at his staff, scratching his chin with his long nails as he did so. "Uhm…" Phobos' Archmage muttered. "Interferences…?" Wong looked around, and in a sudden movement of his arm, pointed his staff directly at the hole the girls were in, firing a beam of dark chi towards them, hitting the bottom of the tunnel's entrance and destroying it, making the girls, the rebel leader and the Passling to fall.

Ross, however, maintained himself in the air thanks to his faithful Roaster Talisman; floating over the scene as the girls fell down to the floor, and jaw dropped in surprise at seeing how Chan's niece became a ball of black fur in midair, and instead of her what landed in the ground was a wolf way bigger than usual to be a normal one. Okay, that was weird even for him. And that was not counting the enormous bird, the giant scorpion, and the wrinkled guy doing his best Palpatine impression. What was going on here? And where was his objective?

"Guardians, Uni-!" Will started to say, pulling the Heart out of under her clothes and raising it, but her hand was quickly hit by one of Wong's beams. "Auch!" she shouted in pain, the Heart being shot due to the impact force of the shot.

"I'm not as old as to not learn from my own failures, Keeper of the Heart;" Wong told the redhead. "The Guardians don't unite today."

 _Oh, crap_ ; Will thought as she saw how Wong, Tristan and Roberta lined in front of her and her friends. She looked back, trying to spot the Heart in the chamber, but she wasn't able to find it.

"Will, find the Heart!" Cornelia told her, as she moved her hands towards the ground and made two chunks of it to levitate around her. "We can hold them until then!"

Wong cackled a disturbing and dark laugh. "You can? Do you think you can compete with me in your human forms? Such a pathetic thought!"

"Oh yeah?" Jade said, dashing towards Wong, claws extended and already charging in her white chi. "I think I already defeated you once!"

Tristan and Roberta separated from the wizard, the scorpion quickly advancing towards Caleb and the falcon starting to fly; but Wong stood still, rising his staff and muttering an incantation. A powerful shield of dark chi formed in front of him, Jade impacting against it. Her claws imbued in the Ben-Shui's especial kind of degradation chi started to eat away the wizard's dark magic, but Wong quickly fired another powerful shot towards the wolf, sending her flying a few meters back, smoke rising from her fur, a growl escaping her mouth as she showed her fangs. The attack had clearly hurt her.

"A correction, _young_ heir to the Ben-Shui;" Wong told her, charging more chi in his staff and free hand. He started to create an incantation circle like the ones he had used in their last battle. "You defeated a _tired_ me. But can you hold back Daolon Wong, Archmage of Meridian, most magnificent of Dark Chi Wizards?"

"I do!" Jade replied, this time charging her entire body in white chi, mouth opened towards the wizard. "But the completely dated presentation? I think you'll need some therapy to get rid of that!"

"Insolent youngling!" Wong yelled, unleashing his spell at the incoming wolf. "Lost Art of the Great Demon Dragon number 53! Ránshāo dì dìyù!"

The dark purple flames of Wong's attack shot towards the wolf, meeting against the improvised armor of white chi she had formed around herself. The two energies met, collided and fought against one another, until they ended creating an enormous explosion that send both wolf and wizard flying in opposite directions. They got quickly to their feet and continued to clash, while the four untransformed Guardians dealt as best as they could against the bird Shapeshifter and the rebel leader parried with his sword the incoming stinger tail of the scorpion. Ross continued to survey the fight from above. This was chaotic. How could have this happened?

* * *

Explosions were heard across the rest of the tunnel network of the mountains, the galleries trembling due to the intensity of the fight that was happening above them. Walking through one of these tunnels, Charles Ludmoore stopped his walk and touched the wall, focusing. Discerning the magic he was searching for was more difficult more, the presence of the hidden Mask, the Heart of Kandrakar, and the clash between Wong's and the young Chan girl's chi creating a strange mix of different powers that seemed to musk the atmosphere in a thick mist. Everything was according to plan, the Guardians intercepting Wong and creating enough chaos for him to access this part of the mountain unnoticed. His first plan had been for Hak Foo to find the Mask and unleash its power, maintaining the Guardians occupied with that, but Wong's interference had turned out to be a better distraction.

 _I hope they don't bring this mountain down before I find the sword…_ Charles thought as he restarted his walk. And among the thick mist of multiple magic, he was unable to sense the small purple butterfly that was following him.

* * *

"Die already, you rebel scum!" Tristan proclaimed as he tried one and again to pierce Caleb with his tail. The rebel leader, however, was slowly yet relentlessly in the path to meet the Shapeshifter's desire.

Focusing only into parrying the stinger Tail, Caleb had to let his body absorb the blows from Tristan's pincers and legs. It hurt, and he knew that probably a couple of his bones had been broken by the blows. He would need for Sephiria to heal him later, but right now the best way was to ignore the pain. This couldn't be so hard, this… chld, for the lack of a better term, was not the better of Cedric, and he had survived the Snake of Cavigor once, more or less.

Tristan took advantage of the rebel's growing tiredness and took the blade of his sword between his pincers, pulling from it and swinging Caleb up, throwing him across the air towards one of the tunnels. Caleb landed there, rolling in order to distribute the strength of the impact. He had the strange sensation he had broken something else there. What was wrong with this Shapeshifter? He was acting against all logic, focusing solely on him while his companion was dealing with four, albeit weakened, Guardians; and Wong was fighting against Jade.

"I have you now!" Tristan shouted in joy as he climbed to the tunnel, breaking Caleb's sword between his pincers as he entered. "Prepare to die, rebel scum! Die, in revenge for Carhaiz's pain!"

Carhaiz, Carhaiz… there it was once again! Caleb incorporated slowly, pain coursing through his body; yet he was able to withstand it. This did little more than amuse Tristan, however.

"Haha! Look at the precious and brave leader of the rebels, making a last stand!" the Shapeshifter mocked him. Then he jumped over him and pinned Caleb to the ground using his six legs, stinger pointing towards his face. "Any last words?"

"What… happened in Carhaiz?" Caleb asked between panting. The question, which he was actually not expecting to receive any answer, made the Shapeshifter to halt his tail.

"What do you mean 'what happened'?" Tristan asked. "You are the rebel leader, you know very well what happened!"

"I have been the rebel leader for a short time, my father Julian, who lost his life in Carhaiz, hold this position before me!" Caleb told him. And for the briefest of seconds, the rebel saw a mix of emotions to cross over the Shapeshifter's eyes.

"You… you are Julian's son?" Tristan asked; the bravado in his voice gone. He then roared and his stinger tail lowered, Caleb closing his eyes instinctively. But the stinger didn't impact against his face, instead hitting the ground below. Tristan had failed the shot, on purpose.

The Shapeshifter let Caleb go and turned around, leaving the rebel over the ground. Caleb incorporated mildly and looked at Tristan, confusion painting his face and green eyes.

"Just this time, rebel;" Tristan told him, narrowing his eyes. "In honor of your father's memory;" he said before jumping out of the tunnel.

"Wait!" Caleb called for him, but the scorpion was gone. And so the rebel waited there, in the ground of that lonely and dark tunnel. And the question came back to him, haunting as a trickster ghost that laughed at him from behind, but that disappeared anytime he turned his head back.

What happened in Carhaiz?

* * *

"Is that all you got?" Jade yelled at Wong, the two of them still exchanging magic attacks. But even if it hurt to admit it, she was growing tired, despite her last statement of defiance towards Wong. She was a close combatant, while Wong, much like Uncle, preferred to fight from a distance. And so, anytime Jade was able to evade or block the wizard's attacks and close the distance between them, Wong would disappear in a cloud of smoke, and put distance between the two again, restarting the process once again.

"I have enough to deal with a brat that doesn't know her place!" the wizard proclaimed arrogantly. However, Jade had noted how the attacks of the wizard were becoming weaker and weaker as the time passed, which meant he was also tiring out. And so their battle had become one of pure resistance in contrast with one of might.

The girls, on the other hand…

"Fall you bird bitch!" Irma yelled as she shot a ball of water towards Roberta, who just flew towards it and broke the attack with her peak.

"This is getting us nowhere!" Cornelia said, conjuring as many vines as she could from the ground while being in her human form, which weren't enough to deal with Roberta, as she quickly proved by breaking the vines as soon as they wrapped around her. "Will, hurry up!"

"C'mon, c'mon, c'mon…" Will said while her friends dealt with the Shapeshifter and she searched for the Heart within the ground. The progressing fight and the continuous explosions Wong and Jade were provoking weren't helping at all. "C'mon, I can't let them down like…"

"Is red girl looking for this?" she heard behind her. Turning around she saw Blunk, holding the Heart in his hands.

"Blunk, you're awesome!" Will said, too wrapped in happiness to not stop herself before kissing the Passling's head. The redhead took the jewel, the familiar beat pulsing through her hand and ran towards her friends, jumping in the air in the last moment. "Guardians Unite!"

The flash of light blinded Roberta for a second, and as it died out, she found herself meeting the quintet of girls again, but this time they were flying at the same altitude as her. The Guardians, now in their appropriate forms for battle, looked at the bird Shapeshifter with amused smirks in their faces.

"I'm normally against any form of animal cruelty," Taranee said, while her hands became fists and they ignited in fire, her eyes doing the same. "But I'll make an exception with you!" the Fire Guardian said while shooting fireballs towards the falcon, who proceeded to evade them the best she could. However, as Taranee's grin was testimony of, this had been planned.

"Take this!" Hay Lin said, creating a tornado between her palms and shooting it towards the Shapeshifter, making her lose balance and smashing her against one of the cave's walls. The Air Guardian proceeded then to high five with Taranee. "Yay! Teamwork!"

"You could've just burn her," Cornelia told her companion.

"Yeah, waves of fire in a mountain composed mostly of ice?" Taranee told the blonde. "Not the brightest of ideas."

"Oh, right." Cornelia said, imagining an avalanche coming down to them.

Roberta, meanwhile, was able to get to the air once more, and soon she was joined by Tristan in ground. Noticing this, Will directed herself to her friends, confidence renovated. They could win this, and since there was no Portal near, maybe deal with Wong once and for all!

"Taranee, Hay Lin, go and take the scorpion!" Will commanded. "Cornelia, find Caleb! Irma, with me!"

"Got it!" her friends said in unison and ach flew into the direction they had been ordered to, Irma and Will facing against their flying foe.

"Now, birdie…" Irma said, charging water in her fingertips, emulating a gun. "I've a very hard morning, my friend's quite the bossy one… and I don't want to say that I'm going to let my frustrations out with you, but that's what gonna happen! So prepare to get…"

"GREAT EAGLE SMASHES FALCON!"

Roberta, the two Gaurdians facing her and everyone in the cave looked up, stopping what they were doing; only to saw a blur coming from above and clash with Roberta, sending her to the ground and creating a cloud of dust when impacted.

"I was going to said 'a bath', but smashed against the ground it's also good," Irma commented, as the dust cleared out.

In a small crater in the ground, Roberta lied unconscious, reverted to her human form. Over her, eyes jumping from one enemy to another, Hak Foo stood proud and strong. Cracking his neck and stepping out of the crater, completely ignoring the unconscious girl he was leaving behind, the Black Tiger roared in anger.

"WHERE'S MY MASK?!"

"Hak Foo?" Jade said in complete shock. _What's he doing here? And a Mask? There's another Oni Mask here? Oh, mega-bad day…_

"This must be the man Ludmoore spoke about…" Wong commented for his part. _I cannot let him to have my prize; else this whole operation will be in vain!_ "Gan, Ren, Chui!" The three Dark Chi Warriors appeared then, materializing out of smoke I order to service their master with everything he asked. "Deal with the red-haired man!"

The trio of Wong's servants launched themselves towards Hak Foo, the enforcer looking at them and readying a combat position. Chui tried to hit him with a descending blow of his hammer, but Hak Foo evaded it with ease.

"Kangaroo kick!" Hak Foo proclaimed, kicking the bald warrior in the middle of his stomach, sending him to the ground. He then proceeded to dodge the weapons of the other two, jumping in the air and raising his arms. "Mantis cuts through enemy!" he said as he delivered a powerful attack to his foes' necks.

"Whoa, he's good;" Will commented as she saw how he fought. His style was way different from Jackie's, much more focused into fierce attacks than in defense, but the redhead could see that he was strong.

"Yeah… but what's up with the weird names?" Irma told her. "What do we do?"

"Help the others," Will commanded. "He's helping us for the moment."

"Ha!" Hak Foo proclaimed as he stood against the trio of Dark Chi Warriors. "Is that all you can do? It seems you are no better than the average fighter!"

"Then why not deal with me?" Quentin Ross said then, finally stepping into the battle and letting the invisibility of the Snake to wear off.

"What?!" Hak Foo asked, surprised to see a man appearing from thin air. "Who are you?!"

"The Law," Quentin answered bluntly. Then he raised his right hand and in it Hak Foo saw how the Dragon Talisman ignited, shooting a powerful beam of concentrated flames towards the enforcer, sending him flying towards the wall, piercing through it and landing in its other side, alongside the debris. The Dark Chi Warriors, still acting under the command of attacking Hak Foo, went into that same direction, decided to kill him.

 _Was that... the Dragon Talisman?_ Jade thought. "Okay, what the heck is going on?!" she yelled. The Talismans were in Section 13, that's where they were supposed to be! This guy couldn't have them! Unless... unless he was Section 13.

 _The power of Combustion?_ Wong thought for his part. _Yes, now that I focus... one, two, three, and four! One third of the Twelve Powers that the Fire Demon possessed! Excellent! If I cannot find that Mask until these younglings are dealt with then..._ "You! Hand the Talismans over, rabble!"

"Make me, scumbag;" Quentin met the wizard's insult with his own. He didn't know exactly who or what this guy, the flying girls, the scorpion they were fighting or Chan's niece were; but they were getting in his way. Fortunately, the objective had been put out of commission.

Or so it seemed.

* * *

"Heron pierces crab shell!" Hak Foo shouted as he broke through the rocks that had fallen onto him. His body was hurting, and he was sure he had a burn over his chest, product of the power of the Dragon Talisman.

Magic, always magic! He could heard noises at his back, and peeking over his shoulder he saw the trio of humanoid magical creatures entering the tunnel he had accessed. Those creatures... he had put every inch of his strength on those attacks, he knew they could have broken any normal man. Yet they had only disturbed those three men. He punched the ground with anger. This was unacceptable! He, the Black Tiger, reduced to this?! He hit some of the rocks away. How was he supposed... to... wait, what was that just now? His eyes had taken a glimpse of something... something between the rocks. He started to search as the trio of Wong's magical servants approached. His hands caught onto something that clearly wasn't a rock or anything similar. Could it be...?

Yes! Yes it was!

* * *

"Caleb, just let me help you!" Cornelia told the rebel boy, who was trying to stand on his own.

"I said... that I can do it," Caleb told her while getting up; "myself."

However, Cornelia quickly took him, putting one of his arms over her shoulders. "Stop being an arrogant doofus, and let me help!"

Caleb snorted, knowing that discussing with this girl was a dead end. Prideful as no other, firm as steel in her decisions. That was Cornelia. So he yielded and let the Earth Guardian to carry him.

The cave was in complete and utter chaos. Taranee and Hay Lin were fighting against Tristan, the scorpion's fast movements making him able to dodge their attacks, the two Guardians knowing they couldn't unleash a firestorm due to where they were. However, Ross wasn't having such a dilemma, shooting fire with the Dragon Talisman and using the Pig to accompany eye-beams to it.

Blocking and counterattacking was Daolon Wong, this leaving an opportunity for Will, Irma and Jade (now back in human form and carried by the redhead) to join and fly towards them. As soon as they met with the blonde and the brunette boy, Will called for the Fire and Air Guardians, the latter unleashing a current of air that struck the scorpion Shapeshifter and gave them time to flee. Tristan decided to shift back to human form and ran to Roberta's aid, not willing to leave a teammate unconscious in a war zone.

"What's going on?" Cornelia asked.

"Well, first; guy who screams attack names appears and defeats the bird bitch, then Wong attacks him with his creepy henchmen, then this guy shows up and starts firing freaking laser beams from his eyes!" Irma explained in an incredibly fast fashion.

"I don't know who this guy is, but he's using Talismans," Jade explained.

"Those things from that dragon you and Jackie defeated?" Hay Lin asked. "So, he's a good guy?"

"Or he could've stolen them," Taranee pointed out.

"We can't be sure," Will said as she looked at the clashing adversaries. "Let them fight."

"Wait, what?" Taranee asked. "Will, you can't be serious, these guys are going to bring the whole cave down!"

"They'll tire before doing that," Will told her friend. "And we can use a few minutes to catch our breaths. How's everyone?"

"Caleb has some bones broken," Cornelia informed her leader.

"I'm in a perfect..." Caleb started to say, just for Cornelia to poke at his ribs, making him to squeal in pain. "I... may have broken something in my fight with the Shapeshifter."

"Alright, Caleb, stay out of this," Will ordered, looking back at the fighting wizard and agent. "Everyone, be ready to step in."

* * *

"Fall, you worthless rabble!" Wong proclaimed as he shot beam after beam of dark chi towards Ross.

The agent met the beams with his own, thanks to the power of both Dragon and Pig Talismans. This old man was firing too fast, thus preventing him from changing from one Talisman to another. Ross was sure that he only needed one quick telekinetic wave of the Roaster and he could send Wong flying.

"You fool!" Wong continued his rant. "In the moment my warriors came back from dealing with that man, I shall teach you your proper place!" _And four of the Twelve Powers will be mine! The Mask will be mine! Meridian will be mine! I have had enough of playing second fiddle to idiots that don't know how to properly recognize my genius!_ "To me, my warriors!" Wong commanded.

And the warriors came, except not in the way Wong was expecting. The three orange-skinned humanoid creatures appeared from the hole they had entered in Hak Foo's pursue, except they didn't land on their feet, instead falling without grace to the ground, unconscious and beaten, becoming clouds of smoke shortly after, their wounds too great to maintain themselves in this plane. The balls of smoke returned to Wong's staff, the wizard looking at this fact with a dumbfounded expression. "Warriors?" he asked.

"They were defeated by their better!" Hak Foo's voice came next, except it sounded... deeper, less human. The enforcer was the one to step out of the hole now, looking exactly the same as before... except for the face. All present looked in horror as how Hak Foo's face was now covered into what undoubtedly was an Oni Mask.

Specifically, a red Oni Mask, no horns or any other distinctive mark at exception of two hairy eyebrows, yellow eyes and a mouth full of fangs exhibiting a grin. The color and scaly skin of the Mask in conjunction with Hak Foo's own red moustache and long hair; gave the enforcer a fearsome and demonic appearance, almost as if his whole cranium and mane had become some kind of crimson carapace.

"I feel like I could shatter a mountain!" Hak Foo proclaimed proudly. He then looked at the wizard and the agent, proceeding to shift his gaze to the Guardians after that. "But why keep all the glory for myself?" the Black Tiger said, extending his arms forward. "Demon summons soldiers!"

Shadows stirred all over the place, and ten puddles of shadows formed around Hak Foo, a creature appearing from each. They were Shadowkhan, no doubt about that, but they were enormously different from the ones Jade had previously seen and was accustomed to. They were tall and slender creatures standing over four sharp legs with tiny spikes all over them. Their arms were thin and long, and where hands should be, they had two long and curved claws reminiscent of some kind of insects. On the top of their triangular torsos the creatures' triangular heads, garbed in dark clothing, looked at them with just one, big and narrowed red visor that seemed to be their only eye.

" _Those_ are Shadowkhan?" Cornelia asked. "Ugh! They look like giant bugs!"

"They look like... mantises?" Taranee said, not without a bit of doubt. Why would Shadowkhan look like bugs?

"They're Mantis Khan!" Irma, Hay Lin and Jade said in unison.

"More!" Hak Foo commanded, and another ten of the Mantis Khan appeared to join the previous ones. In each of the tunnels, shadows started to move and produce more of the creatures. In a matter of seconds, Hak Foo had raised his own small army. "Attack like warriors!" the enforcer ordered, and more than two dozens of Mantis Khan launched themselves with the intention to cut to shreds anything that wasn't their master.

"Okay!" Will said, giving a few steps back. "We maybe should be thinking about an escape route!"

* * *

While the four-way battle progressed, Ludmoore had finally reached his destination; a chamber deep within the mountain, sealed centuries away. A couple of his spells were enough to get rid of the already damaged wards, time having taken its toll on them. No spell was infallible, no incantation eternal. In the end, everything must wither and gave path to something new.

 _There we are; everything as it had been planned_ ; Ludmoore thought as he looked around the chamber, his eyes quickly ignoring the statues of medieval knights around and focusing into the small altar that was in the center. Over the altar was a tomb modeled after some dead knight clad in a black armor that resembled a strange kind of hound, and in that knight's hands was a bastard sword, its blade black and the hilt modeled after some kind of roaring beast. _The Sword of the Berserker_ … Ludmoore thought as he approached the altar.

"Do you know the story behind that blade?"

Ludmoore froze. Stopping in his tracks, the well dressed smuggler narrowed his eyes and let his hands to become fists, dark blue sparks of Raw Magic coursing through them. Of course it couldn't be so easy. Okay, remember to not lose control of the cold personality and…

"I'm afraid I don't know all the details;" Ludmoore answered, maintaining the faked cold demeanor he had been using with anyone that wasn't part of his family. "I know that it is the Sword of Thanatos, the twin brother of Hypnos. Just like his sibling created a Horn that could enthrall masses to the one blowing it, Thanatos created a sword that could kill anything just by piercing it, the user becoming as strong as a demon. So the legend says."

"Oh, that's just half of the tale;" the voice, a woman's voice if Ludmoore was certain, said. "You see, Hypnos and Thanatos were the children of a meridianite nobleman, cousins to the Princess and later Queen of their time. While Hypnos was completely dedicated to the matters of court, Thanatos was to the battlefield," a purple butterfly descended from above, flying around the sword. However, it avoided touching its hilt or any other part of the weapon. "In order to further their goals, they purchased parts of deceased demons' bodies, and forged the Horn and the Sword from them." More butterflies appeared and joined the first one, until a swarm was flying in front of the sword, taking the shape of a body. "But while the Horn could entrance the masses, they needed constant command; and while the Sword gave its wielder immense physical strength and the ability to kill almost anything that moved… oh, that power came at such a high price. That's the reason is more known as Sword of the Berserker than Sword of Thanatos," the butterflies flew out, leaving Nimue behind, the woman standing in front of Ludmoore with her arms folded over her generous chest. "I won't let you take it, King Smuggler. The fight above us, the Mask that was relocated here… those were your doing, weren't day?"

"I needed a distraction," Ludmoore told the woman while retaining his cool. "May I know your name? Since you already known mine, apparently."

"Men like you don't need to know anything," Nimue threatened him. "Look at you, the cold and greedy man playing with things he doesn't understand. You don't understand what those Masks really are. You don't even plan to use this Sword yourself, do you? You just want to sell it, either to that Escanor boy or those rebels… and you don't give a damn about what you can unleash as long as you can make a profit. Sometimes I wonder why men like you can't simply know their place."

Ludmoore didn't answer to the woman. He was putting each bit of his effort into not letting his mask of coldness to crack and be broken. This was the type of people that Charles Ludmoore despised the most. Men like him didn't need to know anything? Ah, the King Smuggler could read between those lines very well. Of course men like him didn't need to know anything, because people like her were already there to know for him; to act for him, even if he didn't desire so. It was people like this woman who were a hindrance to change. She had called him greedy; well, he could call her arrogant!

"Nothing to say? Then go away, little man. I have bigger fishes to deal with." Nimue asked with an amused grin as she thought about the Oni mask above. She could feel its power being used, which meant that someone was suing it. She hoped the wearer wasn't a good man, otherwise she would feel incredibly bad by killing him.

Ludmoore pointed a palm towards Nimue, shooting a ball of dark blue magic towards her. The woman answered by raising her left hand and blocking it with her own stream of raw Magic, of a light purplish tone. She counterattacked shortly after with a purple lightning, which Ludmoore blocked by holding up both hands and muttering some words on Latin. The lighting struck a wall of deep blue and shattered.

"Ohoho! Someone knows a couple of big spells on Raw Magic!" the woman commented. "That was based on Crowley's studies, wasn't it? Yes, just like those roses on your home, so problematic if I want to take a peek inside… But if I can't use Raw Magic against you…" Nimue raised her right hand and muttered a couple of incantations in Mandarin. Chinese words appeared on the air, surrounding Ludmoore. "Then Chi Magic should suffice!"

The King Smuggler didn't have time to think about anything useful or conjure another of his shields before the explosion hit him. And as Nimue stood where she had been the whole time, the dust resulted of the impact cleared, and Ludmoore was seen, barely maintaining himself over his feet, his entire upper body bathed in blood, the jacket and shirt of his suit blown to bits. Panting and gasping for air, his left hand was gripping the black orb Wong had given him before.

 _That… that was Chi Magic!_ Ludmoore thought in disbelief. "How… can you…?"

"Use both types of magic at the same time?" Nimue finished his question for him. "Oh, at its core, both Raw and Chi Magic are founded over channeling one's life-force in the form of spells. Of course, if you learn and accustom yourself to one, then it's pretty difficult to learn to use the other, especially in just one lifetime. Of course, that's not a problem for me!" Nimue said proudly, charging more magic in her hands.

 _This is a battle I cannot win, if it can be called battle at all…_ Ludmoore thought, just to threw the black orb towards her as his train of thought progressed. _But if Raw and Chi Magic are the same at their cores… then it means Chi Magic must follow similar rules to Raw Magic! It means… it must also follow oaths! What an amazing discovery I have made…_ the black sphere cracked and exploded in a cloud of dark purple smoke, something taking form behind it as the King Smuggler started to teleport away. _It seems that thanks to this defeat, I can guarantee future victories…_

Nimue didn't pay too much attention to the teleporting knowledge broker. No, she wasn't one to pay attention to that kind of threats. Demons, monsters, and their servants, those were her enemies. Could a human bring more harm than a demon? No, she thought not of it. Let Kandrakar and its likes to deal with Ludmoore and Phobos, her aim was pointed towards much bigger beings. And speaking of bigger beings…

"GROARGH!" the enormous ogre that had emerged from the smoke roared at her. The witch surveyed the creature with a quirked eyebrow and the same amused grin she had been sporting through her whole clash with Ludmoore. She proceeded to stretch her limbs and take a huge breath in. Then she let a battle cry escape her throat and, empowering her whole body with magic, she launched herself towards the ogre.

* * *

"Demon breaks through dragon flames!" Hak Foo exclaimed as he charged into another blast of the Dragon Talisman, his body instinctively surrounding itself with protective magical shadows. He broke through Quentin's attack and appeared right in front of the agent. "Titan shatters human!" the Black Tiger exclaimed, punching Quentin in the gut and sending him flying this time.

Around the two clashing men, the Guardians, Jade (again in her wolf form), Wong and his two Shapeshifters (Roberta again conscious and transformed) fought against Hak Foo's Shadowkhan, the horde growing in number as time passed. The Mantis Khan had turned out to be even stronger than they had firstly appeared to be; being quite fast, their insect-like claws able to cut through almost anything that was thrown at them and their four legs making them able to climb over the walls and ceiling of the cave. If not as versatile as the Ninja Khan, the Mantis Khan proved to be much more oriented into the attack department, which went very well with the personality of the man wearing their General's Mask now.

"Demon tears weak human!" the empowered Hak Foo shouted as he delivered a kick to Quentin's left arm, sending the agent to the ground totally defeated, albeit still conscious. A small, hexagonal rock fell from his hand and rolled over the ground then. However, as Hak Foo loomed over him prepared to dispatch the finishing blow, the earthquake came.

The walls cracking, the tunnels collapsing, the whole cave trembling. Even someone as arrogant as Hak Foo knew that not even with his new powers could he survive being buried in rocks.

"Another time then," the enforcer said. "Demon retreats to the shadows!" Hak Foo called for a retreat, two Mantis Khan appearing at his side and helping him to enter a puddle of darkness that formed at his feet. The army of Mantis Khan disappeared too, following their commander.

"Archmage!" Tristan, again in his scorpion form, screamed while he and Roberta dodged falling debris. "We must flee!"

"I know!" Wong answered as he kneeled and took the Talisman that had fallen from Quentin, the agent slowly coming to his feet after the beatdown he had received from Hak Foo. _At least this is better than nothing_ , he thought. Then he waved his staff, and the old wizard disappeared alongside the two Changelings.

Ross, still with the Roaster Talisman in his power, from that he was sure; started to levitate away towards one of the tunnels, leaving the girls and Caleb behind.

"Nice girls!" the Keeper of the Heart heard Blunk's voice. Below them, the Passling was waving at them from what looked to be the less damaged tunnel. "Over here, follow Blunk!"

"Cornelia, cover us!" Will yelled to the Earth Guardian.

The blonde did as been told, stopping the collapse of the cave as best as she could. She was the last one entering the tunnel. Then her hold over the cave disappeared. The cave collapsed, rocks covering the entrance to the tunnel.

And darkness was everything that was left.

* * *

"Light of Meridian!" Tristan screamed as Wong's teleportation brought him, the wizard and Roberta out. "What was that?!"

"A totally different tribe of Shadowkhan," Wong explained while his two companions reverted to their human forms. Roberta tumbled a bit over her feet, her body still pained from Hak Foo's attack. "One much more oriented to aggressive offensive, akin to cavalry, and that should have been in my possession..." Wong looked down at his palm, where a Talisman with the drawing of a magenta pig waited. "But this shall do as a good consolation prize. Now hold your voices, I need to concentrate."

 _You won't have any problem with that_ , Tristan thought. Roberta didn't even say a word, and he had a lot to think about. Julian's son. The rebel leader was that man's son. Had... had Julian been the leader before him? Had he ordered...? But if he had, then why do that in order to save...?

"Yes..." Wong's voice took him out of his thoughts. The Dark Chi Wizard was holding the Pig Talisman in one hand, while in the other's palm had opened a circular, worm-like mouth. It was disgusting. Wong pointed the mouth towards the Talisman, and soon energy started to be siphoned from the hexagonal rock towards the mouth. When the process ended, the mouth closed and the Talisman crumbled into dust. Wong stood up and his eyes lighted in yellowish energy. _I would have preferred the power of the Dragon, but..._ He proceeded to fire his new eye beams towards the sky.

"The power of the Pig Talisman is mine!"

* * *

 ** _Inside the mountain_**

"Please tell me everyone is okay," Will's voice sounded through the darkness.

"Alive and breathing, captain;" Irma's snarky comment came, proof of her wellbeing.

"Me too!" Hay Lin said. "But there's something very heavy over me! Like a rock but... soft?"

"That's me!" Cornelia protested. "And who're you calling heavy?"

"Oh, my poor head..." Taranee complained with a dizzy voice. "Who's hand is that?!"

"Oops, sorry friend;" Jade's voice came next.

"Can someone please light a torch or something?" Caleb voice was the next one, after which he coughed a couple of times.

"Not a torch, but..." Taranee opened her hand and created a fireball over it that casted light over them. The Guardians, Shapeshifter and rebel leader were still in the tunnel they had entered as the cave collapsed, the entrance sealed by rocks. All of them must have fallen over one another due to the tremor, because aside from Blunk, they were all on top of one another. It took them a couple of minutes to come to their feet.

"And now... what?" Hay Lin asked.

Will looked up and at her sides. "Taranee, can you hold on that flame in human form?"

"I think so."

The redhead held the Heart up. "We're de-transforming. This place is too small to fly and we need to catch our breaths."

There was the usual flash of pink, and in the blink of an eye, the Guardians were five normal girls again.

"Someone, help out Caleb to move;" Will instructed, knowing already that Cornelia would be the one to help him. "Okay," she said looking ahead. "Blunk, guide us to a less damaged part of the mountain. Once there, Cornelia; I need you to open a tunnel."

"No problem," the blonde told her as she put Caleb's arm around her shoulders again. Without the body enhancement of being a Guardian, she noted how he was much heavier that he let on.

* * *

 _Ah… that's what I call a real fight!_ Nimue thought as she looked at her fallen foe, the enormous ogre lying on the ground of the chamber, having been killed by the witch. "An ogre from old Tibet, if I'm not mistaken… Ludmoore probably took it from Wong as payment. Those greedy men and Dark Wizards… dealing with demons would be half the work without them around."

The witch approached the altar in which the Sword of Thanatos was still waiting to be picked up by anyone that had the bravery (or maybe idiocy) to hold it. Instead of picking it up, Nimue summoned a white blanket that wrapped itself around the weapon and lifted it in the air.

"I came here for a Mask… but I suppose taking this thing is more important. You were made from the remnants of Abbadon, weren't you, my little sword? Uhm… you aren't a demon per se, and you could be useful for something I have in mind. Now the question is; is out there someone with enough strength of will to hold you?"

The purple butterflies returned to her then, enveloping both her body and the covered sword. And so they disappeared, leaving only the corpse of a giant ogre behind.

* * *

Without the sound of the battle going on around, the party found itself walking through silent and dark tunnels, Taranee's fireball their only source of light and none of them very prone to talk. Many were tired, others were worried about the fact that they had spent around an hour fighting and of how Knickerbocker was going to react once they returned. And Jade… Jade wanted to talk with Jackie. Not only because Hak Foo was in Heatherfield and had gotten his hands (or rather, face) into an Oni Mask, which was incredibly problematic on itself; but because of the mysterious man that had appeared using Talismans. And a part of her was suspicious that her uncle knew something about that. She needed to have a talk with him.

"Here, here!" Blunk said cheerfully. "Blunk found a very good spot!"

The girls and rebel teen approached the spot the Passling was pointing to. It was a tunnel, a tunnel in almost a perfect condition that leaded upwards, and at this end, light could be spotted. It was an exit.

"Thank you, Blunk;" Will thanked the greenish dwarf. "You're a life saver."

The girls, rebel and Passling entered the tunnel and walked up it until they exited to the exterior again. Once there they breathed fresh air in and decided to return to the inn, hopping that Knickerbocker wouldn't have noticed their absence.

* * *

 ** _A long walk and a reprimand later_**

"You're in detention during recess for the rest of the week?" Matt asked Will as the two of them were taking their backpacks and heading back to their bus.

"Not only me," Will told the boy. "All of us, and just because we were out during only an hour!"

"You were missing after the whole hour after lunch," Nigel, walking alongside Matt and her, told the redhead girl. "I find pretty normal that Knickerbocker was worried about you."

 _Wasn't this guy supposed to be some kind of 'screw the rules' boy?_ Will thought. Goss, he sounds just like Taranee…

"Hey Nigel, where's Reggie? He was also missing after lunch and I didn't hear anyone asking about him," Matt told his best friend.

The male redhead, however, raised an eyebrow in pure confusion. "What're you talking about man? Who's Reggie?"

Matt wanted to told him about all the good times they had passed with Reggie… but he found himself unable to remember anything. He couldn't even remember the boy's face! Almost as if he had never know him, which was the only explanation. Yeah… who the hell was Reggie?

* * *

"Sweet Jesus…" Quentin said as he made the last rock blocking his path to levitate away with the help of his faithful Roaster talisman. He had exited the mountain's tunnels on the exact opposition that the girls had done, and since he had no way of having an empowered body, he felt completely worn out. He had been able to use telekinesis to more or less put his left arm's bones together, but he was sure that he would need to go to the hospital. Why hadn't he picked the Horse Talisman? Why in the name of the Good Lord hadn't he picked the damned Horse Talisman?! Still, the pain didn't stop him from taking out his notebook and write something down with his good arm.

Diary of Quentin Ross. Entry 138

 _I've gone to the mountains. Found Hak Foo. Found a weird looking old man that could fire laser beams. Found Chan's niece with her new friends… who can transform in a giant wolf and pixies, respectively. Gotta ask Chan about that. Engaged Hak Foo and the old man in a fight with Talismans. Easy at first. Then Hak Foo got this weird mask that summoned weird bugs… beat the crap out of me. In the confusion, lost the Pig Talisman, Wong took it. Still got the Snake, the Roaster and… wait._

Wait.

He was searching in his pockets now. Where was the Dragon? Where the hell was the Dragon?!

* * *

The Dragon Talisman was way too far from Quentin Ross. It was currently in the streets of Heatherfield, going up and down in the air while being thrown upwards by no other than Reggie, the teenager looking at his little prize with a happy and malicious grin.

"I cannot believe how incredibly profitable this little trip has been," Reggie said as he entered an alley. There, a circle of light started to travel all the way up his body, until the glamour covering it faded away, revealing Nerissa Crossnic's form. "And to think I followed my boy all the way up to the mountains just to see what Wong was planning and gather a bit of information in the new Guardians' combat progression… Ha! A little glamour here, a little mind-trick there, a small invisibility spell, and no one paid attention to me taking this… Talisman, was it? No, they were fighting, those idiots."

Nerissa looked at the Dragon Talisman, the rock resting over her flesh hand. She thought for a moment before pointing her index finger towards a spot in her metallic left forearm. "Quintessence," she whispered, putting the smallest amounts of energy in the spell. Whitish blue sparks formed in her wrinkled and dried fingertip, and a part of her metallic forearm melted and formed a hexagonal hole. She put the Dragon Talisman there, the object fitting perfectly.

The overly old woman looked then with amazement as how the drawing of the dragon in the talisman lighted up, energy coursing through her body. She pointed her flesh arm towards a small trashcan in the alley, firing a beam of flame that enveloped and melted it. And she knew that was not even a ten percent of the power this little rock had. I was not Heart, but it was an advantage anyway.

Nerissa let out a sinister, triumphal laugh and waved her staff, opening a Portal in the Veil. She crossed it victorious, the fallen Guardian happy with what she had obtained. After all, if there was someone able to gain advantage even in the middle of utter chaos, that was Nerissa Crossnic.

* * *

 _The key to tip the balance of any situation in your favor lies into introducing an unknown factor. Do something unexpected and chaotic; even if at first it seems to not favor even yourself. Watch from the sidelines how it develops, and when everyone is confused and tired, then step in and you will be able to gain the most of them all._ Bartholomew Chang.

* * *

 **A/N: I bet that no one was expecting for Hak Foo to get a Mask that it's not the one of the Leech/Mini Khan. Anyway, I used the Mantis Khan Mask because… because I actually wanted to see it in action in the show, and it got the least screen time of them all. Next chapter should be way smaller than this one, and with not so much chaotic action.**

 **Anyway, great news everybody! Thanks to the awesome Zim'sMostLoyalServant, this fic has now a TvTropes Page! Hurray! It's pretty small for now, but if you want to give it a look or contribute, there it is.**

 **And I suppose that's all. I hope you enjoyed this chapter and hope you'll leave a review to tell me how you have seen it.**

 **Bye, bye!**


	10. Prelude to the Storm of War

**Disclaimer: I own neither the WITCH cartoon-show nor Jackie Chan Adventures; they are the property of their respective creators, writers, and producers.**

 **Author's Notes: Here comes chapter ten. No action for anyone in this chapter, just talking and the prelude for the Torus Filney chaps. And once those are done, I'll take a rest. Anyway, thanks to all reviewers, followers and the like; and many thanks to all that had decided to give a look to and/or edit the TvTropes page for this story. You're all awesome, people! Enjoy your read and please, leave a review.**

* * *

Guardians, Wizards and Kung-Fu Fighters

Episode Ten

Prelude to the Storm of War

* * *

 ** _Heatherfield; Ludmoore manor_**

"You look like a mummy, brother."

Charles frowned at Cedric's witty remark, looking at his sibling with slightly narrowed eyes. Early in the morning, the two Ludmoore brothers took advantage of being in the same world and usually have breakfast together all days. Then Charles would just teleport Cedric to Ye Olde Book Shop and the eldest would resume his usual duties. Being a broker for a war in another world while making sure his public image of directing the city's waste treatment didn't leave the most extended of free times, after all. The only reason he had been able to go to the mountains had been just because he could teleport and he had delegated some duties.

"Ha, ha;" Charles laughed drily. "You never cease to amaze me with your clever choice of words, Cedric."

But Cedric's statement wasn't too far away from reality. Charles wasn't wearing any clothing aside from a pair of pants, but there was little skin to see. His torso and majority of his face were covered in bandages, and the same could be said about arms, hands, legs and feet. Over the bandages, strange runes had been drawn, enchanting the bandages and healing Charles.

"I take your little plan to take that sword Cyrus spoke Miranda about didn't go as well as you expected;" Cedric said as he put two mugs of coffee over the table he and Charles were sitting at. The main dining room of the Ludmoore manor was a huge rectangular room with high ceiling and little ornamentation, and in its center stood an also rectangular table with five chairs. And over two of those chairs, were Charles and Cedric. Not too far from the pair rested a small document composed of various pages, with the word 'Carhaiz' written over its cover; ready to be sent to Vathek in the appropriate moment.

"The distraction worked better than planned," Charles explained. "But when I was going to take the Sword of the Berserker, a sorceress got in the way. She..." Charles hesitated a bit with the words. "She completely humiliated me, forced me to use the ogre I had taken from Wong, and fled without the sword."

Cedric thought about this information for a bit. His brother was no Heart bearer, neither was he an energy-leech like Phobos, but he was no novice in the matters of magic either. Training since childhood with their father, Charles knew as many formulas in Raw Magic as tomes were in the manor's library. The fact that he had been bested so easily was a very troublesome thought.

"Do you know who she is?" The snake asked.

"Not until I speak with our partner," Charles stated. "Only then I will be sure."

"Alright," Cedric said, taking a sip from his mug. "Now, can you explain to me why you are so calm?"

"The sorceress; that witch..." Charles explained. "She could use both Raw and Chi Magic, at the same time."

Cedric's blue eyes widened in surprise behind his fake glasses as he almost chocked in his coffee. He let the mug down and quickly took a napkin in order to clean his nostrils, from where two small trails of coffee were falling.

"What?!" the Snake of Cavigor let out a scream. "But... but that's impossible!"

"So I believed," Charles told his sibling. "But I was proven wrong. Do you know what this means? It means that Chi Magic must also be..."

"Subjected to the same laws and oath-keeps that Raw Magic is..." Cedric ended Charles' phrase. "Then, the plan can be...!"

"No," Charles quickly sentenced. "I won't rush our operation based on this, brother. And I'm not willing to sacrifice a well-founded partnership just for taking a few months for a plan our family has been working on for centuries. But it would be stupid to not take advantage of this... Let's see..." Charles thought for a second before grinning. "Wong."

"Wong?" Cedric inquired.

"Wong was searching for that Mask for himself, not Phobos;" Charles said. "Which means he has finally decided to work for himself rather than work for the Prince. And I do wonder if our dear Archmage would be grateful for... a bit of help."

Cedric sighed. "So on top of deceiving the Princess, I must also deceive Wong? My charms won't work as good over him as they do over little Elyon;" Cedric paused for a moment. "Or so I hope."

Charles let out a small laughter. "I think you won't have any problem to make Wong believe you have treacherous intentions towards the Prince. And speaking of your charms... Miranda has been asking a lot of questions about you lately."

"Has she?" Cedric asked as he continued to sip his coffee.

"Cedric," Charles eyed his brother, using a very serious tone this time. For a moment, time seemed to stay still. "We are in the verge of attaining success on the first stage of the operattion. And that girl, albeit not knowing about our plan in its entirety, knows about our nature. And I told you that, if you rush things and this ends up like one of the girls from our..."

"It has nothing to do with that," Cedric cut him. "When I found Miranda years ago..." Cedric hesitated again, and then he took air in and continued. "When I found her, in the time the Rebellion was yet to be something else apart from armed commoners killing anything with a noble's robe; Miranda was a mere child. No older than a seven year old. She was living in the wild, she had made herself a small settling in a cave, where she lured wild animals she proceeded to capture with her web. I found her in one of my expeditions and when I turned my hand to her..."

"And she was grateful," Charles helped him. "Not scared, or honored... just grateful."

"I'm a violent man Charles, I don't hide it. I'm a manipulator and a liar, just as you are. I enjoy those parts of me, and mother trained me so I could take advantage of them." Cedric stated. "But it's nice to having someone aside from Cyrus and you that looks at me as something else than a pretty face or a weapon."

"Have you ever looked at her as something else than a pretty face too?" Charles inquired. He received no answer. "I told you that this family could use a feminine touch again. And if you feel that way and you said you found her killing... then, who knows? Maybe you have found someone that can be violent or a liar with you."

Cedric chuckled and rose to his feet. "I will be going, the books won't sell themselves."

"You _do_ enjoy the whole bookseller thing, don't you?" Charles asked with a smirk.

"It's relaxing," Cedric admitted with his own smirk as Charles prepared to teleport him. "I will look into Wong as I bring the Princess closer to Phobos. After all, I think that they already are preparing the..."

* * *

 ** _Across the Veil, Meridian, the castle_**

"Ritual of Amalgamation?"

Wong's question lingered in the air of the room he, Phobos and two servants were currently in. It was a bluish room that Phobos used in order to discuss military or magic concerning matters in private. In its center was a spherical object made of crystal and surrounded by golden bars. In one side was a balcony that provided sight to Phobos' gardens of black roses, and in the other end a map of Meridian, showing the large continent that the kingdom mainly occupied, alongside the various small isles that composed the whole planet. Small planet, small world; not as big as Earth. Not even remotely. Perhaps that was why it was so... malleable in comparison? In truth, that could be said about any world that wasn't Earth. Earth was diverse like no other world. Its sheer amount of population, even if it was solely composed of humans, guaranteed a spectrum of civilizations across the planet. That made it harsh to gain control over them all. Wong hated that. Worlds like Meridian were way easier to control, to gain power over. And Wong was decided to gain that control. And speaking of control...

"Yes Wong, the Ritual of Amalgamation;" Phobos told his not-so-loyal-anymore Archmage. It was such a rare sight, seeing the Prince away from his throne, away from his beloved thorns... "Now that Cedric has found my sister and gained her confidence while under his disguise on Earth, it is time to make her to come to us willingly. The ritual shall provide that, erasing her mind's defenses against us. Cedric's tongue will do the rest."

"But why, my Prince?" Wong asked, faking loyalty. The old wizard approached the spherical object. "If Cedric has located her, why not bring her here and steal her power now?"

"A Heart has to be willingly given," Phobos said. "Even if I am heir to its power as much as my sister is, she is still the preferred host by the Heart of Meridian due to being female. If she doesn't trust me, then taking her power by force could completely backfire. That is the reason why, in order for this ritual to succeed, I need symbols of her Mind, Body and Spirit."

"And why am I needed here, my Prince?" Wong asked.

"Even if it is a simple ritual once Cedric has collected the symbols, it will need your supervision. I suppose this task is easy enough so you won't fail again;" Phobos said. "That is all, you are free to go."

"Yes, my liege;" Wong answered, bowing so Phobos couldn't see his teeth gritting in pure anger. "As you wish."

* * *

 _Worthless buffoon!_ Wong thought as he walked towards his alchemical laboratory. _To think I have wasted five years of my life serving that fool... To think I respected him once!_

Wong turned around a corner and opened the gates to his lab. The usual smell to boiling potions hit him and tranquilized his mood. Daolon Wong wasn't an arrogant man, and thus knew the limits of his abilities. He knew that Phobos was stronger than him in what amounted to sheer magic power. And even if Wong had the means to absorb chi from other creatures thanks to the modifications done to his body in order to emulate the abilities of the Jiangshi species, he couldn't siphon pure life-force from a planet like Phobos did. That had left the Dark Chi Wizard to search for ways to fill the gap between the Prince and him. And that lead to...

"Did you find it?" Wong asked to the other occupant of the laboratory.

"Yes," the growling voice of a Lurden came as its owner stepped out of the shadows, carrying a wooden box. Interesting creatures, the Lurdens; their main motivation for joining Phobos was their fear of being wiped out. As such, a bit of coercion from Wong and the promise of a better condition under him than under Phobos, and a Lurden could be shifted to his side. Of course the old man had not gathered all the Lurdens around him, just a few he had been able to seduce with a couple of magic tricks. No, calling an obedient army to one's side wasn't so easy. Anyway, this was supposed to be able to change that fact.

The Lurden opened the box and Wong approached him, taking the object that rested inside. In his hands was now a large golden horn like the ones used to call for help in battle, but Wong knew it to be much more than that.

"The Horn of Hypnos," Wong said satisfied. Yes, this was the companion artifact to the Sword of Thanatos; the horn that could transform crowds of strangers into obedient puppets. Why had Phobos never used it before? Perhaps its abilities had been exaggerated over the centuries? In order to discern legend from truth, Wong pointed the artifact towards the Lurden and blew it. The sound of the horn echoed through the laboratory and golden ripples travelled the air. In seconds, the light of free will in the Lurden's eyes disappeared.

"Stand still, don't flee, don't scream;" Wong ordered. "No matter what."

The Lurden obeyed with a nod, and shortly after Wong's eyes lighted with the power of the Pig Talisman. The first shot of heated vision was to the Lurden's gut. Seeing that nothing happened aside from the expected wound, Wong fired another two times, these ones striking the Lurden in the chest. And the creature didn't protest. Wong's last attack was towards the head, and the Lurden fell to the ground, dead.

"Excellent..." Wong muttered. Yes, little steps, that was the key. Let Phobos progress in his own machinations while his weren't noticed. Nothing exaggerated, but yes small movements. The horn and a bit of patience should provide him with enough pawns in order to take control and revenged over the Prince when the appropriate moment came. But he also knew that he alone couldn't do anything, army of puppets or not. He couldn't risk approach Phobos with the Horn of Hypnos either or use it too much, the Whisperers could be watching, and then Phobos would vaporize him.

 _Baby steps, Daolon_ ; Wong told himself. _Baby steps…_

* * *

 ** _Across the Veil; Heatherfield; Hale residence_**

"God morning," Cornelia said alongside a yawn as she entered her home's kitchen.

"Good morning, princess;" Harold told her, already clad in his usual suit and reading a newspaper with a mug full of hot and steamy coffee in front of him. He took a long sip from it, before leaving the mug again in the table and resuming his read. Sometimes, Cornelia wondered how his father was able to take so hot food without any problems. It was not only hot drinks, but also incredibly hot spicy food. "How was the trip to the mountains? You didn't even say anything to us when you returned home last night. You went straight to your room."

Cornelia took a mug from the cupboard and served herself a cup of hot milk. "It was a really tiring trip, dad;" Cornelia told her as she sat down at the table. From the living room, she could hear the noises made by TV alongside Lillian's usual cheers, result of her mom and little sister's watching one of Lillian's shows. _Especially the part in which we fought an army of shadow monsters_ , she added in her head. _And mom's going to be incredibly angry when she learns about next week's detention…_

"Well, but you had fun, didn't you?" Harold asked as he folded his newspaper, cleaned his moustache and rose from his seat. "And in contrast with people like me, you have the whole weekend to relax. Never become an adult, princess."

"Are you going already?" Cornelia asked of her father.

"Money never sleeps, Cornelia;" Harold told his daughter before planting a kiss in her cheek. "So better get going, listen to your mother, and be nice to Lillian. Good bye, I love you!"

"Dad, wait;" Cornelia told him, making Harold halt and turn towards her. Cornelia waited a few seconds to talk. "Love you too."

Harold dedicated one last smile to the Earth Guardian before leaving the kitchen, go to the living room, say good bye to his wife and youngest daughter too and leave for work. And Cornelia was left alone in the kitchen as she prepared a toast in their toaster and ate it while looking down at he cup.

She loved her father, but 'Love you too' wasn't the thing she had wanted to say. No, she had wanted to ask about Bartholomew Chang, and more precisely about Hak Foo. Even if she was in one of the tunnels during the fight in the mountains, helping Caleb out of it and thus she hadn't seen the Black Tiger before putting in the Oni Mask; Cornelia was smart enough to recognize one of the men her family and her had eaten with weeks ago. And that very same man had tried to kill her and her friends. In the way back to Heatherfield, Jade had told them all that the man's name was Hak Foo, and that he worked for something called Dark Hand, a crime syndicate of sorts. But why was a man like that with her father? Truly, her father couldn't be a criminal; that was for sure. Right?

No, that was ridiculous! Every time she had met one of her father's co-workers, they had nothing but praise about him! His leadership skills when a problem rose in the bank, how friendly he was, how helpful he was! They said that he was a natural born leader, but that he maintained himself humble! That he truly was an admirable person! That was one of the reasons Cornelia had tried to always be the best on everything. True, she could never be as smart as Taranee, but she had good grades, she was a gold-medal winner in ice skating and she always dressed properly! Everyone in Sheffield admired her, because she deserved so! And she was proud of that, because it was right to be proud of her accomplishments! Because she was admirable, just like her father was; right?

Right?

* * *

 ** _Chang's building_**

Jackie hated this. No, that wasn't all, he didn't explicitly hate this. He hated the fact that his current situation wasn't hateful enough. Since the first moment he had started to work undercover in Chang's organization, he had expected for the Taiwanese crime lord to put him in an uncomfortable situation. But he hadn't, and that was the worst part of it all.

Chang hadn't forced him to participate in some sort of robbery or kidnapping or an assassination… No, the provisional leader of the Dark Hand's American branch had put Jackie Chan to do what he did best. And that was the identification and classification of artistic pieces or antiques. In resume, Jackie Chan was practically doing his everyday job, working as an expert archeologist in a small office. And to top it of, it seemed that the prospect of paying him hadn't been a bluff, Chang and Harold had a bank account opened for him in which money was being deposited almost every week. And his everyday wasn't anything out of the blue, either.

Men and women in suits would come in and left paperwork detailing different art objects, or even pieces of art in their own... which he supposed were from robberies or any other criminal operation. He would read and inspect them, leave them in a small pile once he had given them an approbation and the same people from before would come back and take them.

Jackie knew exactly what he was doing. He was cataloging stolen pieces of art, some of them ancient and that deserved to be in a museum rather than in a private vault in order to be sold in the black market to some hedonistic rich man. And yet it was so easy to let one self's mind go and enjoy it, the details, the cataloging, the descriptions and overall information! And the men and women that would come in and out would always act properly and politely. Like normal people in a normal job would do. There were times Jackie had actually found himself tolerating or even liking them, laughing at some of their jokes. Damn it; was this what Tohru felt while working alongside Finn, Ratso and Chow? The trio of enforcers had never struck him as purely malevolent, especially in comparison with their employers; demonic or human. Was this how Tohru felt while working for Valmont? But a part of Jackie always reminded him that these were criminals, outlaws, people that had chosen the wrong way in life. And yet he found himself doing a great effort into remembering that this wasn't his work, that this wasn't something he should be finding mundane or enjoyable. Quentin had already warned him that this was a possibility.

And it was in that moment that Harold's words came back to haunt him, making the questions to blossom. Who were these men and women? What were their stories, their reasoning? Could some of them be like Harold? Like the three enforcers? Like Tohru? He found himself without enough information to find an answer. Did he really want an answer? What he most wanted now was to finish this and head back home. He actually wanted to know if Jade had enjoyed her trip to the mountains. You know, heard some trivial conversation that made your mind go away from more important matters? Just like normal families did? Jackie chuckled at that. If there was something his family wasn't, that was normal.

"Having fun?" Jackie heard a voice from the door. Looking up from the paperwork, the archeologist met eye to eye with Phillip Crane, the handsome thief leaning against the doorframe of the martial artist's office. "I brought you a present;" he said raising his hands in the air and shaking what seemed to be a... bottle of white wine? Jackie looked at the watch that hanged from his wrist.

"Crane, it's ten in the morning!" Jackie told the handsome man who, with a devilish and amused grin, approached his desk, pullet a couple of glasses from his suit's jacket, and filled them with the wine.

"Not in Siberia," Crane told him, and then his face twisted into one showing faked concern. "Don't tell me you're a red wine person! Ah, man! I should have another bottle in…"

"I don't drink alcohol," Jackie told the thief, maybe sounding more abrupt than intended. Anyway, Crane either didn't notice it or didn't feel offended by it. Probably the latter, since as Jackie had found out, Phillip Crane had to be one of the nicest people he had met in his life. If he didn't know that he was a world-wide professional thief, Jackie would look at him as a complete normal person. And each day that passed the archeologist was sure that it wasn't any kind of act. Crane didn't seem to hide any ill intentions for anyone; and in fact, the handsome man seemed to take pride in being a white-collar criminal never dirtying his hands or employing lethal violence. For Jackie, this contrasted perfectly with the thief's employer. Bartholomew Chang exhibited a calm and composed exterior, but there was something primal in his eyes, a thirst for absolute control buried under the cordial mannerisms and pleasant words. Jackie didn't like one bit, it was if looking at a more experienced and dangerous adaptation of Valmont, and that perspective alone terrified him.

"Really?" a disappointed Crane asked. "Man, another Tommy Chung;" Crane complained. "And then Hak Foo, and now you…" Crane emptied one of the glasses. "It's as if I'm so kind of magnet for you strict martial artists. Your kind is just no fun!"

"Who is Tommy Chung?" Jackie asked, having heard the name a couple of times during his small time inside the organization. Crane took the other glass of wine down his throat before answering.

"Tommy Chung, the Boss' second in command;" Crane explained. "He's still in China, I think, taking care of the branch there before Chang returns. You and he would get along fine. He isn't as harsh as Hak is. And he doesn't drink alcohol, either;" Crane explained as he put the cork back in the bottle.

"He doesn't?" Jackie asked, trying to make the conversation to pass as mundane as possible, when in reality he was trying to get as much information as he could.

"Nah, he has that whole 'my body is a temple' mentality," Crane explained while walking towards the door. "The Boss wants to see you, by the way."

* * *

In his little time inside the Dark Hand, Jackie had found out that Bartholomew Chang wasn't a man who could be considered close to his employees. He delegated on Harold, Crane or Hak Foo, and they were the ones tasked with organizing and directing the employees. Chang spent most of his time in his large office, in the final floor of the building, doing whatever he needed so much privacy for. The only one that seemed to walk in and out without any permission was Harold, the others normally having to be called by their superior.

And that was Jackie's situation right now, knocking at the door of the man he, for better or worse; had to call his 'Boss'. The door opened automatically, and Jackie entered in the office. He was surprised when he found that Chang wasn't alone, but accompanied by a woman he had never seen before in the building. Standing next to the Taiwanese one-handed man was a slim woman of average height, who appeared to be in her late thirties. She had long blonde hair kept up in a ponytail; and outfit wise, she had a white collar shirt, a long red trench coat, black pants, and black boots. However, what got Jackie's attention over all was the golden collar hanging from her throat; a piece of ancient Egyptian jewelry, if Jackie's eyes weren't failing him, and they probably weren't. Why would she be carrying something like that?

"Mr. Chan, as punctual as ever," Chang addressed him. "Please, let me introduce you. Jackie Chan, Vanessa Barone, of the European Branch of the organization."

"This is the guy who got Valmont out of the game, right?" the woman, Vanessa, asked with a half smirk. When Jackie tried to approach her in order to gave a handshake, she just hit him in the back with her opened pal, making Jackie to bend over himself. It hadn't been an aggressive gesture, Jackie was sure of that. "Nice job, pretty face! I always hated that man, so pompous… seemed to have taken a stick up his ass the size of the Buckingham Palace!"

"Uhm… thank you?" Jackie said, recovering from the hit. "You are a… pretty nice lady, Miss Barone."

"Ha!" the woman let out a boisterous laugh. "Ah, been called a lot of things: relic hunter, mercenary, thief. But Vanessa Barone, nice lady? Ha, ha! That is a new one."

"Alright Miss Barone, that's enough;" Chang told her while tapping a box over his desk. "Please, tell Theodore that I'm very grateful for what he had sent us."

"If you say so, Mr. Chang;" Vanessa answered, winking at Jackie after that. "See you around, pretty face," she told Jackie before touching her necklace. "Return to London," she said, and in a second she was enveloped by a golden light and disappeared, leaving an speechless Jackie behind.

"Magic?" Jackie asked of Chang.

"Magic," Chang answered. "An item named Eye of Aurora, to be precise. It's very interesting, actually. You just have to say 'Return to...' and the place you want to go, and you end there."

"Why did you need me?" Jackie asked, changing the conversation's theme. He put the name 'Theodore' in the back of his mind. It would be important to look into it later.

Chang took the box in his hands and handed it to Jackie. Opening it, Jackie was presented with the sight of a pair of golden armbands decorated in what seemed to be Hindu inscriptions. "I want you and that Uncle of yours to check these things. They are called Armbands of Shiva. Supposedly, they can grant... extra arms."

"Extra arms?" Jackie repeated, taking one of the objects in his hands and feeling its weight, its texture. It seemed to be authentic, pure gold; and the inscriptions were some form of archaic chant. "I will look into it."

"Excellent," Chang said with a pleased smile. He then walked behind his desk and looked over to Heatherfield's streets. Hands at his back, Jackie noted how the crime lord's flesh hand was reflexively caressing the one made of jade. "Have I ever told you how I lost my hand?" Chang said, waiting a bit before continuing. "It was years ago, when I had just turned twenty; I used to participate in martial arts tournaments back then. One day, I entered a tournament sponsored by the kind of people that work for me now. As it turned out, they wanted me to lose my next match. The reason they were sponsoring me? They needed control. Over the matches, and over an unknown factor like me. But I disobeyed, Mr. Chan. I won, like I always did. So they took me," Chang said, raising his jade hand; "and cut my hand off."

"Because you disobeyed?" Jackie asked.

"Because I did something unexpected," Chang told the archeologist while still looking at the streets. In them the people of Heatherfield were moving, mending their own business, and the jade-handed man looked at them from his tower, behind a crystal that could resist the impact of a missile. "Because I moved in a different direction than I was supposed to move. And I don't complain about the results. True, I lost my hand; but I learned the most important lesson in my life. I learned to distinguish when I'm in control and when I'm not. I learned how to take advantage of the situations that lose control. Which leads me to my most favorite question in the world, the one I ask myself almost every single day;" Chang asked as he slightly turned his head around and his right eye landed on Jackie. "Am I in control now?"

Jackie didn't give an answer to the crime lord and, fortunately, he didn't have to. Before he could said a word Chang's intercom started ringing, Crane's voice coming from the device shortly after.

"Boss? Hak Foo is back," Crane said.

"Finally," Chang told his underling. "Where has he been?"

"I... think it's better if you come to see by yourself, sir;" Crane told him. "He has... brought things."

Raising an eyebrow, Chang walked towards the door and made a signal to Jackie in order to follow him. The archeologist did so, following in the crime lord's footsteps after taking the armbands' box. What could have Hak Foo possibly done now?

* * *

Money. Tons of money, hundreds of dollars all packed up in bags. That was what Hak Foo had brought... and he hadn't brought it alone. All lined behind the bags of money were a group of Shadowkhan that resembled the ones Jackie was accustomed to only in the red of their eyes. If behind that red visor really were a pair of eyes, or even just one. The lacking of a humanoid form of the Mantis Khan in contrast with the Ninja Khan made Jackie to feel goosebumps.

"What is this?" Chang, standing alongside Crane and a dozen of his employees asked. He didn't sound angry or suspicious, more like genuinely intrigued.

"My apology for a day's absence," Hak Foo's distorted voice came from the shadows. Stepping out of them, Jackie could see (to much of his horror) how his face was covered into a Mask not very different from the one he had seen stuck to Lothar's face. "And the promise of a thousand more victories to come!"

Jackie Chan wasn't a man accustomed to swearing. Especially since Jade had come into his life he had tried to be as best mouthed as possible so his niece wouldn't pick into bad vocabulary from him. However as he saw Hak Foo, one of his already strongest adversaries, wearing an Oni Mask and commanding an army of monstrous Shadowkhan, the only thought that came to his mind was a single word.

 _Shit_.

* * *

 ** _Shadow Realm_**

Pull, pull, pull...

In the depths of the Shadow Realm, surrounded by creatures made of shadows that looked like a crossing between snakes and some type of muraenidae; Tarakudo was stirring the shadows around him. Concentrated to the extreme, the King was searching for an individual within the Shadow in order to pull from it and summon said individual into his presence.

 _It shouldn't be so difficult to find him_ , Tarakudo thought. _Even with the seal still intact, if someone is wearing his... Ah! There you are... One last effort!_

"General Ikki!" Tarakudo called. "To me, your King calls for your presence!"

Tarakudo's eyes flashed, and a shockwave was felt across the whole Shadow Realm. The strange creatures fled in terror as another being took shape in front of the King of all Oni. Before Tarakudo's form of a giant head appeared another giant, red and bodiless head. A head with the same features of the Mask that Hak Foo was wearing, except three dimensional. An enormous scarlet Oni head that was... snorting.

Tarakudo rolled his eyes at the sight of the sleeping head. The King waited for a couple of seconds before inhaling an enormous quantity of air.

"WAKE UP!"

"Uhah! What the-?" the General said, waking up abruptly, his voice a raspy high pitched one. "Where? Who? Why?"

"The Shadow Realm," Tarakudo answered. "Your King, and because your King called for you."

"Lord Tarakudo!" the General, Ikki, said happily before looking at his liege's form. "You... are not the entire you?"

"Neither are you," Tarakudo told his General who looked down and realized his lack of body.

"No! My arms! My legs!" Ikki cried. "And most importantly, the in-between of my legs!" Ikki's face contorted in a cartoony expression as tears dropped from his eyes, but then it suddenly went back to normal. "Well, I suppose the lovely ladies will have to be satisfied with my tongue then," the General said as he struck his tongue out while his lips twisted in a lewd grin.

Tarakudo, meanwhile, was looking at his loyal General with little amusement. "You know that your actual condition is just your astral form, right?"

"Of course!" Ikki answered alongside a small laughter. "But it was too much of a good joke not to be used, my King!" the second floating head looked around. "Where are the others? I swear Uta's presence feels still fresh."

Tarakudo sighed. "Sadly, you are the only one whose Mask is being worn at the moment."

"Really?" Ikki said, before panicking a bit. "I mean, of course! I'm totally aware that my Mask is now attached to..."

"You were sleeping through the whole ordeal, weren't you?" Tarakudo inquired, not without a hint of amusement in his voice.

"No!" Ikki answered before pausing for a bit. "Yes..."

Tarakudo sighed. "For the man I consider the most intelligent amongst my Generals, you really are an easy going man."

"I prefer to go with the flow," Ikki answered. "Relax, sit down and watch how things develop. And I'm not that brilliant. I'm Ikki, the Dancing Trickster yes; but not as prone to a military genius like yours and Ikazuki's, my King. Which leads to my next question. What is the plan?"

Tarakudo concentrated, closing his eyes as Ikki did the same. Small waves of chi energy flew from the King's head and entered Ikki's. When the process had ended, the General knew as much as his liege did.

"So Uta engaged the Guardians of Kandrakar directly..." Ikki muttered as he shook his head. Such recklessness... Uta's Shadowkhan were made in order to attack silently from the shadows, a knife in the night; not swords on an opened field. "And while being defeated, he was able to call for you and wake you up..." Ikki made a pause. "And his Mask is in this... San Francisco."

"It's better there than in any other place," Tarakudo said. "What worries me it's that I'm unable to locate Ikazuki in this world."

"His Mask must be still on Meridian," Ikki said. "It's a very good plan overall, my King; but the sorceress you saw..."

"I will deal with her personally; I have been gathering energy in order to do so."

"And in the meantime?" Ikki asked. "I hardly doubt that the human that is wearing my Mask can be of any help. He feels like Ikazuki if he lost all his charisma and maturity as a warrior."

Tarakudo thought for a second. "Shōgi?" the King asked, materializing a board in front of him.

"Shōgi it is!" Ikki cheered. "I hope you practiced, my liege; because I'm about to humiliate you!"

"We will see to that, old friend;" Tarakudo said warmly. "We will see."

* * *

 ** _Chan flat; hours later_**

Jackie couldn't believe he was thinking this, but he was grateful to Chang for letting him out of his... 'job', for lack of a better term; earlier than usual. As he crossed the door to his home at one p.m., he was quick to let the box with the Armbands of Shiva in his room and close the door (he wasn't sure if Chang had put microphones in the box) before heading towards the kitchen. There, Jade was sitting in a small banquette, playing with her phone.

"Finally woken up?" Jackie asked her niece who, still clad in her new pajamas (downside of your niece being transformed into a Shapeshifter: she will grown up magically and you will need to buy new clothing for her), looked up from her phone's screen.

"Hi uncle Jackie," Jade greeted him. "How was your morning?"

 _Crazy_ , Jackie thought. "Normal, I guess. How was yours? How did the ski trip go? You sure were tired if you spent so much time sleeping."

"Oh yeah, it was awesome;" Jade said, getting up from her seat. "I made a snowman with the girls, we skied, and we drank chocolate…"

Jackie listened to his niece's explanation with a happy smile in his face. He was glad that at least someone had enjoyed some normal time. Of course, that feeling ended as the conversation progressed.

"And then Wong and two of the Shapeshifters we fought before showed up," Jade told him, making Jackie stop what he was doing and look at her as she walked towards the living room of the flat. "And then Hak Foo showed up too, looking for an Oni Mask that he got… and the cherry on top was that, another guy showed up later on," Jade made a long pause then, stopping at the kitchen's doorframe and looking at her uncle; "this one using Talismans. And you won't guess who I've in the living room right now. Here's a little clue. His name starts with Q and ends with uentin."

Jackie froze for a couple of seconds. Then he looked at Jade, who was just there staring at him, no ill sentiments in her gaze; just doubt, curiosity, and a bit of pain.

"Don't look at me like that, Jackie;" Jade told her uncle. "He got here while you were… wherever you were. And we've been talking. So I think it's time to talk."

Jackie breathed deeply. "I need to call Uncle and Tohru with the computer," the archeologist said. "Then… we will talk."

* * *

 ** _A call to Japan and numerous explanations later_**

Quentin had arrived mere minutes after Jackie's departure when Jade had just gotten out of her bed. This was something she usually did during weekends, waiting for Jackie to exit the house so she could just have breakfast and watch TV without supervision; though this time she had really woken up thanks to the noise her uncle had done while closing the door.

Entering the flat through one of the windows, a small bottle of anesthetics in his trench-coat's pocket; Quentin had just enough time to tell Jade that he worked to Section 13 before she could hit him for a fourth time. He really wasn't in the best of shapes, and the treatment that he had gotten in a hospital hadn't been the best of them. Then again, he had escaped once he had been all patched up and he had gotten his hands into some anesthetics. He really didn't like hospitals. They asked for your name, history… too much information for a man like him to give. And now here he was, snatching two pills out of the bottle from time to time and putting them in his mouth for eight seconds before swallowing them; and watching with his arms folded and his back resting against Chan's sofa, how the family tried to… put things in common.

"Aiyah!" Uncle, his old face being seen in Jackie's computer through a call to Japan, shrieked in disgust. "You let Hak Foo to escape with Oni Mask! Now he is more dangerous than ever! One more thing! New Shadowkhan seem more oriented to attack than the ones Shendu and last Oni used! One more thing! You let Daolon Wong escape with Pig Talisman! Veeery dangerous in the hands of Dark Chi Wizard! One more thing! You losssst Dragon Talisman, the most powerful of them all! Niece! You did a bad job! You are a very baaaad Ben-Shui Chosen One!"

"Wait, what?!" Jade asked then, outraged. "How's this my fault?! He was the one who screwed everything over!" she said while pointing towards Quentin.

"I was just doing my job," the agent answered coldly.

"A job you should have told me about," Jackie said then, standing up before Quentin. The archeologist seemed enormous by looking at him from his spot in the couch. "We accorded that you wouldn't do anything of this without telling me before."

Quentin shrugged. "It was a necessary step, and one that needed to be done fast. You were undercover; I couldn't make contact with you. Hak Foo got lucky. And if we're going at the 'you should've told me' game, Chan… then you should've told me about the fact that your niece can transform into a wolf and her friends into freaking pixies."

Jade narrowed her eyes at the agent. She didn't like this man and, frankly; he was really pushing her buttons. It wasn't what he was saying, but how he was saying it. The way he talked, as if he was some kind of tough man that knew more about anything that you... she hated that kind of person.

"So, let me get everything;" Jade said, calming down. "Wong has the Pig Talisman, the Dragon is lost wherever it is, there's a gigantic Oni head named Tare... Taro..."

"Tarakudo," Tohru's voice came from the computer.

"Thanks," Jade said. "Tarakudo is on the loose, the Dark Hand still exists and one of my friends' father AND my own uncle works for them." Jade sighed again. "Great..."

"Jade, I don't work for them;" Jackie told the girl, who frowning sat in the ground with her legs crossed, looking sideways with her head resting over her right palm.

"Tch," was the girl's only response.

"That still leaves the issue of what this kid and the others are," Quentin asked, this time earning one of Jackie's glares. That man had not just referred to his niece and those girls as a 'what'. However, before Jackie or Jade could say something to the redhead, Uncle intervened pointing a finger towards Quentin from the screen.

"What? Has stupid agent never heard about Changelings? Werewolves, vampires, mermaids, faeries... magic people! And those girls are no different, neither is niece! Has stupid agent never heard of Changelings?! They are beings that protect the good magic of this world!" Uncle yelled from the screen.

"Listen old man, don't call..." Quentin started to say as he incorporated, but Uncle continued his rant.

"Uncle shouldn't call stupid agent stupid?!" the Chinese elder said. "Did Uncle lose two Talismans, one of them to the man that killed Uncle's teacher?! No?! Then stupid agent is stuuuuupid! Uncle's family and the Changelings will deal with Wong, and stupid agent should stick to his business! Or does he want for Captain Black to know that he lost two Talismans?"

Quentin narrowed his eyes at the old man now. However, he didn't utter a word of protest. He just sat down again, arms crossed over his chest. Men like Ross had a simple mentality; it was a necessity for his job and the life he had chosen. Hunting scumbags wasn't very pleasant for the mind, and with time Quentin Ross had started to enjoy inflicting pain in the criminals he hunted, no matter how grave their crime. In order to protect his own self-image, Ross had found the perfect mechanism: total moral absolutism. Good was Good, Bad was Bad, and A was A. So for him, the explanation of a bunch of magic girls protecting the world from evil wizards was perfectly acceptable. And he was sure that, if Black learned about his loss of the Pig and Dragon, he would end in a cell. And besides, wizards and the like weren't part of his mission, the Dark Hand was. Pity that he had lost the Pig and Dragon, but he still had his faithful Rooster.

"And the floating head?" Jade asked then.

"As Sensei has told you," Tohru intervened then, his head behind Uncle's in the monitor. Due to his impressive girth, Tohru had to practically kneel in order for his visage to fit on the screen; "we found the Hana Fuda cards, that should gave us clues into how defeat the Oni. They have already given us the former localization of Hak Foo's Mask and the ingredient needed to remove it."

"Then what are we waiting for?!" Jade said. "Let's go and kick his butt so..." Jade stopped herself as she noticed Jackie's face.

"It's not so simple, Jade;" her uncle told her. "Chang is still suspicious of me, and if I move against Hak Foo, then he will find me out."

"But... but... Cornelia should know..." Jade started to say.

"No," Quentin said. "If the blonde knows about her dad, she'll tell him. And the scum will tell Chang."

Jade's eyes flashed in white chi for a second, her teeth becoming fangs as the white glow fade away. "If you insult my friend's father again, I swear I'll..."

"Jade, Harold is doing this to protect his family;" Jackie told his niece. "If he perceives a menace to the Dark Hand as a menace to his family, he won't help us."

"And what I'm supposed to do?" Jade said then, passing a hand over her black hair. "Tell Cornelia next time 'Hey Corny, love your new shirt. By the way, did you know your dad works for the mafia?' Is that what I'm supposed to do? Or I'm supposed to not say anything? If you take this Chang down... what happens to Cornelia and her family?"

"Jade..." Jackie sighed. He knew this was really hard for her. The girls and Jade had formed an incredibly tight and strong bond in such a short time; a bond he had never seen his niece have with no one else of her age. He knew this was as hard for her as it was for him. Probably even more. "I knew that, given enough time or an opportunity, Harold will side with us, but for the time being you must keep the secret."

"Perhaps Harold could be the key to it all," Tohru said then, trying to suggest a good idea and put an end to the discussion. "If he is the one who keeps track of each of Chang's economical movements, then all we need is him. All the incriminating data passes for him."

"Hale won't do it," Quentin said. "A criminal's a criminal. He's one of them. He won't help."

"Ross," Jackie said then, his tone the angriest one Jade had heard from him. "Out, now. We will be in contact. Everything you find about that operation, you tell me. And be careful, Chang sells every piece of art he owns in the black market, but he keeps the magic artifacts."

"Understood," Quentin said, albeit reluctantly. He rose from the sofa and headed towards the nearby window, opening it and descending using the fire escape to get to the streets. Once there he blended himself with the people and disappeared out of sight.

"That's the biggest jerk I have seen in my life," Jade commented once the violent agent wasn't in the flat anymore. "From where did Captain Black pick this guy up?"

"From New York, apparently;" Jackie told her, approaching the window and closing it, this time using the window's latch. "He isn't the best man to work with."

"Uncle doesn't like him," the elder said. "He looks like one of those men that see sin everywhere except within oneself."

"You should've told me, uncle Jackie;" Jade told him from the ground. And there it was again, 'uncle' Jackie. She always called him like that, when she was upset, or angry. And to be fair, she had reasons to be so.

"You have enough responsibilities," Jackie told her. "Jade, even since we came to Heatherfield you had a lot of things dropped on your shoulders. Not only the fact that your friends are fighting a war, but the shapeshifting, the Ben-Shui... I thought it was too much. Harold's real colors took me by surprise, and then Chang pulled those photographs..."

"Photos?" Jade asked.

"Of you and the Guardians," Jackie told her. "Transforming and fighting."

"What about that?" Jade asked. "We've Captain Black, we..."

"Captain Black is a very good man, with very good and strong chi;" Uncle's voice came from the screen once again. "But niece should understand, people above Captain Black could not be. Why doesn't Earth know about Kandrakar? Why doesn't Uncle start practicing his magic in the open, showing everyone how real it is? Evil can take in many forms, and sadly, many of them hold much power within our world."

"So you're telling me that people would fear us?" Jade asked, not without a hint of pride in her voice. Yeah, better for them (whoever they were) to fear her and her friends!

 _Or want to control you_ , Jackie thought. _Or even worse, attack you. I doubt any government would take nicely that there is something like Meridian out there_. "Basically."

Jade gave a small jump from her spot. "And what do we do?"

"Sensei and I will prepare a potion and spell to get Hak Foo's Mask out of his face;" Tohru said. "And I meant what I said about Harold, he could be the key to all this."

"We will device means to deal with Tarakudo. One more thing! We must send Captain Black a spell to protect the Mask he has! One more thing! Niece should keep herself helping on Meridian," Uncle instructed. "And nephew should know that he can trust us! Apprentice; remind Uncle to slap nephew once we are in Heatherfield again!"

"Yes, Sensei;" Tohru said, much to Jackie's chagrin.

"And the lost Talismans?" Jade wondered.

"We will retrieve the Pig from Daolon Wong sooner or later," Uncle said. "And the Dragon... it can wait under the debris of that mountain."

* * *

 ** _Across the Veil; the Infinite City_**

 _How much I have missed this sensation_ , Nerissa thought as she used the power of the Dragon Talisman to burn down metallic pillars of a lonely and empty chamber in the Infinite City, one that was too away from the rebel base for her practice to be noticed. The attack struck one of them and melted it into hot molten metal. Making the Talisman to grow even brighter, Nerissa saw her body surrounded by a golden aura. "Quintessence!" she said, and the lightning rose from her body and shot towards the molten metal, shaping it in the form of armors of medieval warriors. Then Nerissa stopped and tapped into the power of the Talisman embedded in her metallic arm, shooting an inferno of flames towards the armors once again. This time, however, the fallen Guardian gave herself so much to the Talisman that the flames came literally out of her mouth. As she saw how the armors were reduced to molten metal once again, she smiled and shortly after a sinister laughter came out of her mouth, echoing through the whole chamber. She looked down at her metallic forearm, where the Dragon Talisman rested, still hot from the use.

"Yes, this is it!" she said to nobody, as she was alone. "The ability to use power without the drawback of draining myself! Not only that, I can also use it as a battery each time I use my Quintessence, draining only half the life-force from my body that I used to!" the sorceress produced another laugh. "It's no Heart, that's for sure… but I'm clearer one step nearer my final goal."

Absolute power. Absolute control. Absolute peace. Those three were the pillars of Nerissa's philosophy, and for her, there couldn't be one without the others. So many years dedicated to planning Phobos rise and downfall, so many years allured by no other magic than the one the Infinite Dimensions could provide… and Earth and Chi Magic were still hiding jewels like these!

"And to think I once thought that the only thing that could came out from Yan Lin's family were either rude protests or hypocritical messages out of a fortune cookie…" Nerissa said as she started to abandon the chamber, leaving nothing but destruction behind. "I should be thankful to that Jade girl once this is all over. If it wasn't for her stories, I wouldn't have known about these Talismans. I should search for more once Phobos is down and I can move with total freedom. And not only a source of useful information; she has proven as useful in battle as the Guardians. Maybe give her a country to rule… or perhaps a small world? Perhaps a place amongst my Knights?" Nerissa sighed tiredly. "This could be so much easier with a bit of help, but no… no one can see me making a fair point. No one can see the reasons I have…" she halted then, knowing that complains wouldn't take her anywhere. They hadn't the last time. "Better go back to the base; those fools should have enough intelligence to pay attention to my son's plans even without me around."

Nerissa hit the ground with her staff then, producing the usual buzzing sound and greenish light that preceded a teleportation. And in the verge of a second, she was back in the late Mage's workshop, a circle of light surrounding her body and concealing her real appearance under her usual glamour as the 'Mage'. Lips forming a pleased smile even under her disguise, the sorceress headed out of her workshop, looking from a shadowy corner at the working members of the Rebellion. If her presence, or more precisely, the strange presence of the Ancient One she had stolen, was bothering any of them, it wasn't showing up. Better that way, she needed time to be lost in her thoughts for a bit.

Preparations for their attack over Torus Filney were almost done. Finally, Servantis had messed with her design for more time that she would have preferred, even if he wasn't conscious of her plans at all, just like nobody else but her was. Now she remembered why she worked alone, a plan success was more probable the less people knew about it. Anyway, the Viscount would surely learn his place soon.

In the distance, she could see Caleb talking to Drake, the King talking with the Knight. She was proud of him, for even with his body still wounded, he was standing and commanding, just like his father had done before; even with the torso wrapped in bandages made by Sephiria, healing magic imbued in them by her and her faithful. Not only that, but he had been smart enough to notice that Torus Filney was a strategic enclave within Meridian's medium ring, a position that gave immediate geopolitical advantage to its owner. And so this whole operation had been blossomed from his idea, commands and planning. The soldiers were ready, their commanders of the Small Council too; the swords and spears sharp; the arrows and bullets ready to be fired.

Now the only thing left was for Caleb to convince the Guardians to aid the rebels through the whole ordeal. It wouldn't be hard, if any of them had problems with the Rebellion, they would have maintained themselves to just closing Portals in the Veil. Yes, the Guardians and the wolf-girl would help without a doubt; that was for sure.

But Nerissa Crossnic was an intelligent woman, and intelligent women knew to look around themselves and notice all sorts of things. And thus, she wondered; how had the girls' presence affected the pieces over her board?

* * *

The majority of Nerissa's Pawns were high in spirits. But amongst them two were troubled, and it wasn't the imminent clash that was troubling their souls.

One of them was, of course, Alistair Tharquin. The Old Worm was currently sitting in one corner of the rebel base, arms over his knees and leaning forward while clad in his usual armor, listening closely to some of his fellow rebels. The beast that accompanied the Guardians had earned even more of the Rebellion's affection, even since playing a key part in their rescue from that group composed of abominations. Especially since she had battled Lady Miranda and bested her so easily. Lady Miranda, who was one of Phobos' most dangerous spies, entering rebellious groups with her childlike appearance and then destroying them from within… she had been defeated in mere seconds. Thus, many that had lost family and friends to the spider's webs thought of the wolf as an avenger. And the ones that already had befriended her, such as the men loyal to Drake, were actually thinking that, maybe, just maybe… Shapeshifters could be as much of a help to the rebels as they were to Phobos.

And for a second, for the briefest of seconds… Alistair Tharquin thought of this. He thought about the wolf Shapeshifter that had been helping the rebellion, the sacred rebellion against the demon in a Prince's form that had stolen the Light of Meridian from them. Maybe Shapeshifters could be helpful… Perhaps… Perhaps…

He had been wrong?

The scars in his back started to itch once again, this time even more violently than usual. He was a pious meridianite, a man that followed the lessons of his ancestors like no other man did! He couldn't be wrong! And what had he received in return? They had taken his post as Captain of the Guard away from him; they had relegated him to obey a mere boy! He hadn't sacrificed everything, just for his beliefs to be questioned now by mere children that didn't know anything about the world! Jade Chan, that was the name they repeated with thankfulness while filling their stomachs with ale, wasn't it? Torus Filney's battle would be total chaos. And in chaos, someone can disappear. And so, the Old Worm made his mind clear. He would make the source of his doubts disappear then.

* * *

The other individual troubled was different from Alistair Tharquin in many ways, yet he shared the Old Worm's pigheadedness. This was no other than Aldarn, the unofficial second in command of the rebellion. Or so he had believed until recently. In the days of the past, no one would have doubted that Aldarn was Caleb's right hand, his friend since childhood, the man he listened to when he had any kind doubt or question. Thus, Aldarn had always answered to his friend with loyalty and support. But that had been changing lately. The man he had practically grown with side by side since their infancy, the man he could practically call brother… he had changed.

Ever since the Guardians' appearance, especially since Raythor's downfall and that girl's transformation into a Shapeshifter… Caleb had started to behave differently. It wasn't anything big, Caleb still knew what was right and was wrong. That they were right and the Prince was wrong. The enemy was the enemy, full of lies and deceptions… but there were differences. For instance, Caleb had stopped to search for his counsel to search for Drake's, or the Keeper of the Heart's. And Aldarn admitted that those two were more suited than him to advice in the matters of strategy… but it wasn't only that. No, Aldarn felt like he was being relegated to the background, that his commander and friend didn't need him as much as before.

But the young man took those thoughts out of his mind quickly. It was natural, he supposed; that as the battles became more complicated, Caleb would search counsel from more suited minds. And yet the seeds of doubt had already been planted; for it wasn't his name the one being cheered, it wasn't his name the one that was praised. No, it was Caleb's, always Caleb's… and now the Guardians' and the Good Wolf's. And so the question came to the back of his mind with ease, settling in and waiting for an opportunity to expand and grow in strength.

Was Aldarn receiving the respect and praise he thought he deserved?

* * *

 ** _Across the Veil; Heatherfield's public pool_**

While people around two worlds were disusing about war and espionage, Will Vandom was currently jumping into a pool. Will had always loved swimming. Even since she had been a kid and her father, Tony, had taken her to a pool for the first time. Of course, she had loved it at first for the same reasons all kids loved water. It was something new, it was funny, and you could throw it into your parents' faces and they would laugh at it! But then the pool had become something else, and swimming a part of her life as important as school or (as of now) being a Guardian.

Swimming had started as a hobby for the redhead, but then she had started serious training, and from that she had gone straight into competition. She had dreamt of swimming in the Olympics, and she had pushed herself towards that goal.

It was different here, under the water; way different than outside. It felt like... like when she was being a Guardian. There were no awkward interactions, just the water and her. She had thought it weird that she hadn't been chosen as Water Guardian due to this, but Hay Lin's grandma had insisted that their positions within the team were dictated according to their personalities.

Anyway, this was one of the places she felt best at. Even if the pool had to be shared with countless strangers. This was where she felt more confident, more calmed. If she needed to think about something important or if she needed to relax before a test or...

"Hey, Will!"

Or if she had arranged a meeting with Matt Olsen. Hey, if he got to teach her skiing, she got to teach him how to really swim. Exiting the underwater and swimming towards the border of the pool, the redhead made her upper body half to get out of the artificially warmed liquid. A male hand appeared in front of her, which she quickly took in order to help herself outside the water.

It wasn't until she was completely out that she realized something she had not counted with. The fact that Matt was, befitting a pool, wearing nothing but a swimsuit. A pair of dark board-shorts with a red band at their sides, to be precise. Which left Will to actually see the rest of his body. Nothing too exaggerated; no incredibly defined muscles or super marked abs. Just the body you would be expecting of a normal teenager that neither embraced a sedentary lifestyle nor gave himself to physical exercise. Not sexy, but handsome. Not hot, but cute. That was the best definition the redhead could think about Matt.

However, this was the first boy her age, that she knew personally, and that she was seeing with nothing but board-shorts. As such, blood shot quickly to her cheeks as she fought with all her might to make her eyes to stay focused on Matt's face rather than on his body.

"Hi Matt," the redhead greeted the boy, trying to sound the less nervous as possible and make sure her tone didn't tremble.

"So... uhm... how's the water?" Matt asked then, looking past her and at the pool.

Will tilted her head slightly at that, especially seeing how Matt's cheeks were now almost as red as hers. "It's perfect," she told him. Was... was he feeling like her too?

She looked at him go to the water, enjoying the movements his body made. She really should stop looking at his behind; it could be a total disaster if Irma found out about it and started teasing her like she did with Cornelia. And besides, Matt was much more than a cute... everything. But what about her?

Her attention shifted to her own body then. She was wearing her usual one piece deep blue swimsuit, the same one she had bought in the mall, the same one she used during classes. Then a feeling started to come to her. Slowly, slowly, from her chest until it covered her whole body. Was it... pride? Or maybe self stem, the confidence this place gave her actually mixing with what the boy made her feel? Whatever the answer was, she decided to don't try to find it now. The girls and she had a hard time in the mountains. What harm could a little bit of fun do?

So without troubling herself anymore, she jumped back into the water. As she emerged after the jump and noticed Matt's impressed look over her, she wondered, should she bring a bikini next time?

* * *

 ** _Ye Olde Book Shop_**

Will wasn't the only girl dealing with an element that wasn't hers. Far away from Heatherfield's public pool, as afternoon was progressing towards the night more and more, in Ye Olde Book Shop; Elyon Brown was currently dealing with the element of air, inflating balloons at the owner's petition.

Cedric watched from the sidelines, as he always did when Elyon was working. Unless he was maintaining a straight conversation with her, he always tried to watch her without being noticed, looking for cracks or fissures in the young Princess' spirit. Today seemed to be his lucky day in that regard.

During the past days and weeks, he had felt the power of the Princess growing, the Heart of Meridian starting to finally reach its full potential. A few more weeks, a bit more than a month perhaps; and the Princess would be a fully developed Heart, the pinnacle of magic and might in Meridian, only matched by other Heart wielders across the Infinite Dimensions and only bested by the Oracle of Kandrakar. Power-wise, at least. But Cedric knew that there was much more to winning a battle, feud or dispute than mere magic power. Cunning, trickery, awareness of your own self and the ones that surround you, those were much bigger aces than mere power. And on those regards, Elyon was as naive as any normal girl. However, this issue wasn't the one that interested the Snake of Cavigor right now. Right now, which interested Cedric was that she seemed… angry

"Elyon?" Cedric asked of the girl as she inflated a red balloon that she left at her side once it was completely filled with air. Cedric was quick to take it and separate it from the rest. After all, it was a symbol of the Princess' Spirit. "Are you alright? I told you that our agreement doesn't force you to be here on weekends, so if you are tired you should go home."

Elyon sighed and sat down in a nearby banquette. Letting the falsely sweetened words of the Shapeshifter to calm her mood, the girl started to play with her braids for a bit before stopping and looking up. "It's nothing Rick," Elyon told him. "I'm just…"

"Angry, yes;" Cedric said, taking pleasure in the fact that the young girl had accustomed herself to call him by his first name, even if it was a false one. She had started to think about him as a confidant, if not a friend. "I can see that. Is everything alright?"

Elyon looked down, at her feet. She moved them and made her shoes' tips to touch each other three times. "It's complicated, I'm just… angry at my friends."

Elyon missed the devilish smirk that appeared in Cedric's face due to her response. He couldn't have asked for a better situation than the Guardians and that wolf girl to be tied to Elyon. "How come?" the blond man asked of the teenage girl.

"Well, we were in this trip I told you about," Elyon started to explain as she continued to look at the tips of her shoes. "And then Cornelia and the others disappeared out of sight! I mean, she could've told me and Alchemy about where they were going, right?" Elyon made a pause and continued to make the tips of her shoes to hit each other. "Alchemy says it doesn't matter, but… Cornelia's supposed to be my best friend! And they completely _ignored_ _me_!"

Cedric felt the wavelength of power surging from the young girl before she could do even so. The wavelength stroke the whole bookstore, making some books to fall down and a diagonal crack to appear in one of the shop's showcases. A small tremor hit the ground, making not only the shop to tremble, but also the alarms of several cars outside to be activated. Witnessing this, Elyon's face twisted into one of fear and confusion, and she rose to her feet.

"I'm… I'm very sorry, Rick;" Elyon apologized as she walked towards the door. "I think I'm not okay, I'm… feeling down. I'll go home, I'm sorry."

"Don't worry," Cedric told her, approaching the door. "Are you sure you can go back home by yourself? Don't you need help, or…"

"No," Elyon said abruptly. It seemed more like she was trying to escape than to go to her home because she felt sick. "I'm sorry, I'll see you in Monday."

Cedric looked at the young girl go for a few seconds before going back inside. Good thing about Saturdays was that there were almost no customers and that he could dedicate himself to whatever he wanted. The balloons were to add a bit of decoration, a small touch of color and they had been Elyon's idea in the first place.

 _How ironic_ , Cedric thought as he took the balloon containing Elyon's breath from the floor. _I'm sorry, I'm sorry… has she discovered her hidden powers by accident? Yes, that seems to be the most probable cause_. Cedric approached the showcase and touched the crack on it. _I will need a new one. So much power in the hands of such a young girl… I wonder if that little tension between her and the Earth Guardian can be exploited. After all, the discovery of your friends lying to you can be as devastating as knowing your whole life has been lie…_

"Was that the Princess?" he heard a familiar voice behind him. "She really does look a lot like Phobos."

Turning around, Cedric was met with the guise of Miranda, the young girl standing mere meters away from the Lord in her usual meridianite outfit. Cedric could see clearly how she was carrying a book on her arms, looking at him with that very same look she always dedicated only to him. Very few times had Cedric seen his fellow Shapeshifter with light in her eyes than when she was looking at him. A part of the Snake of Cavigor had liked that for too much time, just like he had explained to his elder brother. It was nice having someone that looked at him like that outside the family. But right now… he thought about his brother's counsel for a second. Perhaps it was time to know exactly why she looked at him like that?

"Miranda..." Cedric said in almost a whisper. "You... startled me."

"Did I?" Miranda asked, not without a hint of fun over her tone. She really liked when he let those small emotions to escape him. The ever composed Lord Cedric scared for the fraction of a second due to her. "Anyway, was that really the Princess?"

"Yes it was," Cedric said. "Not as... impressive as you could imagine. One would think that whoever took her from Meridian would have taken the trouble of educating her as a proper meridianite."

"I don't think so," Miranda said as she approached the showcase. "Any parents would like for their children to grow away from the war."

Cedric looked at Miranda. The thirteen years old girl looked even smaller than usual by standing side by side with the tall blond man. The man watched how she looked at the blurry spot that Elyon had become in the distance. For a moment something crossed over her eyes, a shadow that darkened the blue of her eyes. Yet Cedric didn't push her into revealing what it was. She would told him if she decided to. Even if violent, the middle brother of the Ludmoore children had never been a control freak. Neither were his siblings, especially Charles. Manipulative men? Yes. Liars? Of course. Scheming? Proud of it. But obsessed with control and power? Never. A Ludmoore was not a person of control, but change. Through doubts and clashes, conflict is accomplished. And through that conflict, you obtain change and evolution. That was the family's creed. So Cedric didn't push Miranda to reveal her secrets. Anyway, what was a good relationship without mystery? No, his eyes focused in the book Miranda was holding.

"Paradise Lost?" Cedric asked, even though he already knew the answer.

"Yes," Miranda answered. "Your siblings told me it's your..."

"Favorite book, yes;" Cedric ended the phrase for her. Had she really read it? Just to have something to talk about with him? "Why have you brought it here?"

"I was expecting you could," the teen said in a shy tone of voice; "answer some questions I have. It has been a pretty good read, but... my main question is why."

"Why what exactly?" Cedric inquired. Was she asking about Lucifer's motivations? That was always a big theme of discussion amongst...

"Why do they maintain themselves around Lucifer?" Miranda finally asked, much to Cedric's surprise. "The other fallen angels, I mean. Why not betray him once he is losing or why not just abandon him... it can't be loyalty, right?"

"Maybe, maybe not;" Cedric stated. "There has been a lot of discussion about Milton's work. The other angels rooted for him when he tried to defy fate, but then it was revealed that the rebellion was fate itself. The other fallen angels either knew this, or decided to stick around Lucifer out of fear, admiration, or maybe some kind of emotion resembling loyalty or even love. Mammon's narration is pretty useful for that."

"Could... could we..." Miranda said, hesitating to finish the question. "Could we read it? The two of us?"

"Of course," Cedric said with a fond smile. Then he approached the door and closed his bookstore.

They read through the book the rest of the afternoon, and they didn't stop until the sun was gone. When Miranda departed back to Meridian using the Intersection between the bookstore and the castle's library; she had achieved what no other woman had or would ever achieve.

Cedric Ludmoore was now looking at her as something else than a pretty face.

* * *

 ** _Across the Veil, Meridian's Capital_**

There was a saying amongst some of Meridian's population. _'No matter the city, you can always find three things: Whores, ale and soldiers._ '

Tristan was sure the first one was an exaggeration. Or at least he thought it to be for the Capital, where he had not seen any woman willing to sell her body for a handful of coins. Or maybe it was just that he hadn't looked too much into it; after all he never had any desire for that kind of company.

The ale part was much more visible, no one making any attempt to hide it and clearly enjoying it. It was especially perceptible in the slums or any other part of the Capital that wasn't near the palace. Phobos' energy-siphoning thorns did little to better the image that the slums provided, but the commoners didn't seem to be bothered by them, at least not to the same level that they were in the best parts of the Capital. No, they just indulged themselves into those small buildings were ale was distributed. No proper taverns, just almost completely demolished houses which skeletons some bands used as improvised places to gather people, produce ale, and have a drink at half its normal price while sharing some laughs.

The third instatement, the one regarding soldiers, was also pretty obvious in this part of the Capital; since there were quite the number of guards always patrolling the streets, often mixing with the ale-drinking smallfolk instead of attend to their duties.

Tristan would have never thought, two years ago, when he arrived at the Capital and he got a job in the castle's kitchens; that he would end belonging to the last group. True, he was not guard; but he was now a Shapeshifter, and that entitled being seen as a full-fledged member of the Prince's army. Lord Cedric's reputation didn't do any bad to his own either, or more precisely, to his lack of any reputation. He could just shift a hand into one of his claws and piggyback into the tales surrounding the Snake of Cavigor in order to gain a bit of respect, get out of trouble… or gain a barrel full of ale completely free, which was what he was doing right now.

He took the barrel over his shoulders (point on favor of being turned into a Shapeshifter, your strength was considerably strengthened, even in your human form) and marched down the street, his shoes making his footsteps to produce a low sound against the dirtied cobblestones. He didn't pay much of attention to any of the commoners that lived in the Capital's slums like him. He didn't want for them to notice him. He had learned, from living and working in the kitchens, that smallfolk weren't the kindest of subjects towards Phobos. Or any being that wasn't smallfolk, for that matter. They hated the Prince and the nobility, either because of the tyrant's grasp around them and the nobility's support of him or because they believed Phobos was some kind of legendary monster that had taken the former Queen from them. And it was the late Queen Weira, and her supposedly still alive yet lost daughter, the only parts of royalty that Tristan knew the smallfolk venerated. But the boy knew they were wrong. Well, partially at least. In his two years in the service of the kitchens, he had never seen any noble aside from that Viscount in the palace, and he had been quick to catch upon the glares he shot towards the Prince. There was no loyalty, or veneration in those glares, just… the acknowledgement of a necessity. And he had heard the old men and women of the smallfolk to blame each one of their problems on the Prince, even if it was impossible, due to his age, for Phobos to be responsible of everything. There was no doubt for the young boy that the Prince was really far away from being the ideal ruler, yet the smallfolk outright demonized him and described the Rebellion as their glorious saviors. Yet Tristan knew better than to think about them like that.

Tristan turned around a corner and, opening a small wooded door in the side of an old, wrecked house, he entered his home. A single lounge with a dirtied hearth and a bed composed of sacks full of straw; accompanied by a couple of chairs which wood had been eaten away by insects and a small, circular table. It was disastrous; then again, little more would be expected from a boy of his age, and he hardly ate here. He let the barrel of ale in the floor, better to keep it safe. The good thing about free ale is that it could be exchanged for things. This old, and even if wrecked, useful house? He had got it by sneaking goods out of the palace's kitchens and exchanging them to the old man that owned the place before him. The barrel of ale would be good to obtain some information regarding the rebels. Sometimes he thought that Miranda and the rest of her peers in court underestimated how much information you could obtain from a drunken common man.

Caleb. Julian's son. Frankly, Tristan thought a fool of himself for not seeing the similarities between the two. At exception of the green eyes, the rebel looked like a younger, beardless version of his father. Almost the same face that had saved his life, and ruined so many others had looked at him in that cave on the Earth realm. The boy hadn't known how to react to that. A part of him was screaming that he should have killed the rebel leader back then, yet another wasn't so sure anymore.

The scorpion Shapeshifter approached a wall of his house and removed a brick from it. Behind was a secret compartment from where Tristan proceeded to extract a small object. It was some kind of silver necklace, with flower engravings decorating it. Lilies, were they. Yet it was far from perfect or pristine. While the left part of the necklace was still of a brilliant silver, the more you looked towards its right, the darker it got, until it became almost of a dark grey tone, the engravings disappeared and the necklace twisted in a macabre contortion of molten metal.

Tristan sat down in his bed made of sacks of straw and looked at the necklace. He then proceeded to lie completely over his back. He curled himself shortly after, clutching the necklace against his chest.

And in the dark of that lounge that served as his improvised home, the boy cried. Out of anger, sadness, longing, hatred, impotence, doubt… he cried out of them all.

* * *

 ** _Torus Filney_**

Tynar took air in. He had to admit that Meridian's middle ring was the best in regard to the purity and freshness of the air. He was now quietly standing at top of Torus Filney's thick, enormous walls, many of the men he had taken from the Capital patrolling and merging with the guards in the service of Servantis. The city bulged with life below him, the middle level of it full of smallfolk minding their own business, the lower level now housing Frost and his Rhinoceros Cavalry alongside that fat Shapeshifter boy that could transform into a gigantic lizard. And below them all, swirling in an enormous pond connected to the tunnels that travelled below the city and the kilometers of land surrounding it was the Sandpit. The Captain was currently with the Viscount, discussing matters of the organization of the city's defense in the noble's own room.

The Lieutenant had his instructions, so he had decided to come up here and search for some air. His hand shot towards his left wrist, where a small bracelet made of braided leather hanged. Not the finest crafting in the world, that was for sure. Rudimentary and inexperienced, yet it was perfect for Tynar. After all, it had been Tash who had done it.

"Come to here to seek out solace, and clear your thoughts, Lieutenant?" he heard an acute voice behind him, surely belonging to a woman. "I came up here too from time to time, in order to find some rest away from my and my husband's duties."

As his interlocutor approached him and settled at his left, Tynar was greeted with the pleasant sight of a middle aged woman of slightly tanned skin and bright auburn hair, albeit some grey stripes could already be found in her hair, tied into a set of four long braids at her back. Kind eyes looked at him from a face sharpened by age. She was wearing a fine dress of a grass green color, not too overloaded with useless accessories but yes beautiful enough for Tynar to deduce that he had been talked by a woman of noble cradle. So he made a small reverence the best he could.

"Viscountess," Tynar said in the most respectful tone he could master.

"Please, no need for that," the noblewoman answered. "I prefer Lady Ishol, at much."

"Yes, Visc… Lady Ishol," Tynar said awkwardly, earning himself a small chuckle from the noblewoman. "I usually need some time like this before entering battle."

"Have to do with that little thing around your wrist?" the noblewoman asked, having noticed the soldier's handmade bracelet. There was no ill intention in the woman's question; that Tynar was able to discern, or maybe he just was in the need of some friendly conversation.

"My son made it for me," Tynar told the noblewoman, who smiled at him fondly.

"Ah, perhaps your son has decided to be an artist?" the woman joked.

 _Hopefully_ , Tynar thought. _There are too many soldiers already_.

Silence took the pair for a bit, and then Tynar looked down, at the streets under them, for another time. The smallfolk, priority always women and children, was being evacuated to the system of tunnels. According to informants, the rebels had gathered quite the amount of men thanks to the Guardians and that Shapeshifter Wong practically gave them raiding the prisons and summing the free men to the rebellious forces. "Your lord husband seems to have done an excellent work with this city."

"My husband's greatest strength rests over his shoulders," the woman proclaimed, not without pride, not without admiration or love. Tynar wondered, because he knew that many nobles married in order to tie different families together and strengthen the power of both; had this marriage being founded over love or interest? Or had love blossomed once the interest was satisfied? "Look around you, Lieutenant. This city, this dream; all it has come from my husband's mind. From his will to step forward and do something in favor of the realm for real, in opposition to the Rebellion. Torus Filney was nothing but a barren land once, and now thirteen years later our city stands proud here, our citizens have their bellies full, they sleep well at night. And like this one, my husband has spurred the rest of the nobility to build fortified cities across the middle ring, ready to house thousands. And in the end, it will come a moment in which the only ones in the Capital will be the Prince and his court of monstrosities."

Yes, Tynar knew that much. That was the Viscount's plan. Not to defy Phobos, not to provoke the Prince, that would be suicide. The Prince didn't take kindly to betrayals, and if the Viscount and the nobles defied him openly, it would mean that the Prince would raise his complete might against them, and the bloodshed of innocent blood would be unimaginable. So the nobles were, under the Viscount's directions, getting more and more commoners out of the conflicted areas into these fortresses they had for cities in the medium ring. He had to admit, it was a good plan.

Torus Filney was the gate to Meridian's medium ring, and then to the Meridian Plains, before the Capital itself. It was a strategic point, which was the reason it had been built here. And the rebels were coming. Yet it was a noble dream.

 _Finally_ , Tynar thought as he inhaled more of the pure air around him. _A dream worthy of fighting for_.

* * *

 ** _Across the Veil, in the way to Matt Olsen's home_**

"That was fun," Matt told Will as the redhead and him walked in the direction of the guitarist's home. They had spent practically half the afternoon at the pool, only stopping when they had realized that, if spending more time in the water, they would probably become algae. So they had hit the public showers, and after that they had settled for just a walk. And now here they were, marching towards their homes. They had enough time to take it calmly. "That was so much fun."

And Will couldn't hid the happy grin that had appeared in her face upon that remark. This had been just the perfect day! Should she say something? Ah! She should say something, something smart, something funny...

"I know, right?" her mouth said. _Idiot!_ shouted her mind.

However, Matt just laughed a bit at what he had perceived as a joke. Then he pointed to a two stories tall house painted in an ocean blue tone of color. "Well, that's my house. Thanks for accompanying me until here."

"It's nothing, really;" the redhead answered to the boy. She expected for him to bid farewell then, but that didn't happen. Instead Will saw how Matt's cheeks blushed a bit and how his nervousness increased.

"So..." the guitarist teen started to say; "has this been a date?"

"Wha- no! I mean..." Will babbled for a few seconds. "It's not... it's a, well... 'no-date'?"

Both teenagers laughed at the other's and their own clumsiness. Their eyes met and both of them let silence to reign for a few moments.

"Let's call it a 'no-date' then;" Matt said alongside a chuckle. "So... call you if we're going out in more of these 'no-dates'?"

"Sure!" Will answered cheerfully. "See you at Sheffield, then."

Matt smiled at her and turned around in order to leave. Will looked how he had started to leave. 'No-dates'; eh? Well, she supposed that could be a step. That or she could...

"Matt, wait;" the redhead said then, making the other teen to halt and look back at her. Will took a couple of steps towards him, taking air and letting it out, and once she was facing Matt, she stood on her tiptoes and, closing her eyes strongly, she planted a kiss over Matt's lips.

As for the guitarist, his eyes widened and his blood boiled, his face becoming almost of the same red as the girl's hair. Once their lips separated, he looked at Will with a shocked expression. Yet he couldn't take a small smile out of his lips. Both of them laughed again.

"Regular dates will have to do."

* * *

Who said that playing slow was the best course of action? Will Vandom had just probed to herself that theory to be wrong. Or just not to be the best way for her. Anyway, she was euphoric right now; practically trotting over the streets towards her home.

Kissed him, she had kissed him! The Heart of Kandrakar was beating furiously against her own, which wasn't going at a slow rhythm either. Oh, this was such a great moment! She felt as if she could just fly without being transformed right now!

Of course, her telephone had to ring in that same moment and interrupt her euphoria.

"Yes? Happiest person alive on the phone," Will said as she answered the call. Her expression turned from one of pure bliss into one of confusion as her interlocutor spoke.

"Taranee?" Will asked on the phone. "Taranee, calm down. What? Everyone's on the Silver Dragon? Caleb and Vathek? Okay, please; calm down, I'm going to... Yes, just... Uhm? What's a Tarakudo?"

* * *

 ** _The Silver Dragon_**

Vathek had never been to Earth before, not even in the times of Queen Weira, when it was possible to pay to some people in order for them to open Folds between worlds and travel to different realms. He never had that much money, neither the real desire to embrace onto those trips. Travelling between worlds was a thing of nobles, accustomed as they were due to diplomacy, mere interest or sheer boredom, not of the smallfolk. Men like him were happy by staying in Meridian, probably due to being a Galhot and feeling much more tied to his home-world than humanity, which had come at first from this world.

This... 'restaurant', that's how Caleb had called it; had stricken him as one of the strangest places he had been in his entire life. From the short-lived looks he had taken at the main room, the place seemed to be a strange mixture of a tavern and one of the castle's dining rooms, with people sitting all around tables and being served strange looking foods. The Air Guardian's grandmother had offered him a small plate with what she had called 'Mantou', some kind of bread from her world. It wasn't precisely the greatest food he had eaten, yet it was warm, and he was grateful for it. Who would have thought that accompanying Caleb in order to bring the Guardians to Meridian would result in getting his stomach full?

"Those Oni guys have a King?" the blue Galhot heard the Water Guardian say then, taking his mind back to matters at hand.

Around a table in the center of the basement over which a map of Meridian had been put, Caleb, the five Guardians of the Veil and the wolf Shapeshifter all standing around it. However, the discussion had taken in a different direction than anticipated.

"Uncle and Tohru say so," Jade said. "Name's Tarakudo, a giant floating head."

"Meridianite legends speak of a being behind the Demon Generals called... Maō, I think;" Caleb explained. "To think the monsters from the tales of my childhood were real..."

"Welcome to my life," Jade told him with a small smirk.

"Maō means..." Taranee said, searching in her mobile phone's translator. "Demon King in Japanese."

"Appropriate," the recently arrived Keeper of the Heart said. "Are you sure your Uncle and Tohru said that they don't need help with that?"

Jade nodded. "They said they got all handled until they come back to Heatherfield."

"But what about that Hak Foo guy you told us about? He's got that creepy Mask, and those bugs..." Hay Lin said while shivering, missing the shadow that had quickly crossed over the Earth Guardian's eyes upon the mention of the enforcer. "Shouldn't we be ready for him?"

Jade's eyes shifted to the Earth Guardian for a second. She ought to say something... but she didn't. Not because of Jackie's warnings, plans and mission; but because she didn't want to hurt Cornelia... or lose her as a friend. Not that Jade Chan would admit it, but she had grown incredibly fond of all these girls. Even of Caleb, although she still thought he could be a complete idiot sometimes. The thought of the possibility of hurting one of them... it terrorized her.

"Uncle and Tohru are preparing a locator spell for Hak Foo," Jade lied. "He can be at the other side of the world if he wants to."

 _But he's here_ , Cornelia thought. _I know he's here._

Yet the blonde didn't voice her knowledge. No, how could she? To admit that, would mean to admit vulnerability. And for a teenager accustomed to winning and being on the lead, for a teenager as haughty as Cornelia Hale... admitting vulnerability would mean that she was admitting being flawed in front of her friends. And she didn't like that. What was wrong with not wanting your flaws to be seen, anyway? What was wrong with wanting to be respected, admired? What was wrong with not wanting to fail?

"Alright, that's a thing solved, more or less;" Will said, rubbing her temples a bit. Why had this to happen when she had just given her first kiss? "So what was that you wanted to talk about, Caleb?"

In cue, the rebel leader raised his arm and pointed to a dot over Meridian's map. His face had turned serious, and the rebel leader spoke with a tone befitting his expression and the importance of the mission.

"This is Meridian's medium ring," he said as his finger circled around the terrain. "And this here is the city of Torus Filney, under the command of a man named Viscount Servantis, one of the tyrant's biggest supporters amongst the nobility." Caleb made a pause and let his words to sink in the Guardians and Jade's minds. "We are going to attack and conquer it."

"Say what?" a dumbfounded Irma asked.

"You want us to help you and the rebels..." Will said, meditating about what had just left Caleb's mouth; "to take a city. Not a prison, or a camp, or a village... A _city_. Like the Capital."

"Actually, Torus Filney is bigger and better fortified than the Capital, like many other cities in the medium ring;" Vathek interrupted. "The whole city is one enormous fortress with thick walls and strong defensive mechanisms. And that is without taking in consideration the Sandpit... what?" Vathek asked as he looked at the glares Caleb and the girls were directing at him.

"Thanks for the cheering, big guy;" Irma remarked sarcastically.

"What's a Sandpit?" Hay Lin asked in her usual childish tone, more befitting of a classroom than a war council.

"A living creature made of sand that Phobos developed," Caleb explained. "Torus Filney was built over the pit that houses it and the net of tunnels from which it moves. If we attack Torus Filney while it still being active, the soldiers can open the tunnels and let it out in order to get rid of attackers. That's the reason we need your help."

"Okay, can I point out something here?" Taranee said then. "If Torus Filney is a city, then people live there, don't they?"

"Commoners like the ones of the Capital, scared and under the tyranny's grip;" Caleb explained, a fact that the girls accepted. After all they already had seen firsthand how the commoners of the Capital lived. "According to Drake's informants inside, Servantis has gathered them at the city's core, an enormous chamber inside the central bastion."

"So we defeat this Sandpit, and?" Irma inquired, even if she suspected the answer.

"Our actual numbers match the ones of the Viscount's soldiers," Caleb explained. "Without Sandpit and you inside, we can fight until you open the gates. Then they won't have any other option that's not surrendering. The whole operation shouldn't last more than five days."

"Alright, but what about our families?" Will spoke. "Jade can just tell Jackie that she's going to Meridian, but what about us? We can't just disappear for five days."

"About that," the group heard Yan Lin's voice. Looking up they saw the elderly Chinese granny standing at the top of the basement's staircase; "I may have something that can help. Tell me kids; do you know what an Astral Drop is?"

* * *

 ** _Minutes later_**

Standing near a Portal in the darkening streets of Heatherfield, Jade was starting to feel something akin to amusement. In front of her, Caleb, Vathek and Yan Lin, were the five Guardians of Kandrakar, already. And in front of them were five exact copies of themselves in their civilian attire.

"I don't know if this is awesome, or creepy," Irma remarked as she surveyed the five clones of she and her friends.

"It's aweepy!" Hay Lin declared, mixing both words and clapping her hands. Her clone, or as her grandma had called it, Astral Drop (which you cannot say in aloud, else the copy disintegrated), a perfect, soulless copy of her body made by the power of the Heart of Kandrakar; did the exact same gesture. "It's so cool! I always wanted a twin in order to make jokes!"

"Remember what your grandma said, Hay Lin;" Cornelia told her; "these are not real people;" she shivered a bit after that. "And now _I'm_ feeling creepy. Great…"

"Someone's not in the best of moods, eh Corny?" Irma asked, trying to bait Cornelia in one of their usual bickering duels. However, the blonde just snorted, which stroke the Water Guardian as strange.

"Okay, everyone knows where her home is?" Will asked the quintet of Astral Drops, who took a target each from their pockets and read their addresses out. "Okay, but just to be sure, Yan Lin here," Will said while pointing to the elder woman; "will accompany you for the first time."

"This is such a bad idea…" Taranee muttered as she saw how the former Air Guardian took her fake granddaughter and Irma's clone by the arms and started to force both of them into walking, the other clones following in toe.

"It could be worse," Jade said. "Can you imagine if they got personalities of their own and tried to take over your lives?"

"You watch too much TV," Taranee scolded her.

"Well, let's just cross our fingers that our parents can't notice it," Will said. "And let's go to Meridian, the sooner this is done, the sooner we're back in Heatherfield."

The Guardians proceeded to cross the opened Portal, Jade following them after that. Caleb looked one last time at Heatherfield before approaching the hole in the Veil. However, as they were in the verge of entering the Portal, Vathek put a hand over Caleb's shoulder and halted him.

"Caleb, before we go;" Vathek told the boy. "I just wanted to say, after seeing you in that room, that if he were to be here, your father would feel incredibly proud of you."

Caleb's eyes brightened for a second as if they were two brilliant emeralds. "Thank you, my friend;" Caleb told the Galhot while his spirit was becoming refreshed with strength. Because at the end of the day, at the end of all battles and missions, that's what mattered to him the most; to live up to his father's memory, to be able to fill the role that the her of the Rebellion had left empty. "Now let's go free that city!" the rebel boy proclaimed, and both of them crossed the Portal.

Little they knew at that moment that, what was about to be done, would change everything.

* * *

 _Everyone has a reason for fighting, for what they are doing and how they behave. And at that moment, before Torus Filney, none us knew that, or understood it. We thought that we were superheroes, that the jewel that hung over Will's chest was proof that we and the rebels were the ones fighting for something noble, the only ones that could make the difference. How wrong we were to think that._ Taranee Cook.

* * *

 **A/N: As I said, no action for you this chapter. But after this transition, we are finally here, people; Torus Filney. You could say that all the chapters since Raythor's downfall had been building up to this point. This is the conflict I have been looking forwards, and sincerely, I'm pretty excited about writing it. It should last around three-four chapters. Anyway, I'm not going to spoil anything in these notes. Thank you all for reading, and many thanks to all of you who have been giving me support, ideas and encouragement through these first ten chapters.**

 **Bye, bye; and until next time.**


	11. Infiltration on Torus Filney

**Disclaimer: I own neither the WITCH cartoon-show nor Jackie Chan Adventures; they are the property of their respective creators, writers, and producers.**

 **Author's Notes: Hey folks, how's it going? Here I come for another chapter for you all, a bit later than I intended, but what the heck, I've been on vacation. Anyway, hope you all are prepared for a long ride; because here comes the first of three chapters focused on Torus Filney. Read and enjoy people.**

* * *

Guardians, Wizards and Kung-Fu Fighters

Episode Eleven

Infiltration on Torus Filney

* * *

 ** _World of Meridian; Infinite City; the first night; Taranee Cook_**

Taranee had never seen so many rebels gathered in one place before. And she knew this swarm of men, women and children wasn't the Rebellion in its full size, since Caleb had left some behind to guard some posts in the case there was an attack. The rebels weren't enough to take on the Capital and the Castle, with all their soldiers, Lurdens and traps, (and the prince himself) but they should be enough to take on a city like Torus Filney, which according to Drake was better fortified yet had fewer soldiers within it. The rebel had said that the Viscount, expecting an attack, had even taken forces from the Capital.

She flew over them through the halls of the Infinite City (one had to wonder if whoever had built this place was having flying people into consideration) surveying if they marched secure and in order. Irma was far ahead of her, doing the same for another section of the column, and the same could be said about Hay Lin behind her. From time to time, the Fire Guardian would spot Jade amongst the multitude, usually in her wolf form and carrying some of the children over her back. Taranee would shake her head then, letting a small smile to come to her lips. She knew that Jade knew how many of the rebels looked at her for being a Shapeshifter, yet the Chinese girl didn't seem to let that to go to her head. She just walked around, in either human or wolf guise, doing the best she could to help. In that last regard, Taranee had to admit that there was no practical difference between the otherwise so much different Jade and Hay Lin. Maybe the desire to help unconditionally ran in the blood?

Taranee yawned as she let those thoughts to escape her mind. She had not done anything tiresome the last day, yet they had crossed the Portal just hours ago, and after a quick 'dinner' (if what they had ate, which Taranee wasn't so sure about what was, could be called dinner) Caleb and his peers had instructed them with different tasks. Which meant no rest and no sleep, which meant tiredness even if being in Guardian form did something to soften the feeling. No, no rest for anyone, not until they had reached whatever chamber Caleb wanted to go to before the… the battle. That word alone made Taranee's tired mind to be filled with much more different thoughts.

Taranee Cook was not an arrogant girl, but if there was something she prided herself in was that she considered herself to be a rational person. The first book she had read in her entire life had not been one of facts or words, but one of numbers. Her mother, Theresa, had put her over her lap, opening the book in front of the two of them, letting Taranee, then a toddler, to touch the pages with her tiny hands. It was just an ordinary and quite simple math book, with an anthropomorphic plus symbol acting as some kind of guide for children. That had been the day she had learned that two plus two equals four, and that always will equal four. When Taranee had asked her mother why 'always' Theresa Cook had told her: ' _that's how mathematics work, it's their rules, its rationality_.' And since then, rationality had been Taranee's companion and explanation for almost everything. Everything had rules and a logical explanation, a fact that made Taranee feel safe. Two plus two equaled four in the same way that people acted in different ways due to socialization; or English and German had similar wording because they came from the same root language. Then this whole 'Guardian stuff' came along, and for some moments Taranee had felt her world of rationality to be shaken… yet not crumbled, since she had discovered even something as supposedly impossible as magic was rational too, in its own weird way. Magic, both Raw and Chi, had rules according to her talks with Tohru. Shapeshifting had rules, Hearts had rules, and even something as terrifying and out of the norm as the Shadowkhan had rules.

But Taranee Cook had not maintained herself just to the world of mathematics, feeling curious about almost every science and brand of knowledge in her world. She had picked a history book once, and discovering what war was. Taranee Cook didn't like the definitions and descriptions that her beloved text books gave to war. She understood the reasons for people going to war, but the fact itself… it was illogical, incomprehensible. And that made her afraid. What use had rationality, which she used to give explanation to facts, if she found herself into an irrational situation? And now they were in the verge of attacking a city, a freaking city! This felt so much bigger than anything they had been doing until now, and she had the fear of finding herself into one of those irrational situations. What would happen then? How would she react?

The column had started to advance at a faster pace while she thought, and seeing this she decided to let her mind to forget about those thoughts and continue with the task she had been given. It was distracting enough to keep her mind at ease.

* * *

 ** _Irma Lair_**

 _Boooooring…_ Irma thought as she looked down at the people below her. Why had Caleb made her do this anyway? This wasn't her field of work; her thing was shooting water and knocking people out; not something as boring as surveillance. But a small part of her understood how necessary it was. Caleb and Drake had explained to them that they needed to make sure that they didn't lost anything or anyone along the way, that the rebels needed to march at a pace that allowed them to be in their destination at time but to not tire themselves… Who would have thought that preparing an attack over a city could be so complicated? They never made it so complicated in the movies and shows. No, in those the tents and armies were already prepared, and the only thing that was needed was for the hero to make an epic speech and then everyone would rush to battle.

Her father usually called Irma impulsive. Well… he had a point. She really was an impulsive person; she had practically jumped when Yan Lin had told them all they were superheroes out of a comic book, or something. That was the reason all this calm preparation wasn't for her. She sighed as she looked down and saw how two rebels had started to argue about something, making the column to decrease its pace. She started to descend in order to put an end to the probably meaningless conflict.

Or maybe to punch them in the face and tell them to keep walking? Whatever came first to her mind at the moment.

* * *

 ** _Jade Chan_**

This was awesome. And Jade Chan loved awesome. It wasn't the same kind of awesome she felt with the girls, though. No, they were her friends and her companions, her equals both in and out of a fight, the people she could talk to about almost anything and then fight side by side against monsters, demons or any other wacky creature.

The current awesome however, felt completely different. It wasn't one born from equality, but from admiration. Did she enjoy the admiration? Probably, as she was clearly enjoying the praise and thankfulness the rebels around were showing her.

"You saved my husband!" said some of them. "You rescued my son!" said others. "Can we please ride on your back?" asked some children. And of course she obliged.

This was it, wasn't it? Not the fact that she was admired but _recognized_. Not adoration, but recognition of her skills, her effort. This was something that always bothered her about Jackie. He never asked for anything, always humble. Jade had even guessed that, when his work as an infiltrate in the Dark Hand came into fruition, Jackie wouldn't take any praise for it, leaving it to Captain Black. Like he had done with Valmont, Shendu or the demon's siblings. No prizes, no honors... and he had saved the world! Well, with her help of course. And Uncle's. And Tohru's, Viper's... Anyway, here she was saving a world with her friends, and this time they were recognized as the heroes they were.

And it felt good, or at least good enough that she was able to forget about the whole _'Uncle Jackie and Cornelia's dad are part of the Dark Hand'_ ordeal. More or less... She shook her head in order to get rid of that thought. Now it wasn't the moment for that. Fortunately, those jerks that always looked at her as if she had some kind of lethal and incredibly contagious disease weren't around to bother her with their stares, and that left her enough time to concentrate in what was going to be ahead.

Conquering a city... if this Meridian worked like the fantasy worlds she had read about in her books (and it had worked like that so far) then this was the next level. This wasn't going to be some prison or work camp protected by Lurdens, or a caravan directed by some low ranked guard. No, this was a city, a pretty big one according to Vathek's words and that was directed by a noble, no less. It was as if they were going to take Helm's Deep, except that this time they were attacking. The guards at the city were surely much more disciplined and capable than the ones fought before.

Stopping for a second and shaking her body a bit, she indicated to the children over her to dismount, which they did, running to their mothers while giggling. Jade then shifted to her human form and kept walking over her feet rather than her paws. Better to not waste energy absurdly.

* * *

 ** _Cornelia Hale and Sephiria, daughter of Sarah_**

Cornelia was one of the two only Guardians that weren't flying. Instead she was walking over her two feet alongside what Caleb had explained to be called 'Faithful'; or something like that. To be fair, she didn't put much attention to what escaped the rebel leader's mouth, instead focusing into the mouth itself and what the mouth could do instead of talking. But now she regretted not paying attention, as she found herself with no topic to speak about with these people. And none seemed very chatty to begin with, all of them dressed in strange attires that remembered Cornelia about those brown tunics that the priest of Robin Hood used to wear in the Disney film. Wait, 'Faithful'… these guys were priests or something like that?

Damn it, why had Caleb put her with these ones? He said something about them being very important, and that if there was some kind of collapse (which was more common than one would think) her powers would be the best suited to protect them. Why were they so important to begin with? Maybe she should ask. That would provide a conversation, anyway. She looked around them in the most discreet way she could, until she spotted locks of green hair.

 _There she is_ , Cornelia thought as she moved towards her a little tad more with each step. _What was her name again? Selene, Seilah… Sephiria, that's it!_

"Sephiria?" Cornelia asked to the green haired nun, using the most polite voice she could use right now.

And Sephiria, the nun, the Soft Bishop; looked back at her. Her green hair was tied into a short braid now, as she walked alongside her faithful. The Earth Guardian had called for her, and she knew it would be improper of her to not address the blonde with the respect for being a servant of Kandrakar. But this was her, wasn't it? The Guardian Drake and everyone else spoke about, the one for whom Caleb's eyes seemed to become brighter. Sephiria knew it was a petty thought, befitting of people unable to control themselves… but she was envious. For years she had been there, tending to Caleb's wounds, to the whole Rebellion's! Supporting his decisions, his commanding! And now this girl appeared out of nowhere and gained his attention just by throwing some rocks to the enemy! Anyway, she was a Guardian, and the nun felt her duties to overweight her emotions.

"Yes?" she asked.

"I just wanted..." Cornelia started, not knowing exactly how to start the conversation. "You know, talk."

"About what?" Sephiria asked, passing a hand over her green hair as she stepped into a pebble and proceeded to kick it away. Was the Guardian just in need of some trivial talking? Well, that could be provided. And she would try not to sound bitter.

She saw Cornelia shrug. "About anything. So..." the Earth Guardian said. She then looked around for a couple of seconds before looking back at the Soft Bishop. "Caleb told me you're priests?"

 _Caleb told me, Caleb told me... she speaks as if she has known him for her entire life!_ Sephiria thought. "Yes, that is our occupation, more or less;" Sephiria answered using a forced smile and her usual meek tone. Light of Meridian...there were times she hated that meek tone of voice and that demeanor. This was one of those times. However, a part of her knew that it was a petty thought, born from a petty emotion. And the Guardian had come to her with no ill intentions. There wouldn't be any problem if she talked a bit with her, would be?

"We are worshippers of the Light of Meridian," Sephiria explained. "And also healers, teachers, and guides for the lost... or at least, we were."

 _Whoa, talk about being omni-disciplinary_ ; the Earth Guardian thought before focusing in the last part of the phrase. "Wait, you were?"

A somber look took over Sephiria's visage, and her animosity shifted from the Earth Guardian to Phobos, in whom it focused with much more intensity than in Cornelia thanks to the fact that the Prince had caused so much pain to her.

"Yes, we were;" Sephiria said as her eyes lowered and looked at her walking feet, her usual meek tone changing to a hurt one. "Before Phobos came, we had numerous abbeys around the medium ring and even a small cathedral in a city named Lannion, not very far away from the Capital. But then Phobos killed Weira, and forbid any practice that worshipped the Light of Meridian."

 _So their Queens are like Jesus for them?_ Cornelia thought. _And they say I'm the narcissistic one..._

"Phobos demolished the cathedral all by himself," Sephiria continued her tale. "Or so I was told, I wasn't there at the time. Many abbeys were burned, included mine."

"And how did you end here?" Cornelia inquired.

"The rebels saved me when Phobos' Lurdens came to the village I was in and tried to take me and the others to the Underwater Mines;" was the answer. _Caleb saved me_ ; the nun whispered inside her own head, yet she didn't voice that thought. "I always was the best of my abbey in what entitled healing, either by low magical runes or natural means; and the Rebellion needed healers. The Mage put me in charge of the few that had also escaped the attacks."

 _And I thought I've got problems..._ Cornelia thought as her mind went back to Earth and the issue regarding her father and Hak Foo. It seemed so... unimportant in comparison with these men and women's problems. Yes, right now wasn't the time to think about something that she wasn't even sure about! Now wasn't the time.

Now wasn't the time...

And she hoped it would never be.

* * *

 ** _Hay Lin_**

To say that Hay Lin was a ball of nervousness would have been an understatement. She was beyond nervous. She just hoped that the people below her, marching steadily, wouldn't notice. She extended her wings and stopped their movement, letting gravity to take her down while slowing her fall.

She had been assigned to practically the end of the column in order to take care of the elderly and wounded; only a handful of meters away from where Cornelia and Sephiria were. However, in contrast with her companions, the Air Guardian had taken her post willingly and with high spirits.

Descending, she touched the ground gracefully, not even a hair of her mane fell out of place. She had landed at the side of a slowly moving old man, who walked leaning on a large stick and losing distance with the main group due to lacking his left leg at the end of the group.

"Do you need any help?" Hay Lin asked the old man. She felt a bit stupid after just doing so. After all, she couldn't just re-grow his missing limb.

However, the old man looked at her without any trace of being offended in his face. He formed a smile with his old and withered lips, the wrinkles in his cheeks widening as he did so.

"No reason to trouble yer head, lass;" the old man told her. "I've seen worse than a little walk."

"You sure?" Hay Lin asked the man.

"Aye," the man said. His voice was raspy. It reminded her of the voices of those people that had smoked too much had. "No need to help old Bren Forestson, no need for a lass as pretty as ya to keep him company."

Hay Lin giggled upon the old man's words. She didn't know why. Maybe it was because the tone used was polite at the same time that informal, something that no other rebel used to do with them. Every other rebel that she had met for a brief time, they all looked and talked to them as if they were some kind of divine creatures. This old man, this Bren; hadn't talked to her like that.

"Really?" Hay Lin insisted one last time, more out of courtesy than anything else. "Because the group is advancing, and…"

The old man produced a strange sound with his throat that Hay Lin couldn't identify as a laugh or a snort. "The group always gets ahead lass, but I always get to it;" Bren explained. "So, unless ya want some old stories from this old mouth, ya can go back to the air."

"Uh! I'd love some stories!" Hay Lin said, the small conversation having erased her nervousness and regaining her usual cheering demeanor. "Like some battle you were in or…"

A dry laugh escaped the old man's mouth this time. "Battle? Hehehe… I've never been to any battle, lass."

Hay Lin stared at the old man for several moments, her eyes showing confusion. Her gaze fell upon his missing leg for a few seconds before returning to his face. Bren understood.

"You thought of this old scratch as a battle wound?" Bren asked as he pointed to his gone limb. He then laughed again. "Nay, this something I got for not paying attention to a road!" the man laughed once again, seemingly accustomed to talking about his leg. "I've never been on a battle!"

"But, I thought the Rebellion…" Hay Lin started to say, gesturing to the group ahead, which was lowering its pace, she noted.

"Not everyone here's a soldier, lass;" Bren explained. "And I'm not. I'm only here for my son. The lad's a soldier; he's the rebel, not me. If not for the boy, I'd not be even here."

Hay Lin kept staring at the man. "You don't like the Rebellion?" Hay Lin asked. Why won't someone like him not like the Rebellion? Look at how many people they had saved!

"It's a long story, lass;" Bren told her.

"I love long stories," Hay Lin said with a smile.

Bren gave a smile in return. "I'm Bren Forestson. Ya do understand that? _Forest's Son_. I never met my mum or my dad. But I do have a son, my little Bob. And he's Bob, son of Bren. I gave my name to him, it's one of the only things we smallfolk can give to others. And when the Rebellion came, he joined them faster than a Lurden eats a boar!" the laugh came again, but this time it sounded different, tired. "It's our fault, ya know? That the youngsters rush to fight thinking they'll only find glory and heroism. We tell them about Grendal, and Didier, and Hoel, Brandis and Great Escanor and Fair Leryn… we fill their heads with so many tales, that some of them want to be on those tales. But tales are tales for a reason."

 _So he's just worried about his son_ , Hay Lin thought. The nervousness was growing back, but just before she could talk a bit more, Bren halted and pointed a finger ahead.

"See?" the old man said. "The group never gets too far away."

Looking ahead, Hay Lin saw how the column of people had crossed one enormous massive gate that had been sculpted in the greenish stonewalls of the Infinite City. Letters of a language she didn't recognize adorned the gate, and beyond it an enormous chamber was being filled by the rest of the rebels.

Thanking the old man for his talk, hay Lin apologized for not finishing their conversation before flying into the air once again. She was still nervous, but the talk had eased things. She hoped that could be said after the talk with the rebel leaders too.

* * *

 ** _Will Vandom_**

The Rebellion didn't need too much time to settle into their new base, if that chamber could be called a base. How could a sole room in an underground city be big enough to house something akin to a small army as the Rebellion was? Will didn't know the answer, and frankly, now it wasn't the time to seek it. Now it was the time for strategy.

The current room they were in was way smaller than the other one that was housing the rebels. And inside it were just a few selected people. Caleb and the Mage, of course; but also Aldarn, Drake, Vathek, a Galhot with skin of a green so dark that it could be mistaken for black if not properly illuminated that Will knew was named Rhouglar; Alistair Tharquin, Sephiria… and she and the rest of the Guardians, alongside Jade.

That first rescue mission into the castle the girls and Jackie and company had done in order to rescue her and Jade; and then Raythor, the Shapeshifters, Wong and those Masks… all of them seemed small in comparison with this. Everyone was showing serious faces, everyone feeling as she was feeling… this was, without doubt, a War Council. The Heart of Kandrakar felt heavier than usual while resting over her magically augmented chest, its beat calm and steady. Yet she was the Keeper of the Heart, this was something that had been entrusted to her, and as kidnappings and previous fights had proven during the last months, not something she could ran away from. And as Caleb disclosed a map and some other papers over a table that had been put in the room, she (and her friends) knew that this wasn't like anything they had faced before.

"This is Torus Filney;" Caleb told them all, especially focusing into the girls. He was pointing to a paper in which a strongly fortified city crafted in the guise of a gigantic circle divided in three stages, each one rising a bit more onto the sky; had been drawn with almost every imaginable detail. "As you can see," Caleb continued; "the city is divided in three exterior levels, with another one underground. The first level is dedicated to house the barracks of the guards and the weapons for the city's defense. Second level houses the smallfolk, while the third level, the tower, is for the Viscount and his inner circle of servants, I think. There is also a chamber that occupies the center of the city, just under the Viscount's personal tower. Is there something else, Drake?"

"Architecture-wise? No;" the blonde answered. "But the city is prepared to repel an invasion force triple the size of ours;" Drake's finger pointed towards the first wall. "There are several overtures in their first defense line that connect the wall with the underground level that houses Sandpit. If we get close enough, they will let the creature out and we will be reduced to nothing. In case Sandpit fails to kill everyone before it returns to its pit, or if we retreat using horses or Hoogongs; around fifty cannons for middle range and twenty catapults for long range had been deployed all over the wall. And that's not taking their archers in consideration; even less their infantry and the Rhinoceros Cavalry the Viscount has brought from the Capital and that it's under Frost's command."

"Christ…" Jade swore as she let her breath out. Screw Helms Deep, this was practically the same as marching towards Mordor with half the forces Aragorn had!

"Okay, a question though;" Irma said then. "How're we supposed to conquer that?"

Caleb smirked in a prideful manner then. "This is the part that concerns you. Torus Filney may look impenetrable, but it has a weak point." Caleb pointed to one of the gates. "Every week a caravan with supplies enters the city by using this gate all the way up to the city's medium level. Even if an attack from outside is unviable right now, an attack from inside, perpetrated by a small group like yours will be effective."

"But soldiers must have that gate heavily guarded;" Will pointed out. During night and if they were fast enough, they could sneak in, but it could be risky.

"During the past weeks," Drake started, "I have been making many of the men under my command to enter the city posing as merchants riding the wagons. And I already had a contact within the city before that."

"Ah," Will said, falling into account of what the rebel leader and the blond strategist had planned. "So we enter the city in one of those, disguised I suppose."

"Alongside me," Drake told them. "Once inside, you will meet with my original contact and I shall gather my men. We will depart tomorrow at dawn and at night we will meet here," Drake said pointing to spot in the city, near the wall that separated the second level from the third; "and we will march to the creature's pit."

"What happens with the rest of the rebels?" the Fire Guardian asked.

"We will be divided in two groups and the attack will be done the next morning to that day," Caleb explained. "Aldarn and I will take the Hoogongs and the majority of our men in order to create a small distraction out of the city the Viscount will have to focus into and take some of his forces out, hopefully the entirety of Frost's Rhinoceros Cavalry and some others. We will be far away enough that his weaponry won't reach us. Tharquin and Rhouglar will take the rest of our forces, and wait for a signal you will made in order to start the real attack. Then Cornelia will do what I told you about yesterday, Will. However, once the defenses fall, we can't be sure of how long the battle will be. Even if we take the first level of the city, we can't be sure how long it will take us to conquer the whole of it if the enemy forces flee behind the walls of the upper levels. That's the reason I told you we would need five days for this. However, once Sandpit and their main force are taken out, the Viscount won't have any other option that surrendering. But we need Sandpit incapacitated, or the attack will fail."

"Good plan," Hay Lin complimented them even if she hadn't understood many points of it, but Jade wasn't in the same boat as her relative. It was a good plan but… she didn't know what it was, but there was a weird feeling rubbing at the back of her head.

"I suppose it's the best plan we can use against that thing," the redhead said while gesturing to the drawing of Torus Filney.

"You must be careful when you face the Sandpit, young Keeper of the Heart;" the 'Mage' intervened then. "The creature was the result of the Prince's experiments over a strange brand of lowly elemental. It does not think on anything else but eating, it doesn't differentiate between friend and foe, human or Galhot. If it takes you, then you will be trapped within its body and you will suffocate within its sand."

 _Wayyyyy to go rising our spirits, creepy lady_ ; Irma thought.

"For the moment, the best we can do is rest and gather up energies;" Caleb said as he looked around him. This was it, his great movement, the one that would tip the war's balance into his favor. It was time to remind Phobos why the Rebellion had been a thorn on his side for so much time. It was time to make the Prince pay for his crimes. The faces of his companions and friends showed nothing else but support, and there hadn't been any complains neither by Rhouglar or even Tharquin. Would his father be proud of him if he was here? Only time would tell.

"Dismissed," the rebel leader said

* * *

 ** _A small room in the Infinite City; a couple of hours later…_**

A hand moved fast over paper, and the ink bathing the tip of a darkened piece of wood crafted in the guise of a pencil or pen was shaping the words over it. The writer had his mouth twisted in a gleeful grin; his body practically trembling due to the excitement.

Cyrus Ludmoore never was a man for poetry; that was Cedric and Charles' thing. He was more a man of emotions, of wine, music and women. Many would call him hedonist, yet he didn't consider himself but a man of multiple tastes. Hedonists were egoist men and he wasn't such, years within the Rebellion and his actions there had proved that fact. Or maybe that was something that he told himself in order to ease his mind. Anyway, since he never was a man for poetry, his messages to his older siblings or to Cedric's new brand girlfriend (Cyrus sometimes wondered if his nephews and nieces would turn out as Insectoid or Reptilian Shapeshifters. Or maybe something as weird and terrifying as Charles' other form) were often small and practically telegraphic. Just like this one. But this message was special; it was the good news that his family had been waiting for. It was the moment to start striking.

' _The attack will be made in two days. We march to Torus Filney_.' Cyrus wrote.

' _Splendid_ ;' Charles Ludmoore's contestation came as his words replaced the ones Cyrus had written into his blue book. ' _It's time to complete our half of the deal with good Vathek._ '

Once done, the little brother closed the object and proceeded to hide it carefully. He then walked out of the small, almost claustrophobic room. He needed his rest too.

* * *

 ** _Some hours later…_**

"Wake up," Alistair Tharquin's severe voice said as he kicked a middle aged half-breed woman in her belly. The woman, still half-naked from the previous hours' actions, woke up with a snort of pain due to the old man's kick. "And cover yourself," he ordered as his eyes tried to leave the woman's breasts. Once the woman did as said, covering her modesty with the dirty blanket that had been just over half her belly and legs just moments before, Tharquin spoke again. "Where is Rhouglar? I need to speak with him."

The woman, (the slut, Tharquin reminded himself) confused and still with her sleep fresh, looked at her side and then all around the improvised tent they were currently in. "Don't know," she whispered. "I fell asleep sooner than him."

Should he hit her again? He prepared another kick, yet he stopped once the sound of steps came from the entrance and Rhouglar stepped into the tent, wearing nothing but what seemed to be a piece of a blanket wrapped around his waist and that covered his modesty.

"Tharquin?" Rhouglar asked in a bit of confusion, but then his face shifted to its usual, grinning expression. "If you want to borrow her, do so;" the Galhot said in a joking tone; "but I expect some favor in return."

"You can keep your whores to yourself," Tharquin stated, not paying much attention to the frown of disgust that the woman had just dedicated to him. "We need to talk. Where were you?"

"Taking a piss;" Rhouglar answered while adjusting his improvised loincloth. "You know how this thing goes," the muscled man said while dedicating a lascivious gaze to the woman, then his smirk turned into one of mockery. "Or maybe not? Tell, old timer; how much time since having some fun?"

The woman giggled behind him, and Tharquin repressed the urge of kicking her again. "We need to talk. Alone."

Sighing in exasperation, Rhouglar approached the woman and planted a kiss over her forehead. "Go. But not too far, I think I'll be in need of you after this talk."

Giggling even more than before, the woman rose to her feet and left the tent with the blanket wrapped around her whole body. Tharquin watched her go, and a memory came to his mind.

"That woman… wasn't she the wife of one of the men under your command?" Tharquin inquired, seeing how Rhouglar's face changed to one showing faked sorrow.

"Oh yes, _him_ ;" the Galhot said, not even bothering to remember his name. "What a tragedy, to fall not on battle but thanks to a mere accident. What was that you wanted to talk about?"

Yes, Tharquin remembered as such. A piece of debris had fallen upon him, splattering the man in the ground. _But I can hardly believe that it was an accident… especially since you are so willing to lie with his widow, or she is so willing to lie with you._ But now it wasn't time for that. No, men like Rhouglar would receive their well-earned retribution in due time, but not know. "I wanted to make an offer to you."

"What kind of offer?" Rhouglar asked, the hint of curiosity already present into his voice.

Tharquin's lips formed… something. It was intended to be a smile, yet his lips only stretched their borders a little, creating a strange contortion of his mouth and cheeks. It was clear that the muscles weren't accustomed to do that movement. "What would you say to that, in exchange for a little favor, I can give you something that you desire? Something that even someone like you has yet to taste?"

Rhouglar's eyes narrowed at the man. This was strange, Tharquin asking for deals and favors? The muscled Galhot thought for a few moments before making a decision. It turned out to be a quick one.

"Continue."

* * *

 ** _The first day; the wagon_**

"You all own me so much after this," Cornelia said with bitterness as she tried to adjust the long skirt of her new clothes.

After a sleep that had only lasted a few hours, the six girls (all of them in their human forms now) had been woken and guided through the Infinite City to one of its exits, courtesy of Vathek. Once there, they had been ordered to change into some clothes the rebels had provided them with, which had been quite problematic considering the low light. As such, once they had mounted into the wagon that had to be ridden by Drake fully dressed in their new clothes, they had quickly fallen asleep again, not knowing exactly how they were dressed. They had woken up much later, when the sun had reached practically its peak. That had been the moment in which they had realized exactly how they had dressed.

Their outfits were composed of very simple clothing, at least by meridianite standards. A long skirt of a brownish color (some brighter, some darker) that reached all the way down to their ankles and that they had to now adjust to their waists in order to prevent it from falling. The upper part was as mundane as the lower, composed of a long-sleeved shirt made of something akin to sheep wool, only covered by a small vest that left arms uncovered and that was of the same tone of the skirt. Clothing of commoners for girls trying to pass as commoners.

"C'mon Corny," Irma told her friend. "It's not that bad." _Even if it's hard to move around the chest... of course the average Meridian gal has to be smaller than me_.

Cornelia smirked, satisfied seeing how the Water Guardian's words didn't match her own situation. Well, at least the lot had been able to keep their underwear. Poor Taranee had to hide her glasses, since ' _Meridian has not knowledge of that kind of science yet_ ', in the Mage's words.

"Hey Drake!" Jade called for the driver, rubbing her legs and shoulders, the clothing making her skin itchy, though it was more of a psychological reaction to wearing such clothes than a real physical reaction. "Are we there yet?"

"We still have a bit of travel ahead," the voice of the rebel came from behind the curtains of the wagon the girls were in. Upon his answer, Jade let her back to fall and lean against what she supposed was a sack of potatoes. She wasn't the only one doing that, as Taranee was lying between two barrels and Hay Lin had a jar filled with what seemed to be almonds the size of a five year old child's fists. The same could be said about Will, Irma and Cornelia; sitting between the goods in the carriage.

"How do you think the Astral Drops are doing on Heatherfield?" Taranee asked to nobody in particular.

"Dunno," Irma said while putting her arms behind her head. "I just hope Chris doesn't annoy my 'not-me' as much as does me."

The group let silence to take over them, the only sound heard for various minutes the one made by the clatter of the wheels against the rocky road.

"Girls... you think everything's going to be okay?" Hay Lin asked. She didn't get an answer right away.

"C'mon, what's wrong with you all?!" Jade boasted then. She tried to get up, but the skirt got in the way, earning her a fall to the floor of the wagon; a fact that made her friends giggle. "Ha, ha... but really, have you all seen what we've been up to until now? And here we're, still fighting."

"We know, Jade;" Taranee said. "It's just… Remember what happened at the mountains with Wong and those other guys? Look at it as you like, but we lost there."

 _Just because that Ross jerk got in the way_ , Jade thought with bitterness towards the violent agent. She was just glad that the girls hadn't pushed into the matter and that they had believed her when she had just told them that Ross was in the mission of capturing Hak Foo before going to sleep, thus borrowing some Talismans and that he didn't know about them previously.

"If good news could ease things, then I've one;" Will spoke, making her friends' stares to be directed at her. The redhead took air in and let a pleasant smile of self assurance to come to her lips. "Matt and I kissed yesterday."

The phrase was met with silence at first. Then noise of the other girls rising from their spots in the wagon and rushing towards the redhead filled the air, practically falling over Will as they reached her.

"What?! Oh my God Will!"

"How?! When?! Why?!"

"That's sooooooo cool, gal!"

"It's he your boyfriend now?!"

"Was he good?! Were you good?!"

"It was just a kiss…" Will said timidly as her cheeks became red, her smile widening as each word escaped her mouth. Memories of her last encounter with Matt came to her mind, and she found them both pleasant and calming.

And for a moment, the wagon wasn't filled with Guardians, a Shapeshifter or some kind of rebel elite group preparing for an attack. There were just six teenage girls, talking about how one of them had given her first kiss, sharing their mutual joy. The happiness was forced to die down when Drake's voice came to them.

"Be silent now," the rebel said. "We have arrived."

* * *

Torus Filney looked truly breathtaking when seen in first hand instead of seeing it drawn in a paper; the city and its powerful, thick and tall walls rising in the middle of the barren; being the only vestige of civilization around. And like an oasis in a desert gathers the thirsty, it was natural for the city to gather the ones in need of a location like that.

The vehicle containing the girls and Drake approached the gate other carriages of varying sizes were approaching and crossing inside Torus Filney. While the girls were nervous, the rebel was confident in his little plan. He passed a hand over his now black hair, and carefully checked that the substance he had used to dye it that color was working as it should. His usual light armor had been discarded in exchange of a merchant's clothes, nothing too flashy but neither too common.

"Halt!" he heard a guard yell. At the gate, a dozen soldiers carrying crossbows were waiting, and glancing to the top of the wall above, he saw how archers were mending their time, yet if the signal was made they would take their weapons quickly, and he would be dead in seconds. He took the bag full of gold that rested at his side, and prayed that it would be enough, in combination with the effect the girls should have over him according to the information his men inside the city had passed to him.

"State your purpose," the guard, now nearer; spoke directly to Drake.

"Food for selling into the city," Drake said plainly. Merchants and guards were not known for being friendly with each other, the Prince's grip over Meridian hindering easy and free transaction. "Potatoes and some fine wine, along other, finer drinks."

The guard's brow quirked in curiosity, yet he had been able to pick into Drake's wordplay. He approached the back of the wagon and retired the cloth that served as ceiling and curtains for the vehicle; revealing the six girls alongside the goods. The sextet looked at the guard in surprise, yet the man just smirked after surveying them. Ah, so new girls for the woman from Heliosport. Well, it made sense. The gates of the city would be closed for a long time, and as such the more food and women they had, the better. And Vera's girls were always the best. He then closed the cloth and approached Drake again.

"Merchandise for Gentle Vera comes with…" the guard started to say, yet his phrase didn't get finished before the small bag of gold had been planted into his hand.

"I know, she told me;" Drake said in a whisper. "Everything is in order then?"

"Everything," the guard said. "Move along! Close the gate after this one!" he yelled, seeing how there were no more newcomers arriving. And so the six girls infiltrated into Torus Filney.

* * *

 ** _Viscount Roderick Servantis_**

"All the gates are finally closed?" the Viscount, fully dressed in armor composed of greenish plates, asked as he sat at the head of a long table he was sharing with Lothar, Tynar, Frost and his own wife, Lady Ishol. The chamber they were in wasn't as fancy or well light as many other in the nobleman's residence, but that was intentional. A serious room in order to discuss serious things such as the incoming clash.

"And the commoners are being guided to the central chamber, husband;" Lady Ishol said. "Even if the process is slow, the second level should be emptied around tomorrow morning."

"I don't know why so many precautions," Frost intervened. "I've seen fortresses with fewer defenses than this city, my lord. And my cavalry and that Shapeshifter are ready to charge and crush the Rebellion."

"I won't launch an attack so stupidly, Frost;" Servantis explained to the brute. "The rebels, who according to our scouts are already advancing towards Torus Filney; must know they are in disadvantage against us; so if I let you and the cavalry out, you could fall into a trap, and we would lose numerous forces. They won't attack us directly, surely preparing some kind of trap or…"

"Perhaps their intention is precisely leading our troops out," Lothar said. The Viscount had honored his word, and had provided Lothar with something worthy of fighting for. With the opportunity to bend his oath to the Prince without breaking it, the opportunity to finally feel he was doing something for Meridian's bettering. The smallfolk of this city… oh, how different were they from the ones of the Capital. They were happy, that was the only description that Lothar could give. They lived well, protected, under the care of the Viscount. He felt that the least he could do was protect them. "Something that we will have to do sooner or later, Lord Servantis; considering that the gates of the city are closed to any supplies from the exterior, which the rebels have access to in contrast with us. If we play the slow game, they hold the advantage. Frost and the cavalry should be let out, even if it's just them and the Shapeshifter; in order to at least weaken their forces."

"They cannot get closer to my city thanks to Sandpit," Servantis stated, a fact well known by all the people at the table. Sandpit was a fearsome creature; one so terrible that the Viscount had just used it against previous attacks a couple of times… and to say that the results hadn't been pretty would be an understatement. As such, Servantis had rescinded it to be the mean by which dispose of the lowest scum of society. Killers, rapists… Torus Filney wasn't a perfect city, after all; since there was no such thing. But no, the defenses weren't the problem, that was the city's greatest strength… yet it could also be its greatest weakness.

Servantis smiled, pleased upon Lothar's comment. Gaining the loyalty of the Captain of the Guard had been a good decision; the commander had provided good advice. "Frost," the Viscount addressed the brute. "Gather your men and the Rhinoceros. Once you have done that, wait until the rebels arrive and launch an attack. They won't risk slipping under the range of the cannons and catapults, much less Sandpit, so they will maintain the distance."

"Understood, my lord;" the brute answered with a small bow of his head, excitement in his eyes.

"Lothar," Servantis addressed the Captain next. "I want you and your Lieutenant ready to command the infantry of the city, let my men to take care of the weapons and the archers, since they are already familiar with them. Maintain the men fresh but ready in the case you need to provide aid to Frost and the cavalry."

"As you wish, Viscount;" Lothar said, noting how Frost glared at him for the fraction of a second. The brute didn't want his help, it seemed; he thought he didn't need it.

"Dismissed, then;" Servantis told the men.

* * *

 ** _Lady Ishol_**

After the small meeting had ended, Viscount Servantis had gone directly to a balcony from which the entirety of the city could be seen. She saw how he looked down; the streets of the second level still hummed with life, much of the smallfolk had yet to be guided to security. She supposed it was hard for them, to do this in the middle of the day. But a single day was, at much, all the time they had left. And then battle. She heard her husband sigh in tiredness.

"Is something troubling your mind?" Ishol asked, her voice making her husband to practically turn his head to look at her, but in the end to leave it where it was looking down.

"Did I make a mistake, Ishol?" he asked. And he had called her Ishol, not wife. She sighed and walked until they were side by side. "With Weira, and Phobos and all… _this_ ;" Servantis spoke, gesturing to the whole city.

"Roderick," Ishol called him by his name too. With no others around, there was no need for formalities and complicated words. "I have told you this many times, you are not at fault here, as you weren't at fault with Weira. Everything, everything you have done, that you have sacrificed these last thirteen years, everything has been for the good of Meridian. Who maintained the nobility united after Phobos' ascension to the Throne? You were. Who was the one to save so many innocents by shielding them with these cities? You were."

"And yet, here we are, at war and under attack;" Roderick stated. "Did I not do my best? Yet they are attacking, the rebels."

"The rebels are a bunch of fools," Ishol said. "Just like Weira. Carhaiz is proof of how they really are. Even someone like Tharquin is with them, and I remembered him very well from his days as Captain within the Castle, oh yes I do. The only reason so many of the smallfolk have gathered around them is because they aren't able to think in the long term, and you know it. The rebels just offered Meridian an easy answer, and both of us know that the smallfolk loves those."

"That was the kind of reality Weira wanted to change," Servantis said, an image of the late Queen passing over his mind, from a memory long time forgotten. "And yet look how that turned out." _So many fell… many of them were good people, some were close friends of mine. I can accept that there were some rotten apples within the bunch, but not all of them. Not in a million years_. _And Weira never pretended for that to happen, and yet_ … "You are right, Ishol, I shouldn't trouble my mind, not in a moment like this."

The couple of nobles didn't utter a word for several moments, until Roderick broke the silence again. "You… should go with the smallfolk, just in case."

Ishol made a lovely chuckle. "You are my husband, Roderick; I won't abandon you in the verge of a battle. And besides," she aid, approaching him and resting her head over his shoulder; "if what the scouts had said is true, then the Rebellion won't arrive until tomorrow. So… we have all the night for us."

The Viscount planted a kiss over the Viscountess' forehead. Even when his mind was in turmoil, he could always turn to his wife in order to calm and clear his mood.

"Do you think that the Guardians of Kandrakar will be with the rebels?" Ishol asked then.

"Surely," Servantis answered; "and that Shapeshifter of theirs too, that Black Wolf."

The conversation ended after that, and the married pair of nobles just kept staring at the horizon, no word needed between the two of them.

* * *

 ** _Captain Lothar_**

"Tynar," Lothar called for the other man. As soon as they had left the meeting room, the Captain and Lieutenant had done exactly as the Viscount had ordered them, returning to the first level with the infantry troops and starting to organize them for the incoming battle. Once that had been done and the soldiers had been granted a bit of time to relax, the Captain had called for his faithful second in command, who hadn't abandoned him even after… after the Mask.

"Yes, sir?" Tynar asked. Every one of their interactions since Lothar's recovery had been with others around. Now, however, Lothar had the opportunity to talk from man to man.

"Not here, in private;" Lothar said, gesturing to Tynar to follow him. They walked until they found a spot in, turning a corner, in which they could talk. There, Lothar spoke.

"I would… I _must_ apologize to you, Lieutenant;" Lothar said, shame accompanying his words.

"Sir?" Tynar asked, not as confused as one would expect. The older man knew that this was going to happen sooner or later, considering how deep had Raythor's code sank into the younger half-breed's mind.

"For what I did to you under the influence of the Mask, and for what I forced you to help me do back in Sonder Hill;" Lothar explained. "Neither you or those innocent citizens deserved what I did because of petty revenge. It was dishonorable, and I don't have an excuse."

"You don't?" Tynar asked. "I think you are wrong there, sir. Raythor was a just and honorable man, truly a Captain that cared for every one of his subordinates as if they were his own family. Perhaps, considering his lack of a wife and your lack of a family of your own, it wouldn't be so farfetched to call him your father and you his son. So I think calling your desire for vengeance inexcusable would be an error. Yet my father used to tell me something about vengeance. He said ' _Revenge is a fool's game. It's like a venom, son; it corrupts you until there's nothing of the one you were left_.' I suppose that you have been able to let go of that venom, haven't you, Captain?"

"I suppose," Lothar said. He still harbored anger towards the Guardians and the rebel leader for what they had done to Raythor, how they had shamed him in his last moments. Yet he now understood what his reckless pursue of revenge entitled. It entitled a weakness very easy to exploit. So from now on, he would be on control of his wrath. "Thank you, Tynar."

"Anything else, sir?" the Lieutenant asked, and he saw the Captain's face turning from one of thankfulness to one of preoccupation.

Lothar looked at the strong, tall walls and then to the ground. "I need for you to take a small group of the men we borrowed from the Capital. No more than five, try to pass unnoticed;" Lothar told Tynar. "And I need you to go to Sandpit's chamber below the city and guard it."

"Why?" Tynar asked in confusion.

"This city's defense… it relies too much in that creature, even with the cannons and catapults. If it was to become useless, or worse, used against us by redirecting its course…"

"I shall look into it, sir;" Tynar answered, understanding the implications. "Do you suspect of rebels having infiltrated the city?"

"It is a possibility the Viscount didn't have in mind…" Lothar explained; "and there some within the Rebellion with very capable and deceitful minds, Tynar. I used to call one of them friend once."

* * *

 ** _The girls_**

Torus Filney's second level resembled something akin to a large meridianite village, similar to how the Capital was. Once they had entered and they had abandoned the wagon, Drake quickly selling the goods to some merchants thanks to lowering their prize to an absurd level; they had walked alongside the disguised rebel, blending within the smallfolk of the city. The majority of it was organizing their property and heading towards the entrance to the third level, but there were still some doing their average lives. Apparently, not even the prospect of a certain attack to their home was able to change their pace. And besides, the rebels weren't arriving until tomorrow… except the rebels were already there.

"This is the place," Drake told them as they reached a thin street in which end a house larger than the others (four stories tall instead of the others' usual two) and colored in an intense crimson, from which's windows red lights could be seen. "Torus Filney's Red House, owned by Gentle Vera. Ask for her once you are inside, she already knows you are coming. I must gather the others. I will see you this night."

"Got it," Will told the dyed Drake, who with a small nod, turned his back on them and left, merging with the people and disappearing within seconds. Once the rebel was gone, the girls started to walk, trying to avoid as much attention as possible. It wasn't as easy as it sounded, since the thin street was also filled with commoners, and six young girls, all dressed the same and heading towards the Red House wasn't a sight that went unnoticed.

But they walked, all six of them together; with decision and without doubt, albeit Taranee had to do so by grabbing Hay Lin's arm in order to not stumble upon one of the bystanders, since wearing glasses did hinder the walk a bit.

It was at that moment that Jade's eyes caught a glimpse of something, or rather; someone. Slowing her pace a little, she looked at one of the sides of the street to see a Galhot with brownish skin, body covered by a dark and dirtied cloak; movements slow. He tripped and fell to the ground, hitting the cobblestones with strength. And yet nobody went to help him up. So much for the every man's kindness.

"Guys, go ahead for a second;" Jade whispered, approaching the fallen man.

"Jade! What're you doing?!" Irma whispered as she tried to grab her friend, but the Chinese girl had already departed towards the fallen man.

"Do you need any help?" she asked kindly as she lowered a hand to the man, who albeit a bit reluctant at first, took it after a few moments, so Jade could help him up. It was at that moment that the man's eyes and Jade's met, and his expression changed from one of possible thankfulness to one of utter terror.

"Amber eyes," he whispered in the same tone that a child whispers the name of the monster that hides under his bed.

"What?" Jade asked, not having heard him clearly.

"Amber eyes!" the man yelled in pure fear, and dropped to the ground again. "Amber eyes! Amber eyes!" he yelled as he rose to his feet and tried to run, resulting in an awkward movement of his legs as he put the more distance he could between him and Jade.

"Agh, there is he again;" Jade heard a commoner, a girl she supposed by the sound of her voice, say. "Amber eyes, amber eyes… he doesn't know to say anything new, that mad beggar."

"Sssh, don't say that;" she heard another one. "You know what happened to him, don't you? He was maimed by that Wolf Beast of the rebels. Poor bastard… I suppose once your body is no longer of use, then you have no place amongst the guards, right?"

Jade heard the conversation of the two unknown commoners and looked in the direction the man had gone into. Was… was that one of the guards she had attacked in those woods? Or in one of their missions within Meridian's border, in one of the working camps or prisons? That was stupid, she had just hurt them… she had hurt them pretty bad, hadn't she? Yes it wasn't anything that medicine couldn't cure, but she was thinking about _earthling_ medicine back then. And she supposed the meridianite one wasn't comparable.

She walked back to her friends and they continued towards the Red House.

"What was that?" Will inquired.

"Uhm? Oh, it was nothing," Jade said. "Just a crazy dude."

* * *

 ** _Torus Filney's Red House_**

The Red House did honor to its name, since not only its façade but its insides were of the color of blood, roses and passion. Once inside the house, the girls had been greeted by a small, fat lady carrying heavy book. She had asked them if they wanted work, and she had looked surprised when they had answered 'no'.

"Well, we don't discriminate here;" the fat lady answered. "I've heard of rumors of noblewomen that take their handmaidens to the bed… I suppose we smallfolk had to emulate that sooner or later. Have you brought enough gold?"

The girls looked at the woman in dumbfounded silence. Was she implying that they were looking for…? Oh dear God, was this place a…? "What?" Cornelia was the one to break the uncomfortable silence, the word escaping her mouth flatly.

"Gold," the fat lady answered. "We don't accept silver, unless…"

"Griselda," the girls heard a voice from upstairs. Looking up they saw a slim, busty and dark-skinned woman in her mid thirties with short, blond hair (albeit a much more dirtied tone than Cornelia's) and sharp black eyes. In the moment her eyes fell over the girls, she smirked as a cat. "They have a meeting with me, bring them upstairs."

"Yes Vera," the fat lady answered. "Come then," she commanded, a bit startled by the fact that Vera had a meeting with some girls that seemed to have just walked into a Red House for the first time.

Once upstairs, the girls accessed a small office, composed only of four walls and a small desk in which several boxes were waiting open to be filled with gold, the coins also waiting patiently in some bags over the same desk. And behind that desk the dirtied blonde, the woman called Vera, had taken a seat.

"Erh… Hello," Will started. "Are you Gentle Vera?"

"How else could I be?" the woman answered with a playful, cat-like smile. "And you are those five rebel girls Drake told me about, aren't you? The ones that need to move around at night." Will felt a sensation of relief upon her heart. This woman didn't apparently know that they were the Guardians. Good, that was good. And yet there was something bugging her…

"Are… are you a rebel?" the redhead asked, and the woman in front of her chuckled.

"Oh, you could say I'm a friend of Drake;" she said playfully. "I've known him for many years. So many, many times…" the woman said, not without a hint of pleasure in her voice, and the very evident implications of those words made Will to blush.

"This… is this…you know, a…?" Taranee tried to inquire, Vera deducing what the question was before the girl could even phrase it properly.

"A whorehouse? Of course it is," Vera answered. "There are Red Houses in almost every important city of the kingdom. We aren't very knowledgeable, are we? I suppose you've been living with the rebels for much of your lives. Anyway, Drake told me that I and my girls would be under the Rebellion's protection when the attack starts if I helped him to get a group moving inside the city. And a group of young men and whores walking through the night of Torus Filney is pretty tolerable in the eyes of the guards, even when expecting an attack."

 _And it's something that Drake should have told me_ , Will thought with a bit of anger. She hated when this happened, when she didn't know all the details. Secrets and half-truths... how was she supposed to be in control if she didn't have all the information?

"So we will be passing as… prostitutes?" Jade inquired then, maybe a bit too enthusiastic about the idea, in contrast with Cornelia, who was making the biggest expression of disgust of her life.

"Not with those clothes. Uhm… let me," Vera said as she rose from her seat and approached Jade. She started to circle around Jade, until she knelt just in front of her but. Then she pulled a couple of pins from under her sleeves and started to sew Jade's dress, until the skirt had become much tighter around her behind, clearly accentuating it. "There, much better. Next one is…"

Vera incorporated and approached Cornelia, running a hand across the blonde's hair and her neck, sending a shiver over the entirety of the Earth Guardian's skin. "Pretty hair, very smooth skin;" she said as if she was putting a prize to a product… which was something very close to what she was doing.

Hay Lin was next, Vera placing both her hands over her cheeks; making the Air Guardian to giggle. "Good skin too, a good figure," she said as she looked Hay Lin all over. "And oh, such a lovely smile!"

Taranee was the one to follow, and with her Vera just had to take a look at her. "Oh, dark skin, exotic."

"Exotic?" Taranee asked as she folded her arms, a bit offended.

"The tales about the Knights of Escanor say that Hoel had a skin as dark as the night skies, and as such is believed that every dark-skinned human in meridian is his descendant of some shorts. Many nobles tend to have dark skin;" Vera explained. "Men find it exciting."

 _I'm feeling so uncomfortable right now…_ ; Taranee thought.

Vera approached Irma next, and the woman retained a laugh. "Easy one," she said as she took the Water guardian and opened the first two buttons of her vest and shirt and buttoning them under Irma's bust, enhancing it.

"What?" Irma asked as she noted the amused look on Jade's face.

"Nooooothing," the other girl aid. _Just wondering when your boobs are going to jump to say 'Hello!' to all of us_ ; she added in her thoughts, not without the certainty of enjoying that possibility.

Vera approached Will last, passing a finger over her shoulders and then looking at her face. "Fiery hair, fiery eyes…" the woman stated. "Domineering, perhaps? There are many men that enjoy that."

Domineering? Had she just called her domineering? "I-I'm not domineering, or whatever;" Will said abruptly, earning another of Vera's cat-like grins.

"Give it time," she whispered so only Will could hear it. "I know how a woman is when I see one." She then turned to the whole group of girls. "Congratulations, you are officially whores!"

 _I hate everything…_ Cornelia thought.

* * *

 ** _The second night; Vathek_**

Back in the Infinite City, Vathek had volunteered to stay behind and take command over the ones that had been left behind. It wasn't so much, aside from Sephiria and the rest of the Faithful, the only ones left were the wounded, elderly, mothers, children, and some soldiers in case something happened.

But truth to be told, Vathek hadn't volunteered to stay out of battle just in order to protect these people or because he thought that the others may command better than him. No, he had done so because… because just in the same way he had friends amongst the rebels, he had made many friends amongst the Guard. And some of those guards, alongside Tynar and Lothar, had been called to Torus Filney. He wasn't in the highest of spirits to face them. A part of him also resented how many rebels, especially the youngest ones, referred to the guards. ' _Dogs of the tyrant_ ', they called them. True, the Guard was the enemy, and no doubt that the Rebellion was the one standing for the best of Meridian, but he knew many guards and soldiers were just men doing their jobs. The majority of the Guard was still the same of the times of Queen Weira, for the Light's sake! If there was only a way to make the Guard understand what kind of monster Phobos was…

"Vathek?" he heard at his side, a nasal and somehow voice calling his name. And if that hadn't been enough of a clue, the smell was.

"Blunk," the hulking Galhot addressed the Passling, the greenish dwarf standing mere inches away, carrying a scroll in his hand. "I thought you would be on battle."

"Oh, Blunk's no needed in battle, so say rebels;" the Passling said, Vathek frowning at how bitter he had said that last part. Had the rebels done something to him? He knew that Passling-folk weren't the most liked creatures in Meridian, mainly due to the unlucky combination of their smell and their obsession with shinny objects and deals, which sometimes gave them the image of thieves and smugglers. "And Blunk had business to attend, very important and good business;" the Passling handed the scroll to him then. "Mr. Ludmoore says ' _I carried my part of the deal. I hope you will carry yours_ ';" the Passling told him and then turned around and left him alone, leaning against one of the Infinite City greenish walls.

Vathek looked down at the scroll once Blunk was gone. He hadn't noticed at first, but the word 'Carhaiz' had been written over it in red letters. Now, of all times; and delivered by the Passling's hand no less? Ludmoore was a tricky one.

He searched for a spot in where to sit down and read appropriately. Once he did, he unrolled the scroll and read. As his eyes marched over the numerous papers that the scroll had turned out to be, Vathek's expression became more and more somber… until it reached the end of the text and he felt his heart to beat faster and faster, as if it wanted to escape his chest.

 _Protecting the innocents? Have you spent so much time between us as a spy that you have forgotten about your side's deeds?_

Raythor's words from that fateful encounter between the two at the edge of the Abyss of Shadows seemed to come to him know, and this time Vathek understood perfectly what the former and now banished Captain of the Guard was referring to.

"No…" Vathek said in a broken tone. He wasn't even able to fight a couple of tears that rolled down his blue cheeks and fell over the scroll.

"No…"

* * *

 ** _The girls_**

"You should've told me," Will's voice, dripping with a slight mixture of anger and shamefulness; was heard as she, the rest of the girls and the again blond Drake and his small group of rebels (composed of no more than five other men besides him), walked through the now silent and dark streets of Torus Filney; "that we were going to stay on a whorehouse!"

"First," Drake began; "low your tone of voice, else you want us to be found. Second, if I had told you, would that have changed anything?"

Will rolled her eyes. Today's had been a really... long day, for the lack of a better term. They had to spent all the time until dusk in the Red House, doing otherwise would have meant... Will didn't want to think about what it meant. They had have enough with the noises, both from the people and the hits on the very walls. She had to admit that her friends and her would have been much more reluctant to participate in the mission had they known this. "Okay, I get your point," the redhead said.

"What was all that talk about the Rebellion giving protection to Vera?" Taranee asked then, walking a couple of feet behind the redhead and the blond man, fighting the urge to not yell to one of the men under Drake's command due to the looks he was giving her. She supposed Vera was right in her previous statement.

"We are going to attack and _invade_ this city," Drake proclaimed, putting emphasis in the 'invade' part. "When these situations occur and the fear of death grows," Drake said as he looked over his shoulder to Taranee; "some of the men, no matter which side they are fighting for, can develop some... _ideas_ concerning women. And whores are a very easy target."

The Fire Guardian shivered. Her history books never deepened so much in the darkest descriptions of the Middle Ages as to outright state that women (especially commoners in war zones) were usually victims of rape. The implications of the blond man's pretty brutally honest statement didn't help to ease her mind's trouble over their current predicament. Her companions, however (and probably for the best) hadn't noticed it.

"Here," Drake said then, as he made the group following him to turn around a corner. "Now Jade, if you could..."

"Got it, got it;" she said as she stepped forward.

Ahead, guarding a gate in the wall that separated the second level from the first was a group of three guards. Jade approached them with calm, making sure to remember how Viper used to move and act and imitate it. It worked, as the guards didn't show any ill intent as they looked at her walking towards them. Like Taranee, the actual Ben-Shui Chosen One supposed that Vera had been right in her statement about attention. The guards let her approach them completely, but before they could do or say anything, Jade unleashed a wave of white chi, sending the trio of guards flying a couple of meters and knocking them out.

"Too easy!" Jade proclaimed, folding her arms and showing pride. She was getting better and better at this day after day! She wondered what kind of awesome things her chi power could do…

"Jade, your voice;" Will told her in the same way Drake had told her moments before; the other girls and the rebels approaching the gate.

"Sorry, sorry, geez;" the other girl apologized, more or less.

The group crossed the gate, entering a tunnel illuminated by torches that they supposed went all the way through the wall and connected both levels. Drake started to pass his hands over the nearby wall, searching for something. Her hands passed over and pressed almost any detail that seemed out of place. _Come on, I know you are here, somewhere…_ he thought as he continued his search, until his hand pressed what at first glance seemed like a badly collocated brick. He heard a 'click!' and then the sound of a mechanism activating. _Yes!_

The mechanism did its job, revealing hidden door to another, bigger and darker tunnel as a piece of the wall moved away. Drake took one of the torches and entered it. The tunnel went down into the earth straight away, and Drake wasn't able to see its end.

"This must be part of the net of tunnels that lead to Sandpit," Drake said while his companions entered the tunnel and closed the hidden door behind them.

Now away from the suspicious looks of strangers, Will took the Heart from under her shirt, holding the pink jewel up. "Well, we can finally get changed," the redhead proclaimed. "Guardians, Unite!"

The usual flash of light to which Jade had grown accustomed since her first day on Heatherfield illuminated the entirety of the tunnel for a second before dying out, and the five Guardians of Kandrakar stood where the first girls had just moments ago.

Irma stretched her arms up, finally feeling that she could move freely. "So much better!" the Water Guardian said.

"I'd say," Taranee corroborated, adjusting her glasses, glad of being able to see again.

Not wanting to be less, Jade was quick to let her hair to grow into a mane that quickly enveloped her body and transformed it into a growing ball of black fur that became her wolf form afterwards. She patted the ground with her claws and smelled the air. Deep down the tunnel, she was able to smell… _something_. Something with a very, very weird smell that she couldn't recognize and that overpowered all the other odors.

"I… I think that I can smell that Sandpit guy," Jade said. "I don't like it."

Seeing how his forces were ready and how the Guardians and the Shapeshifter should be enough, Drake looked at his men. "Scatter," he ordered. "Block the entrance and don't let anyone in until we are back."

"Understood," the men said in unison as they did as Drake had ordered them.

"Now," Drake directed himself to the girls. "We should start moving. According to the information I gathered, this net of tunnels is very large. We should search for other paths and use them in order to find the central chamber where Sandpit resides."

"Alright," Will said. "Taranee, a bit of more light?"

"Yes," the Fire Guardian said as she manifested a fireball in her palm that acted as a torch for them

After that, the Guardians, Shapeshifter and rebel blonde started to move; travelling deeper under Torus Filney.

* * *

 ** _Tynar_**

The Lieutenant took a small leather bottle that hanged from his waist, pouring water into his mouth. This place made his whole body uneasy. He was now in a huge, circular chamber made of rock bricks that had been built over a natural cave. However, even if huge, the chamber didn't have a lot of floor over where to walk. The majority of the chamber was a hole in the floor, surrounded by a thin line of bricks that acted as floor and that gave the place the look of a giant wheel. And from the border of that wheel, Tynar was looking at what contained.

Deep into the hole was a massive, moving mass of sand. It was moving in its own, since there was no wind here. This was Sandpit, albeit Tynar thanked everything in existence that now it seemed to be… resting? Sleeping, perhaps? Could something like that rest? Did it need rest, to begin with? Tynar knew of how this thing operated. How many had been eaten alive by this strange, amoral creature?

The Lieutenant's hand touched the bracelet that Tash had made for him. This place was unnerving him, filling his mind with troublesome thoughts. This wasn't the moment for those, not now. After all, he had heard the steps as they approached.

He unsheathed his sword quickly, turning around almost instantaneously and guarding himself with the weapon. A throwing knife cashed against the blade and fell to the floor with a dim sound, and Tynar looked up, his eyes meeting with Drake's.

"Quick thinking," the rebel praised him, Tynar narrowing his eyes in response. The Captain had been right; the rebels were inside the city. Now, where were his…

"If you are expecting your men to come to your aid," Drake began to say as he unsheathed his own sword. "I think they met with the Guardians and our dear Good Wolf. I suppose they will end either trapped in vines or maimed by Jade."

The Guardians were here?! Why?! It would make much more sense for them to be with the rebels in order to help with the attack. Unless… unless the attack wasn't an attack at all, and it was just a diversion. Shit! Tynar readied his guard, rising the sword over his head. He needed to get rid of this one quickly; else Lothar and Servantis would fall directly into a trap! He rushed towards Drake, weapon ready to deliver the strongest of blows. However, instead of parrying or blocking the attack; Drake just jumped out of the way, and decided to counterattack with a fast strike. Tynar blocked it, but in the moment he was preparing for a counterattack, Drake just jumped backwards, the blade hitting the floor instead of him.

"Is there something wrong?" Drake taunted. "Want to end the fight quickly in order to go and ring the alarm? I believe I can't let you do so."

"You think of this a game?!" Tynar yelled in return of the rebel's words. "How many people in this city will suffer after your attack? Do you have any idea how much will they lose?!"

"Do you have any idea how much everyone could win?" Drake asked in return. "This city is a key to controlling the medium ring of Meridian. Once we have taken it, then our chance of winning this war increases exponentially, and as such deposing Phobos and ending this conflict becomes more of a reality."

"And then what?" Tynar asked.

A strange looking smile came to Drake's lips then. And for a second, Tynar could have sworn that his whole body language shifted, and his eyes changed from blue to a yellowish tone. The rebel took his sword in one hand and lowered his stance. Then, he spoke. "Then? Then everything begins."

Tynar raised his sword almost instinctively, because in the blink of an eye, Drake was mere inches away from him, raising his sword from below in an ascendant blow. The blades clashed, and due to the sheer intensity of the impact, both of them broke into shards. Tynar was so shocked by this that he missed Drake's hands graving his torso, elevating him in the air and throwing him against the ground. Then proceeded a kick, and afterwards a punch as the Lieutenant tried to incorporate, followed for another five. Blood poured from his lips and ears due to the savagery of the rebel's punches.

 _How can he be so strong?_ Tynar thought in confusion. The rebel looked human, yet his blows were able to break some of his bones. Galhots were naturally more resilient and strong than any human being!

Drake approached the still lying Tynar, and rising one leg, he delivered a powerful blow to the Lieutenant's knee, breaking his leg. Tynar let out a powerful cry of pain, but that didn't halt Drake from continuing punching him in the face, this time transforming the Galhot's nose into a bloody mass of pulverized bones and cartilage. His face completely dirtied by blood, Tynar lost his left eye's sight after the next punch. Bones broken and effectively unable to move, Drake took him by the throat and dragged him towards the border of the hole. In the way, the bracelet slipped from Tynar's wrist and fell to the ground.

 _Wait_ , Tynar thought as Drake dragged him away from his son's gift. _Wait, I need that. My son made it, give it back. He put a lot of effort; he's not very good now, not until he practices more. Wait please, let me take it back… my wife will be so angry at me… Please, Tash made it for me…_

"I know you are probably a good man," Drake told him as he halted at the border of the hole. Down, Sandpit continued to rest. "But you would get in the way. And I cannot tolerate that. You know something? My father used to tell me the family's code when these things happened. You know what he used to tell me, soldier?" Drake asked as he looked down on Tynar. From where he was and how he was, the Lieutenant could barely see, yet the blue in the man's eyes had returned. That blue… it looked identical to the one of Cedric's eyes.

"All men are Evil"

The next thing that Tynar knew, he was falling. Then he heard a grave sound as he fell over something soft and that yet felt raspy against his skin. Sand, it was sand; sand that was moving, faster with each second. Next thing Tynar saw was a thick tentacle of the matter rising over him. The tentacle lowered. And the last thing Tynar saw was sand.

Atop the hole, Drake had just a couple of seconds to get away from the border before the entire Sandpit shot upwards, a mass of formless quicksand that towered over him and that twirled and twisted over itself furiously. It was clear that consuming the Lieutenant had done nothing but increase its hunger.

"Drake!" the rebel heard Will's voice coming from the nearby tunnel. "Are you alright? We heard screams, and…" the redhead's eyes fell upon the creature of sand that was twirling over them. "What the heck is that?!"

"That's Sandpit?!" Irma screeched as she and the other girls entered the chamber. "It's freaking enormous!"

The mass of living, amoral quicksand twirled over itself once again. The creature could feel the presence of something in its home now, something brighter and far more delicious than regular humans or Galhots. It wanted to eat it!

Thick tentacles of sand shot from the main body of the creature, this time completely ignoring Drake and Jade, and pursuing the Guardians, who quickly flew across the air in order to dodge its attacks. Seeing that the monster wasn't focusing on her, Jade readied her claws and formed the most similar thing a wolf could do to a smirk with her lips. She then enveloped her body on chi and rushed towards Sandpit.

"Jade!" she heard Will.

"Don't worry guys!" Jade said in confidence. "I got this!" she then slammed into Sandpit's body with her full strength, the wave of white chi creating a momentary hole in the creature's body… which quickly closed.

"Erh… that was supposed to hurt you;" Jade said as she tilted her head. She jumped backwards as a tentacle stroke the ground below her, and once in the air she shifted back to her human form in order to evade more attacks by being a smaller target. In the moment she touched the ground she shot more chi beams towards Sandpit, which just produced more holes that quickly closed. She then shifted again into a wolf, the boost in speed being much more useful to evade attacks in land. "How do we beat this guy?!"

"How do you defeat sand?!" Cornelia said as she took two chunks of rock from the nearest wall to use them as shields against the creature's tentacles.

Taranee's mind was able to find an answer to that between the practically endless attacks. "Hay Lin!" she shouted. "I need this thing back on its pit!"

"Alright!" Hay Lin said, before moving her eyes from one side to another. "How?!"

"Air pressure!" the Fire Guardian instructed.

Making an 'okay' sing with her fingers, Hay Lin gathered air in a huge tornado and shot it towards the upper part of Sandpit, hammering the creature back into the hole it had identified as his home for the last years. However, the hunger was huge, and the creature fought against the air with all its might.

"I… I can't hold up!" Hay Lin called as drops of sweat started to fall from her forehead, showing the enormous effort she was doing. "It's too strong!"

"Don't worry," Taranee said as she charged a gigantic fireball over her head. "This ends now:"

Taranee shot the fireball to Hay Lin's descending attack, and her fire was maximized by the strong wind. Then, the flames enveloped Sandpit, the creature letting a sound that the girls and the rebel identified as an agonizing screech of pain. The sound died moments after, and Hay Lin felt how her wind was finding no more opposition. Dispelling her and Taranee's attack, she found that the mass of living quicksand was gone, replaced by a plain, clear piece of glass at the bottom of the hole.

"Sand, plus very high temperatures," Taranee said as she flew down to the ground; "equals glass."

"You just made science class sound awesome there," Jade joked as she shifted back to her human form.

"Hey, the laws of thermodynamics are pretty cool," Taranee joked too, making Jade to laugh between her teeth.

"We won," Cornelia said as she looked at the defeated sand creature. "I can't believe we won so easily."

"We only won because Taranee was here," Will complimented her teammate.

"And this is only the first stage of the plan," Drake intervened. "We still have to…"

"I know, I know;" Cornelia said. "I've got to open a way for the others… What could you do without me?"

"Well then," Drake said, dedicating a last gaze to the now frozen Sandpit. "Let's finish this part."

* * *

 ** _Later_**

Torus Filney had been built over a net of underground tunnels, hoping to use them to its advantage. The thing Roderick Servantis didn't have in mind was that they could be used against him. After all, who could just access his city by underground? The group of people whose base of operations was already underground, perhaps?

"Are you sure this is the place?" Cornelia asked as he clapped her hands in order to get dust out of them.

"According to the Mage," Drake said. "And the Mage hardly commits any errors."

Cornelia didn't say anymore, she needed concentration. She placed her hands over one of the walls in the tunnel they were currently in. Concentrating and forgetting about anything else, she felt the earth in the wall, the meters and meters of rock, dirt and roots behind it… until she felt a complete different kind of stone, more akin to marble. This was the place.

Cornelia let a haughty smile to come to her lips and she sunk her fingers into the wall, a tremor running across the tunnels as she commanded her element to do her bidding and basically step out of the way. Which it did, the wall opening up and revealing a practically cleaned path sans a couple of roots hanging from the new tunnel's ceiling. And at the other end of the path, was the greenish light of the Infinite City, now connected to the tunnels under Torus Filney. After a couple of moments of waiting, rebels appeared in the tunnel, half the Rebellion's forces leaded by Tharquin and Rhouglar, all of them armed to the teeth and ready for battle.

"Welcome to Torus Filney," Drake greeted them, earning a playful grin from Rhouglar and a dry nod from Tharquin.

"You bastard, you did it again!" Rhouglar congratulated him.

"I barely did anything," Drake said humbly. "That honor belongs to them," he said, gesturing to the Guardians and Jade.

"Yeah!" Jade interrupted. "We beat that Sandpit thing!"

Rhouglar let out a clacking laugh out. "I wasn't expecting less!" he said with a grin. "Nice dress, by the way," the Galhot told Jade, who then just realized that she was still wearing the clothes from before. Damn, why couldn't she get instantaneous magical clothing like the girls?

"How much time do we have left?" Tharquin, always focusing in the matters at hand, asked.

"Just a couple of hours before dawn, I believe;" Drake answered.

"Then its better if we rest," the Old Worm proclaimed, and the huge amount of rebels started to disperse across the tunnel. Before each one went in their own way, Tharquin put a hand over Rhouglar's shoulder. "Don't forget our accord."

"Who do you think I am?" Rhouglar asked; his usual lascivious grin widening. Then he looked in the direction the girls were going, eyes falling over Jade. "I'm a man of my word."

* * *

 ** _Cyrus Ludmoore_**

Everything was going smoothly. Yet he reminded himself that he needed to be more cautious, he had left his mask _and_ his human form to almost fall during the clash with the guard. It didn't matter, he was dead now, and the mask was going to become useless in a year or so, he supposed.

Drake had served Cyrus and his family well, earning big brother Charles eyes, ears and a growing voice in the Rebellion over the years. Just like Cedric's inside the Prince's court, Cyrus' wasn't the strongest and only voice, but that provided him with enough room to move freely and grow in authority amongst the rebels. Anyway, the first stage was soon to be completed, and once the second one had been fulfilled, there would be no more use for Drake. But for now, Cyrus enjoyed and liked Drake; he liked the women, drinks and fights he had experienced and tasted. And Cyrus had to admit that he liked the friends that Drake had gained. But Cyrus was real, while Drake wasn't. He sat down and took a small bottle from his pocket, filling his mouth with wine. He had noticed that, since this whole operation began, he had been drinking more and more. Bah, he liked wine, and if we could survive from it instead of water, he would gladly do so. Anyway, battle was imminent.

And as Cyrus Ludmoore enjoyed a last drink before fighting once again (he wondered where could he find a new sword), the rebels gathered their forces under and outside Torus Filney. Above and in front of them, Viscount Servantis readied his pieces for the defense. And at dawn, it would begin; the event that, in the years to come, would be known in Meridian history texts with one single sentence.

The Sack of Torus Filney

* * *

 _All men are Evil_.  Conrad Ludmoore; father of Charles, Cedric and Cyrus

* * *

 **A/N: There we go. I was going to insert another fight scene in this one, but I think that it's best to leave it like this, dedicating the next chapter completely to fights and action and the third one to a very long aftermath; thus leaving the two bombs I dropped in this one to sink in. Yes, the rebel that seemed to be most levelheaded and rational turns out to be a spy. Yes, Tynar falls, and now hear me on this, I have no difficulty with disposing of secondary or even primary characters if it fits the situation and narrative. Here I did it in order to make one thing clear: This is a war, and surprise, very good people die in those. Albeit Tynar's fate is going to be left inconclusive, like some of you may be figuring considering what happens with Sandpit at the Start of season 2; others are going to die during these chapters, and the events of Torus Filney are going to be a huge change on the status quo of both Rebellion and the Prince's court. If this was a show, this would be the midseason episode that makes the plot of the season to become more intense. But enough with my ramblings, I hope you enjoyed this chapter. Please, leave a review and until next time.**

 **Bye, bye!**


	12. The Sack of Torus Filney

**Disclaimer: I own neither the WITCH cartoon-show nor Jackie Chan Adventures; they are the property of their respective creators, writers, and producers.**

 **Author Notes: Not much to say here except my usual thanks to all the reviewers and a little apology for breaking the schedule I had planned for these chapters. As said in the previous chapter, especially after the couple of bombs I dropped there, it's time to go straight into the battle. But before we start, there are going to be a couple of scenes a bit… unsettling in this one. Just saying. Anyway, time for a medieval fight, with emphasis on medieval. Ladies and gentlemen, hope you enjoy your read.**

* * *

Guardians, Wizards and Kung-Fu Fighters

Episode Twelve

The Sack of Torus Filney

* * *

 ** _World of Meridian; in the way to Torus Filney; the second day; Caleb_**

"Did you find it?" Caleb asked while his Hoogong mount trotted over the barren land that surrounded Torus Filney. Behind him marched half the Rebellion's forces, and onward came Aldarn with another pair of scouts; all of them either over Hoogongs or horses, the last ones, bigger and stronger (yet slower) than the feathery mounts, dedicated to carry the solders with the newest weapons.

"It lies where we had been informed it was," the rebel leader's second in command answered as he made his mount to march alongside Caleb's.

"Good," the rebel leader said solemnly as they continued to march. So many men had been sent into these lands in the past. The Viscount must have thought of them as desperate men or mere scouts as best, otherwise, what they had been hiding would not be here anymore. Caleb looked ahead, the sun had started to rise just moments ago, bathing the barren in the light of the day and letting Torus Filney to be seen in the distance, the enormous fortified city impossible to miss. "When they came to us, you will take the right, and I the left. Maintain the horses in the center of the formations, and tell them to not use the new weapons until we are on the city and engage the main force."

"Don't worry," Aldarn answered with a small grin. "Frost would have to be in his luckiest day to force us to use that," the rebel joked.

Caleb chuckled upon hearing that. "Not afraid, even in the slightest? You are still in time to go away," he joked with his friend.

"Run away?" Aldarn continued with the joke. "Never. Your courage encourages me."

Caleb smiled over his friend's kindly words. Yes, no matter the situation, he could always count in Aldarn, his friend forever ready to lend him a hand or fight by his side. However, as they continued marched, a frown appeared in his forehead and the rebel leader raised one hand in order to make his forces to halt. He then looked at his second in command. "Is this the place?" he asked.

"Yes," Aldarn said, pointing to a small protuberance in the ground that looked like a thick rope coming out of the dirt. "See? That's one of the spots."

"Then make it to be ready," Caleb ordered, the time for jokes gone. Aldarn nodded and waved his hand while making is mount to turn around, gathering some men to help him out.

Caleb, meanwhile, let the dry and dusty air of the barren to enter his nostrils and travel all the way into his lungs, his hand resting over the hilt of his sword. This was the moment, the one he had been so much looking up to. Would his father be proud? Yes, of course he would be, look at what he had accomplished in such a small amount of time. His gaze fell directly upon Torus Filney, and for a moment his mind interpreted the thick and tall walls of the city as a symbol of the Prince's grasp around Meridian. And he was determined to make said grasp disappear. And once Torus Filney was theirs, then freeing the medium ring and the Capital would be just a matter of time. He could almost hear the cheers and hopeful cries of the smallfolk.

 _And finally, once again_ ; he thought, reciting the same hopeful words his father had once said to him. _Meridian will be at peace_.

* * *

 ** _Aldarn_**

While Caleb looked upon Torus Filney, Aldarn looked at his commander's back. He had started to notice that, no matter what he did, he was always looking at that back. Always two steps behind. He had never complained about that; since he had found that place reassuring, pleasant, and the best of places to make sure his friend didn't get hurt. And yet he had started to find that feeling unpleasant now. Even as they marched and joked with each other, moments that reminded him of their shared childhood on the Infinite City, the thought was still present. Why was he always the one walking two steps behind?

 _No, that is not what I must be thinking right now_ ; Aldarn thought. _My friend has still the eyes set upon the noble goal_. Aldarn's eyes fell over Torus Filney while one of his men tied one of the ropes to his and others' mounts. _Finally, we will take what the Prince stole from us_. His mind travelled back to his father at the capital, the aged blacksmith always with a somber look on his face, remembering better days while hammering the hot metals in order to give them shape. _And once Torus Filney is ours, conquering the middle ring and the Capital will be just a matter of time_. He could almost heard the cries of pain from the bastardly servants of the tyrant while they received their earned punishment.

 _Your days are numbered, Phobos_ ; the rebel thought with hatred towards the Prince. _Meridian will be avenged_.

* * *

 ** _Torus Filney; Lothar_**

 _They have finally come_ , the Captain of the Guard thought as he surveyed the distance with a spyglass. He noticed how his grip around the object tightened as his eyes took a glimpse of the rebel leader, mounting over a Hoogong. Yet he let the grip to soften, and the turmoil of wrath and anger to dissolve into nothingness. Revenge is a fool's game, he thought, reminiscent of Tynar's words. Where was Tynar, anyway? He should be back very soon. Better to attend more urgent matters first.

The Captain turned over his heels and walked to the inner edge of the wall he was currently standing over, handing the spyglass to one of the guards standing near of him.

"Frost!" he called down the wall, the men moving across the first level of Torus Filney, carrying weapons and making the catapults and cannons ready. Everyone was prepared for the incoming clash, and Lothar could see authentic determination in those men's eyes. They weren't fighting for Phobos, but for this place. For what it represented, for whom was in the central chamber; the women and children.

"Captain!" he heard the response. The brute was ready, mounting over Crimson and the rest of the Rhinoceros Cavalry marching behind him. Riding alongside one of the riders next to Frost was a figure clad in a dark, brownish cloak. Even from the distance, Lothar could see the girth and strange clothes befitting the Shapeshifter that called himself Simon Swanson.

"Take the cavalry out!" Lothar ordered, while signaling to some guards so they opened one of the city's gates. He then pointed to the rebels in the distance. "Crush them!"

"Yes, sir!" the brute answered, any ill feeling he could retain towards his younger superior now cleared thanks to the thrill that the incoming battle would provide. Lothar restrained himself from scolding him. Men like Frost, who weren't especially monstrous or malicious yet whose sole motivation was to exchange blows... the same could be said about the Reptilian Beast that accompanied his unit. Men like those always burned strong, but fast; and always meant the unnecessary lost of many lives. Fortunately, they were going to be just the vanguard.

And so they marched, the rhinoceros amongst their riders. They crossed the gate and it didn't last long before Lothar saw them departing from the city and the animals accelerating their pace as they rushed towards the enemy. War-cries shot from the riders, and Lothar took the spyglass again.

 _The move is yours now_ , Lothar thought. _Caleb, son of Julian_.

* * *

The ground had started to tremble. Even the Hoogongs seemed worried. Caleb remembered this sensation well, it was the same he had experienced while fleeing the Castle after that fateful night he had blown up that armory and he had escaped through that Portal. The Rhinoceros Cavalry was coming. Well, nothing that they weren't expecting.

"Stay still!" Caleb yelled, one of his hands tightening around his mount's reins and the other unsheathing his sword. "Wait until the last moment!"

The men behind and around him yelled in agreement. The Rhinoceros Cavalry appeared in their sight then, dust raising behind them as the animals stomped over the ground, emulating a cloud that didn't let anything but the incoming enemy to be seen.

"Steady..." Caleb repeated, eyes narrowing as he caught sight of Frost, the brute swinging an axe as he leaded the rest of the riders.

"Charge!" Frost proclaimed gleefully as his cavalry grew closer and closer towards the Rebellion. "Crush them under our might!"

 _Maybe in your dreams_ , Caleb thought as a tricky smirk adorned his lips. "Now!"

At his commander's yell, Aldarn spurred his mount, the Hoogong shooting onwards and to the right in the same vein that Caleb's did onward and to the left; and half their forces followed each. As such, the rebels' band of riders broke in two, each group lining in each of the flanks of the Rhinoceros Cavalry, and putting Frost and his soldiers between both.

Caleb saw how Frost, confident in the fact that his forces outnumbered and outweighed the rebels'; made a sign to his riders and they started to split their own group in order to pursue them. He felt something akin to joy when the rope Aldarn had tied to some of the Hoogongs tensed, revealing the little surprise his fellow rebels had prepared during the past month.

In the place the rebels had stood just moments ago the dirt broke as spikes made from hard tree trunks rose from it, their ends sharpened as hard as a spear's head. Some of the rhinoceros, their instincts of survival kicking in and warning them about the danger; stopped their movement abruptly, allowing them to not be pierced by the spikes. However, in their desire to evade the spikes, those same animals fell to the ground and collided with each other, though no major injury was suffered. Their riders... weren't so lucky; some being thrown in the air by the force of the abrupt halt, getting themselves impaled in the spikes, blood pouring from their wounds and screams leaving their mouths. Some others just got themselves crushed by their own mounts or their companions'; and those didn't leave any scream.

"Now! Don't let them recover, charge!" Caleb yelled, adrenaline fueling his words and body with strength and energy; holding his sword high and pointing it to the enemy. "Kill them!"

"Go!" Aldarn joined his commander in his proclaim. "Kill them, down with Phobos! Down with the tyrant!"

Their men answered with similar declarations, all of them spurring their Hoogongs and horses and charging towards the Rhinoceros Cavalry.

So far, so good. The Viscount had proceeded as expected, sending Frost first towards them, and the brute in charge of the Cavalry had reacted as befitting his reputation, charging recklessly into battle. Everything was going according to plan.

 _Trying to trap ME?!_ Frost thought then, with equal parts of anger and pride; as he made his men to finally turn around. "SWANSON!"

At the shout of the name, a figure clad in a cloak jumped from one of the rhinos. In the middle of the air, lightning enveloped the individual, and then a large figure fell and crashed straight into the middle of the Hoogong riders, stopping their charge and raising yet another cloud of dust.

And from said cloud of dust, first came screams and later a claw of green escales dispersing it. And as the dust cleared, three dead Hoogongs with three dead rebels appeared at the feet of a large, bipedal, humanoid crocodile with muscular arms and legs, yet with a round belly. His jaws were red with the blood of the fallen soldiers, and he was roaring to the sky.

"Shapeshifter!" an unknown rebel screamed in terror.

"Now that's the good stuff!" Simon Swanson proclaimed as he licked the blood from his fangs. "Who's next?!"

This... wasn't according to plan.

 _That's the same Reptilian from the ravine!_ Caleb thought looking back while doing his best to control his Hoogong. _But he looks even bigger, maybe just mere inches smaller than Cedric... how?!_ This wasn't in his predictions; Drake's informants had told him nothing about a Shapeshifter being brought alongside Frost and more soldiers!

Noticing the rebel leader's uneasiness, Simon grinned, showcasing the set of fangs in his enormous maw. "What's wrong, pal?" the crocodile asked. "Surprised to see me this big? I was a bit down from our last fight, so the Wong old man got me stronger. Put some vitamins in my veins, said something about reducing my lifespan, but who cares?! Imma squash y'all like bugs!" the crocodile stopped his rant for a second, chuckling. "Hehe. Don't tell Miranda and Tristan I said that..."

 _Shit_ , Caleb thought as he looked out of the corner of his eye, seeing how Frost and the Rhinoceros Cavalry had already reorganized. And thanks to the Shapeshifter, now his forces were divided. _I don't know how much time we can hold them with a Shapeshifter around... Damn it, I hope you are ready soon, girls._

* * *

 ** _Torus Filney; underground_**

"Where are we exactly going?" Taranee asked, feeling as if she didn't, no one would.

There were still in the tunnels, both the girls and the rebels, all of them hidden and waiting for the dawn since the Rebellion's arrival. At least they had enough time to rest a bit before one of Vera's girls had come running, informing them that the rebel attack had started, that the dawn and the battle were already here. Frost had gone out in order to take them out, just as the Rebellion had expected. Not even a city as large as this could tolerate being under siege for too long, and the rebels may be playing that game. And the Rebellion was counting on that thought to pass over the Viscount's (or one of his closest counselors') mind. It had really paid off.

"To make the signal that Caleb needs," Drake explained as they walked through one of the numerous tunnels that had previously belonged to the now frozen Sandpit. He was carrying a map of the city in one hand, holding a torch with the other. He seemed pretty focused into finding an specific spot. "The sooner the better, I don't know how much he and the others may hold the Rhinoceros Cavalry."

"Yeah, we know that;" Will chimed in. "Then Cornelia will bring some of the walls down with her powers..." the redhead repeated the blond rebel's previous explanation. "Can you please tell us what kind of signal we're going to make?"

"Oh, a big one;" the blond rebel said with a smirk, actually not answering at all.

 _An explosion?_ Will, able to read between lines; thought. _I suppose it's the best we could do..._

"Are we going to blow something up?" Jade asked, voicing the redhead's question.

 _Yes, an explosion_ ; Will thought, strategic mind taking over while they continued their walk through the tunnel. Damn, why couldn't these tunnels have been built in order to let them fly? The Infinite City was much more comfortable in that regard. _An explosion should be enough..._ Tharquin and Rhouglar were still patiently waiting with their forces, and as soon as their way had been cleared thanks to Cornelia, they would start attacking. They were all waiting for them.

"Yes, their gunpowder reserves;" Drake answered. "That should both confuse them and make a signal big enough for Caleb to see. Here," Drake said, halting and pointing to a spot over their heads. He checked the map once again. "This is the place," the rebel indicated.

"Won't an explosion be dangerous?" Taranee asked then, concerned not only about her and her friends' safety, but also about the people that could be caught in the explosion and get hurt, or even die. During her first lessons with her element, Tohru had explained how hers was probably the most versatile and useful in fights (due to the fact that she could conjure it and that it was incredibly powerful), but also the most harmful. She could be either a bonfire that got people warm, or an inferno that reduced everything to ashes. This case seemed to her more like an inferno than a bonfire.

"No need to worry," the blond rebel assured her. "We are too deep underground for the explosion to affect us."

 _I wasn't thinking just about us_ , the Fire Guardian thought, but she didn't push the matter. Yet her mind reminded her about the horrible things Phobos, Wong and Cedric had attempted to do or had already done. Logic was clear there: if you do something bad, then you should pay for it.

The hand of the Keeper went to the Heart as the little chat ended. Its beating made her mind to grow calmer and sure that this was the way it should be done. This was the big moment, at last. "Cornelia, Taranee;" she called for her friends, who both stepped out of the group and approached Drake. "Let's do this."

* * *

 _I'm having a bad feeling..._ Lothar thought after giving another look to the battlefield using the spyglass again. This was weird. The rebels weren't fighting as how they usually did, instead opting for this clash to be fought in an open field... He saw how the Shapeshifter ripped one of the spikes from the ground and used it to impale a Hoogong as a child picks a rat with a long and sharp stick. The Hoogongs were faster and far more agile than the Rhinoceros; that put them even with the stronger and slower mounts. But what about those horses? They were completely avoiding fighting. The spikes had been a very remarkable idea too, Lothar needed to give credit where it must be given. But the question was... why?

This was a very good strategy, but it wasn't proper of any attack, even if this was only the first wave. Maybe there were other forces waiting, trailing behind these ones? No, the rebel leader was here... but where were the Guardians? And the Black Wolf? No, this wasn't the strategy for an attack... but a diversion.

 _Tynar, where are you?_ a increasingly distraught Lothar wondered as he stopped from using the spyglass. _You should be back already..._

"How is that oil going?!" the Captain yelled.

"Boiling, sir!" he got an answer from a guard he wasn't able to put a name to.

"Anything wrong?" he heard a familiar voice at his left then. Viscount Servantis approached, clad in the same green-platted armor he had been wearing the day before during the meeting; a cape of brilliant red at his back this time.

"See for yourself, my lord;" Lothar said respectfully as he handed his superior the spyglass. Servantis took it and looked into the battle's direction. It took him mere seconds to arrive at Lothar's same conclusion.

"Strange," the nobleman said. He lowered the spyglass, his eyes falling upon Lothar. "What troubles your mind, Captain?"

"I sent Lieutenant Tynar in order to protect Sandpit's chamber," Lothar informed. "But he hasn't returned yet."

The Viscount frowned slightly. "I will take command over the forces here," he said. "Go and find that Lieutenant. And make sure that Sandpit is alright."

"As you wish."

* * *

 ** _Underground_**

"TYNAR!"

Lothar's shrieking call was met by nothing but echo. 'Tynar, Tynar, Tynar...' answered the darkness within the tunnels. Damn, he could be very reckless sometimes too; he had just came down here with no torch. Thus, he only had the light provided by the ones that were already there. Which weren't as many as they were suppossed to be. Suspicious.

Ah, there was a bit more of light. Perfect. Now, it was just a matter of following the way down to the pit and... Wait, what was that? Had he just heard the sound of a voice from... the ceiling and wall?

Lothar was quick to grab one of the few torches that were around and point it to where the sound came from. Soldiers. They were soldiers, the same ones Tynar had taken with him. All of them pinned to the wall and ceiling by vines that shot themselves from the walls themselves and trapped them all. Only one, the one making the sounds through the vine around his mouth, remained conscious. And the worse was the state of their bodies, each of them had at least a wound made from the claws of some animal. A type of wolf, perhaps; that was deductible from the shape of the wound.

Ah, Lurden's spit.

"Soldier, soldier!" Lothar called for him as he tore from the vine, freeing the man's mouth. "Answer to me! What happened? Where is Tynar?!"

"T-the wolf, the Guardians... the Lieutenant went ahead..." the man let the words to leave his mouth more than speaking them. He pointed, with his one free finger to a tunnel that went deep down. Lothar started to run into that direction mere seconds after.

He ended arriving at the Sandpit's chamber, the enormous circular room clearly showing indications of a violent battle having took place not very long ago. And the smell, he was able to perfectly recognize the smell.

The unmistakable smell to dried blood.

Indeed, it was dried blood. All over the place, a puddle of the dried crimson liquid was there, as if someone had dragged a bleeding person towards the edge. Lothar walked over the dried puddle, looking silently at his surroundings. Broken walls, trashed floor, burns across the chamber... then he looked down Sandpit's hole.

The creature of living quicksand had been... frozen, that was the only way to describe it. Instead of the moving mass of sand that the monster used to be there was only a mass of crystal now. Lothar narrowed his eyes, his hand tightening around the hilt of his blade. Enemies could be near. He started to walk backwards... and his feet stumbled upon something.

 _What is this?_ the Captain thought. He kneeled and took the thing in his left hand. _Wait, I know this. This is Tynar's..._

His thoughts stopped right there. Yes, of course he recognized it; Tynar had proudly described it in every detail to anyone that had asked. The gift from his son Tash, of whom the good Lieutenant was proud beyond belief. Eyes bulging and injected in blood, they travelled furiously between the trinket in his hands, the puddle of dried blood, and the hole that housed the now frozen sand monstrosity. His heart was beating so fast that it almost hurt, his blood burning with pure wrath.

Yet the Captain didn't say a single word. He didn't wage rage against the Heavens, he didn't cry or scream a deafening 'NO!' for his fallen and beloved companion. No, his hand tightened again; this time around the clumsily made bracelet. Then the Captain lowered his head and, putting one of his ears over the ground, he closed his eyes.

The sounds came after a while, filling the silent darkness. At first just random noises, just drops of water product of the underground river that ran over them and that provided Torus Filney with water. Then came the voices, echoing through the dark. Then the sound of footsteps. And the Captain's eyes opened wide.

 _Monstrous bastards..._ Lothar thought as he incorporated and ran in the same direction he had come. Almost by instinct, he attached the bracelet to his own wrist.

* * *

CLANG!

Violent battle continued between the Rebellion's riders and the Rhinoceros Cavalry. A Hoogong jumped in the air and pierced a guard's torso with its talons.

CLANG!

A guard threw his lance to a rebel with all his might. The weapon impacted and pushed forwards, leaving only half a head over the rebel's shoulders.

CLANG!

The crocodile Shapeshifter swung his tail, sending many rebels (and some of his supposed allies) flying. Aldarn struggled to maintain his men and himself out of his grasp and think about a counterattack strategy.

CLANG!

Members of both sides fell from their mounts, just to get stomped by the rhinos or pierced by the talons of the Hoogongs.

CLANG!

Sword met axe as Caleb and Frost made their weapons collide while over their mounts. Both weapons stopped each other and the animals started to move in a circle. Both of them fought in order to gain the upper hand in the contest of strength, yet no man was able to overpower the other.

Seeing this and how it wasn't going to lead anywhere, Frost took his axe back and jumped from Crimson straight into Caleb. The rebel leader was able to block the blow of the axe that accompanied the brute's jump, but stopping the entire Galhot from sending him out of his Hoogong proved a complete different story.

The rebel leader fell on his back, but he wasn't going to let the pain and impact to distract him. He rolled backwards and went quickly to his feet, just in enough time to parry one of Frost's attacks, divert it to the ground and counterattack with an ascending move of his blade. The brute was able to dodge it with no other injury aside from a diagonal cut across his right cheek.

Being on his feet inside the turmoil that the clash was didn't appear as the most desirable of situations. Caleb was lucky that none of the unbound animals just collided and reduced him to a splat in the ground. But Frost was still around, and albeit not the brightest man in the world, he was still stronger than him in terms of raw strength.

"Not so strong now, are we?" Caleb heard the voice of the brute. Frost appeared out of the dust produced by the chaos, wielding his axe with both hands and a happy grin adorning his face. He clearly was enjoying this situation. "What's wrong? Can't fight without the aid of the Guardians, or that Shapeshifter of yours? So high and mighty, the great rebel leader that needs women to win his battles for him!"

Caleb didn't bite into the brute's bait. Instead he readied his sword and decided to change strategies. He dashed towards Frost, sword lowered; but instead of heading straight into the brute (which he knew to be an idiocy that would surely cost him blood) he jumped to the left and made dust to rise up between him and his opponent with the movement of his body. Once that had been done, Caleb jumped and emerged from the cloud of dust, delivering a descending blow towards the brute's head; which of course, Frost blocked. However, Julian hadn't raised an idiotic son, and as soon as blade collided with axe once again, the rebel used the clashing weapons as a support point n order to deliver a powerful kick to the Galhot's neck.

Frost grumbled in pain as the attack sent him tumbling to the ground, where he bent one knee in order to rise. Practically growling due to the anger that was product of his wounded pride as a warrior, Frost narrowed his eyes at the rebel leader, who was waiting for him with a taunting smirk in his face. Upon this bait, the brute did bite. And he charged recklessly towards Caleb, who evaded the incoming blow and counterattacked. The pair exchanged more and more blows like that, frost hoping to get rid of his younger opponent with one, decisive strike of his axe and Caleb that the brute would tire enough for him to pierce his heart with his blade.

Aldarn, on the other hand, had been pared with a much more troublesome dance partner. The crocodile Shapeshifter, enlarged thanks to whatever kind of heretic and unnatural mean the Prince's minions had used on him, was basically toying with them, tossing Hoogongs around as if they were ragdolls. Fortunately, he seemed to have grown bored from using the spike as a weapon, and that gave them enough room to move more freely and away from him.

"What's up with y'all?!" the Beast roared, his scaled tail smashing against the ground. "C'mon, get in the crocodile's mouth and win a prize!"

 _This creature has gone mad_ , Aldarn thought as he rode his Hoogong and put himself at the Shapeshifter's back. Once there, he searched for his bow and arrows, both patiently waiting for being used at the rebel's back. He took a normal arrow and tensed the bow, ready to fire.

"Hey! You pathetic lizard!" Aldarn called, trying to taunt Simon into turning around, which the bipedal crocodile did.

"Pathetic lizard?!" Simon inquired, albeit he seemed more confused than offended. He looked down at Aldarn once he had turned around completely. "You really need to work on your lines, pal."

Aldarn didn't retort, firing the arrow instead. As the thin projectile flew towards his face, Simon just laughed.

"An arrow? You've to be kidding!" the crocodile mocked. "My scales are as strong as rock… ARGH!" Simon's banter came to a halt when the arrow impacted in his eye, hands shooting to the wound as quick as they could and taking the arrow out. His high-speed regeneration kicked in, healing his eyeball. "YOU LITTLE PIECE OF…!"

Aldarn took another arrow, this time deciding to us one of the especial ones. He fired it as quick and precise as the other, this time impacting in Simon's other eyeball. The Shapeshifter let out a shriek of pain and tore the arrow out as he had done with the other one. However, this time his eyes didn't regenerate in the same manner, instead bulging and becoming pitch black, then brown, and finally exploding in some kind of scarlet goo.

"RIARGH!" Simon cried as his eye regenerated, bled and regenerated again continuously. "WHAT THE FUCK IS THIS SHIT?!"

 _Shit, indeed_ ; Aldarn thought, not without a bit of pleasure in seeing the tyrant's tool to suffer, just like many innocents had suffered at the Prince's minions' hands.

Yes, it was shit, alongside common dirt and other substances that the darkest and wettest corners of the Infinite City provided, like a rare type of mold that grew exponentially as you fed it with liquids, including blood, or the fluids inside an eyeball.

"YOU, YOU…!" Simon let put a bunch of gibberish out of his maw, just to sank his claw into his eye socket and pull his eyeball out. A screech of pure pain followed that act, and the mold-consumed eyeball fell to the ground, where it quickly got surrounded by electric force and transformed back into the one of a human. "FUCK YOU; YOU LITTLE SHIT!" the crocodile cursed then, proceeding to roar in pure anger. "IMMA, IMMA… IMMA KILL YA'! IMMA KILL Y'ALL TO DEATH!"

* * *

 ** _Torus Filney_**

"Viscount! Viscount Servantis!"

The nobleman took his eyes off from the battlefield one more time in order to direct tem to the incoming Captain of the Guard, who came running towards him as if a legion of monstrosities was following his footsteps. Servantis noticed how the man had the most disturbed and worried of expressions on his face. Something was clearly not alright.

"Captain Lothar," the Viscount addressed the panting man as soon as he reached him. "What's wrong? Have you found Lieutenant Tynar?"

"No," Lothar answered, not wanting to let all the emotions he was feeling out. "You do not understand…" Lothar breathed in; "the rebel army is inside the city! Sandpit has been incapacitated!"

"What?!" The Viscount said. "That's ridiculous! How could they…?" The nobleman's eyes widened then, his mind putting all the pieces together, realization of how he had been played hitting him. "The Guardians…"

"They must have helped the rebels inside," Lothar explained. "I heard the footsteps belonging to a small army down there. The ongoing attack must be just a distraction; and with Sandpit frozen, they can move freely through the tunnels!"

Servantis' face paled. Then his thoughts started to run, and color returned to his visage. "Turn the cannons around!" the nobleman yelled to his underlings, and even if a bit confused at first, the soldiers obeyed.

"My lord?" Lothar inquired.

"If the Guardians are here the Earth Guardian can manipulate the tunnels to her will and make the rebels appear in any point of my city," the Viscount explained, recalling the tales some of the soldiers had shared about the 'dark skinned Guardian' while returning from Zamballa years ago. "It is much probable that they will engage us from behind."

"But the city..." Lothar tried to reason with the nobleman.

"The commoners are safe inside the central chamber," Servantis explained. "And the buildings can be rebuilt. The dead cannot be brought back to life, however. Go down and assume command of the troops. I will command things here and go down to your aid once the battle progresses."

"Understood," Lothar said. The bracelet around his wrist seemed to weight as if he was carrying a bag full of iron in his hand. Perhaps the weight was his penitence?

* * *

"It's this enough?" Cornelia asked as she ended opening a vertical tunnel in the ceiling. She couldn't even see the end of it, but Drake had asked for it to be as long as it could; so she had made the earth to move until she had felt how it reached an open space.

"Surely," Drake said with a grin. Cornelia noticed how, as Taranee approached the hole she had made and started to generate flames between her palms, the blond rebel's eyes widened in admiration towards the element, as if he was looking at a piece of art. "Now..."

"Yes, I know;" Taranee said before Drake could end his phrase. The flames she was creating reflected upon her glasses and gave her eyes an unnatural glow. "As big as I can." Taranee created even more flames, and once she couldn't conjure more she unleashed the stream of fire into the hole.

"Get out!" Drake yelled as he started to run out of the tunnel they were in. The Guardians and Jade followed as fast as they could.

And as the flames travelled upward, the entirety of Torus Filney seemed to come to a sudden halt, and thoughts ran through the minds of all, rebel or not.

 _Now, first thing is Cornelia to the walls, then Jade with the main group in the front..._ the Keeper of the Heart thought as she prepared herself for what was coming.

 _Fire in the hole, fire in the hole!_ Jade thought, adrenaline coursing through her body, excitement for the incoming battle taking over her. She felt more wolf than girl in these situations.

 _Where? Where are you?_ Viscount Servantis thought while surveying his city, standing atop the walls. _I shall not let you destroy… everything I have created!_

 _And now..._ Cyrus Ludmoore thought as he felt the heat increasing at his back. _The crescendo!_

BOOM!

* * *

The explosion was heard across the entirety of the great city. However, the sound paled in comparison to how it was felt. The ground and walls of Torus Filney trembled as if shaken by an earthquake, some of said walls even cracking under the power of the impact; and for a second the Viscount could have sworn that he had heard his city cry in pain. Of course, it wasn't the city itself, but the screams of the guards that had been caught in the explosion what he was hearing. The building where his forces storage the gunpowder, a small edification practically glued to the walls and that could pass very easily for a simple three stories tall house, had suddenly blown up, debris scattering through the city's first level, leaving some soldiers injured and the rest confused about what was happening.

 _The gunpowder…_ Servantis thought with bitter anger towards the rebels. He had been a fool thinking that the Rebellion would attack only at the front. He wasn't a strategic genius, his mind was dedicated to politics, not war! Yet he had been confident in the strength of his city, the fear Sandpit could instill in the hearts of those bastards. And he had been wrong. The thought of how many of his men had been injured crossed his mind then, but he forced himself to forget about it for the moment, right now wasn't the moment to think about the lost of good men. He and Lothar could still turn the tables on this, for Sandpit and mere walls weren't Torus Filney's only defense system. "Ready the cannons!" he ordered.

* * *

"That's the signal!" Caleb yelled once the explosion was heard. _Great job, Cornelia, girls, Drake_ ; he added in his thoughts. "Ride! Ride to the city!" the rebel leader yelled as he pointed with his sword towards Torus Filney.

"You coward!" Frost yelled as he prepared another charge, but Caleb got out of his grasp when Aldarn rode his Hoogong at his leader's side and Caleb jumped over it, riding alongside his friend and escaping out of the clash with the Rhinoceros Cavalry.

"FUCKHOLES!" they heard another of the strange cursing of the Shapeshifter, but they didn't pay attention. Every rebel was waiting for that sign and prepared to ride towards the city once it appeared, whereas Frost and his riders were not. As such, they needed time to organize in order to chase them.

"Are the weapons safe?" Caleb asked his friend, who nodded and pointed to the horses, the animals already on their way.

"Perfect," Caleb muttered. _Rhouglar and Tharquin have some of them too_ , he thought. _Even if what awaits outnumbers us, we will be ready to counter it_.

* * *

"Don't panic!" Lothar screamed to the men under his command, back at the other side of the wall. The first level had taken the worst hit from the explosion, and many of the soldiers had been left confused and, most important of all, afraid of what had happened and what was about to happen. That left Lothar with a problem. He could practically feel the incoming danger, and scared soldiers tend to die. "Fall back, regroup and remake the line! Shields! I need the Shields!"

The soldiers, coming back to their senses spurred by their commander's words, started to regroup, putting as much distance between the now gone building and themselves as they could. Lothar unsheathed his sword and took the place he belonged in as Captain of the Guard, just in the front line. The Shields were preparing, and he knew that the Viscount own unit would be ready within seconds. His grip around his weapon tightened and the weight of the bracelet seemed to increase when he saw five figures rising from the cloud of dust and smoke that the explosion had generated.

* * *

"Oh my god!" Hay Lin shouted as the five Guardians emerged from a bigger hole that Cornelia had made for them. Jade and Drake had already went to meet with the forces commanded by Tharquin and Rhouglar, all of them waiting in a tunnel that was under a very specific and important part of the city's walls.

"My poor lil' eardrums..." Irma said with her hands over her ears, half as a joke and half as a genuine complain.

"Will, if Drake suggests doing this explosion thing again, remind me to kick him," Cornelia said next, rubbing her neck.

"Alright, calm down;" the redhead told her friends. She looked down and saw how the soldiers were already preparing for a counterattack against them. So much for confusing the enemy, the explosion had made more noise than anything. "We don't have time to waste. Cornelia, to the walls! Open a way and bring the Rebellion and Jade up here! Taranee, Irma! Go and cover Caleb until he arrives! Hay Lin, you're with me. We will try and hold these people until the main army arrives."

"Got it!" said the blonde.

"Aye, aye, Captain!" the brunette said next, flying away alongside Taranee, who just shot a quick glace to her leader before leaving.

"Please, be careful;" Taranee said before rising her flying speed and losing herself in the horizon.

"Okay," the Air Guardian started to say, but the noise below cut her off. She didn't like this whole 'divide' strategy. It made her feel uneasy, as if there was a feeling in the wind that something was going to go bad. Really bad. The swarms of soldiers below didn't do a thing to ease that feeling. "How do we exactly fight all these guys?"

"Like we did before," Will answered, recalling the many battles they had been in since them becoming Guardians. "And we just need to contain them until the others arrive." Will's lips formed a smirk then. "So why don't we put their resistance to tornadoes to a test?"

Nodding and adding her own smile, Hay Lin called to her element and unleashed it over the still not fully organized troops of Torus Filney.

* * *

 ** _The barren_**

"Dodge!" Caleb yelled as a rock from a catapult was shot towards the Rebellion's riders. Fortunately, the projectile impacted over the ground. He had been lucky to grab into one of the Hoogongs that had lost its rider, and now was riding the animal side by side with Aldarn, his friend and him spurring their mounts and approaching the city. Now nearer to the great city than before, they were under the range of action of the war machines, the catapults over the walls moving fast and throwing gigantic rocks in order to crush them.

 _Those are just the catapults, where are the cannons?_ Caleb thought.

"Caleb!" Aldarn yelled, and the rebel leader looked up just to see an enormous rock coming down to them.

 _Blast!_ , the rebel leader cursed internally. From where exactly has that come from? However, before the rock could even get to the rebellious forces, a beam of highly pressured water struck it and broke the projectile in tiny bits.

"Need a hand?" Caleb heard the unmistakable voice of the Water Guardian, recognizable due to the jokingly taunting tone that it usually characterized her.

Smirking, Caleb decided to respond the two Guardians that had come to their aid with an answer matching the one provided by Irma. "What took you so long?"

"Meh, sand monster;" Irma answered, taking importance out of the whole Sandpit ordeal while both her and Taranee descended to almost ground level and flew side by side with Caleb and Aldarn's Hoogongs. "What about that Frost guy?"

"We were able to leave them behind, but they must be following us no doubt. The Reptilian Shapeshifter that was in that ravine is also with them," Caleb informed them. "I don't know how much distance we have put between the both of us, but I fear it may not be enough."

"Caleb," Aldarn interrupted their conversation. "If Frost and the Beast catch up to us, our chances of getting into the city will decrease. If I stay behind with some men, I can take care of them."

 _Some men?_ Caleb thought, just to follow Aldarn's eyes and notice how they had fallen upon some of the horses. _You ought to use the new weaponry so soon? Then again, we have not any other option it seems…_ "Take half of them, and make sure that the ones arriving at those walls are you and not Frost and his men;" Caleb's eyes then shifted to Taranee. Fire could be one of the few elements to actually damage indefinitely a Reptilian Shapeshifter. "Taranee, I need you to stay behind too, and help them against the Shapeshifter. I don't know how, but Phobos' Archmage did something to him, something that has made him as big as Cedric."

Taranee flinched, remembering the last time they had clashed with the snake-like creature, how if not for Jade's intervention he would have eaten Irma. "I'll take care of it, don't worry."

Without further discussion, the rebel army and the duet of Guardians split in half and went into opposite directions.

* * *

Frost had never been so angered. This had been an insult to his men, to his pride, to his mount's pride! He was riding over Crimson now pursuing the rebels, axe in hand and teeth gritted in pure frustration. Swanson was just running at his side, cursing constantly at the rebels, albeit they were ones that Frost had never heard before. They all seemed to have the word 'fuck' in common. The brute had to admit that the crocodile moved quite fast considering his girth. One of the perks of being a Shapeshifter, he supposed.

Frost noted how Crimson tensed then, and he made the animal to decrease its speed. No matter the situation, Frost had learned to pay attention and trust his companion when Crimson's instincts kicked in and alerted about peril. Noticing this, the rest of the Rhinoceros Cavalry made their pacing decrease too.

"What the hell are y'all doing, you idi-?!" Swanson started to ask in anger, a sign of his burning desire of continue pursuing and hunt down the rebels. However, his sentence and movement were stopped when a stream of fire was shot from the sky and impacted over the ground, forming a wall of flames that quickly became a circle that surrounded the whole cavalry.

"Lurden's spit!" Frost was the one to curse now, seeing how a winged feminine form descended from the skies, albeit it remained flying over them. "A Guardian now?!"

Taranee looked down at the enemy's forces, guards mounting over rhinos, leaded by Frost. Her gaze fell over the gigantic, bipedal crocodile accompanying them. Without losing time, she flew down at astonishing speed, and threw fireball after fireball towards him, the flames colliding with Simon's scales and leaving burns over him before they started to regenerate, albeit slowly than he would regenerate a normal wound. She need to put more heat in, it seemed.

"OUT OF MY FUCKING WAY!" Simon yelled at her as he swung his tail, trying to knock her out of the air.

 _Sorry, can't do that_ ; Taranee thought as he focused her mind on the flames condensing around her hands and tried to bring as much heat as possible. She unleashed the flames over the Shapeshifter, and for a couple of moments, the flames and scales struggled between them as to see which one would win. In the end, signaled by Simon's scream, Taranee's flames seemed to impose themselves. As she dispelled them, Simon had an enormous burn that covered his arm, back and half his torso; wounds that his healing factor was struggling to minimize, to very little avail. Taranee shivered for a second as she contemplated how much damage she had inflicted upon the Shapeshifter, who exhausted went to one knee, gasping for air. Only then the Fire Guardian noticed that he lacked one eye.

"What are you waiting for?!" Frost shouted towards his men. "Go and help him, you…!"

"Frost!" the Hunter heard then, and his command was interrupted by the arrival of Aldarn and half the rebels' riders, Hoogongs and horses jumping over the wall of flame that still imprisoned them. The previous clash between the two cavalries restarted, and Taranee loomed over Simon, the Shapeshifter now rising up again, the burns not even remotely healed.

"You… you bitch…" Simon cursed in a low key, his throat not being able to utter the same boisterous proclaims as before anymore.

"Surrender," Taranee, out of the goodness of her heart; told him. She didn't want to hurt him anymore. "Just… do it and stop this madness. I don't want to hurt you anymore."

"M-maybe I want to hurt you, bitch;" Simon said as he fully incorporated. "That's the only thing I'm here for. And I'm having one hell of a time doing it. What's wrong with enjoying it?"

One of Taranee's eyebrows rose. "So that's it? You just want to hurt others? That's what I call petty."

"Petty?" Simon said, anger overtaking the place of tiredness once again. "Ya' think… ya' can call me petty? Y'think… you can call me that, when you go out with those idiots?! Y'think…" Simon's leg muscles tensed. "Y'KNOW ME?!"

Taranee wasn't expecting what happened next. The crocodile jumped. She didn't know that crocodiles could jump so high, and she surely didn't know that a fat crocodile like the Shapeshifter could jump either. So when that happened and Simon practically rose in the air to the same level as her, she didn't know how to react. And that was enough for Simon to hit her with all the might of his tail and send her to the ground. The Fire Guardian tried to once again start flying, but she found herself restricted to the ground by Simon's claws. The crocodile roared in her face, spit and the odor of blood hitting her face… and inspiring true terror in her heart. Logic and mathematics disappeared of her mind and the only thing remaining was pure fear.

"Y'think you know me?!" Simon roared as his fangs were millimeters away of Taranee's face. "What do ya' know of me?! What do ya' know of eating from trash cans, what do ya' know of having to hit a guy until y'knock him out, just to steal his money to buy food?! YOU! KNOW! NOTHIIIING!"

Taranee screamed, and her scream was enough to alert Aldarn of the peril she was in. As the Rebellion's second in command made his mount to jump back in order to avoid one of Frost's strikes, he made a signal to the rebels riding the horses. "Now! Use the new weapons!"

 _New weapons?_ Taranee was able to think before everything went to hell.

The rebels over the horses took their hands to their backs, where bags had been waiting for this moment since the battle had started. Swords, axes and bows were dropped and replaced by guns in their arms, the rebels aiming at the Shapeshifter. Simon looked up in their direction, and his face twisted into the very same afraid expression Taranee was sure she had moments before.

"Well…. that's not fair at all;" Simon said. A sound was heard and then something struck his head.

At first Taranee thought it had been an arrow or something like that… but no. Arrows were supposed to be left struck once they hit what they were supposed to hit, and this projectile had clearly pierced through the Shapeshifter's head. Then Taranee heard the sound again, multiple times. She was able to recognize what it was this time. She had heard it in movies, or in some documentaries she had watched on TV, but she had never heard it firsthand. And yet she knew what it was.

It was the sound of a bullet being fired.

Bullets were shot, and they struck Simon with all their might, his scales doing nothing to protect him from the multiple impacts. He didn't even have time to scream. He let go of Taranee, who just incorporated and watched, eyes widened I horror, how the bullets continued to pierce though the Shapeshifter, leaving nothing but bleeding holes behind. Then the enormous crocodile fell to the ground, and he didn't get up again. After that, silence took hold of the battlefield until Frost broke it.

"Flee!" the Hunter yelled. "Escape, flee!" he shouted, riding Crimson directly through the wall of flames, his men following in tow.

"Sir!" one of the remaining guards called for him. "Sir, what about the city!"

"We can't fight that, you idiot; whatever it is!" Frost yelled at him. "I won't lead this cavalry to its doom!" An _d Lothar must understand that, if he is half the man Raythor was_. He dedicated one last glance at Torus Filney before spurring Crimson into raising its speed.

"Victory!" Aldarn yelled, his companions joining into the cheering alongside him while frost and his med rode across the flames the best they could and escaped the battlefield. "Victory!" The Shapeshifter had been killed, and Frost had been forced to flee. The Rhinoceros Cavalry wasn't a problem anymore, and now they only had to join Caleb and take part in the frontal attack over the city.

However, there was someone that wasn't taking part in the small celebration over the small victory. And that was Taranee. The Fire Guardian was now standing near the fallen crocodile, blood coloring the ground under him. Te lightning started to course through his body, and Simon Swanson reverted to his human form. His true form.

And Taranee continued to look at it. This was it, the big scary crocodile? No, no it wasn't; it was impossible for it to be. Not anymore. She was looking at a boy no older than herself, maybe just a year or so. A fat boy with black hair, holes product of the bullets all over him, blood still falling from them. The one over the head, alongside the missing eye, made his face unrecognizable. It was… just a boy. Had she ever seen him in Heatherfield, had she ever meet with him? No, probably not, but then again, who could tell?

It was just a teen; a teen like her, like the girls and like Peter.

It was just a _teen_ ; and he was _dead_.

And Taranee didn't know how to react, or how to feel. Logic dictated that a human being, upon seeing a fellow human be killed, should feel empathy. But she wasn't feeling… anything for him. She hadn't known him, she didn't have a history with him. And he had been an enemy, one that had scared her to her wits, actually. One that had tried to kill her and that had probably killed rebels before. Thus empathy couldn't kick in. Uh, that sounded… logical. So logic had turned against her, how ironic.

She hadn't even known his name. And behind her, the cheering of the Rebellion, some of them rising their 'new weapons' proudly in the air; were becoming almost deafening. Ah, there it was. A feeling was finally coming to her.

Shame

* * *

While one half of the Rebellion's riders cheered over the defeat of Frost the Hunter, the other half was already reaching the walls of Torus Filney. Arrows and rocks from the catapults were shot, and the element of water met with them.

Irma liked the feeling that these kind of situations provided. Adrenaline coursing through her veins, she shattered rock after rock and evaded arrow after arrow. Caleb should be thankful to whatever these people praised for having her here; because apparently taking down the flying girl with super-powers took priority over taking down the rebels riding towards your city. Well, she couldn't blame then. After all, she was the one repelling their attacks with the same ease a person would swat a fly.

She called upon her element and created a bubble over her in which the arrows the soldiers were shooting impacted and ended floating. She wondered if she could do the same with cannonballs? Man, being in the defensive wasn't really her thing. Jade got to be in the front lines from the very beginning of the big fight; and meanwhile here was she, babysitting. Just like with Chris. How was Chris doing back on Earth, anyway?

They were finally at the walls now, out of the range of the damn catapults, but not out of the one of the arrows. The guards shot more of the annoying projectiles towards them, this time adding spears that the guards threw manually towards them.

 _Agh! I'm fed up from playing defense!_ Irma thought as she ditched the water shields in favor of her own projectiles, shooting water bullets the size of her head towards the top of the wall, where they impacted over several guards, knocking them over and out; thus momentarily stopping the rain of attacks. After that, she descended to the ground and landed at Caleb's side.

"I took those jackasses with the arrows out," Irma told the rebels, who were doing their best to maintain themselves as next as it was possible to the wall, trying to get out of the aim range of their enemy.

"That should give us a bit more of time," Caleb informed. "Damn it, where is Cor..."

Before Caleb had even the chance to end the question, his answer came in the form of a tremor that shook the section of the wall in front of them, which separated from the rest thanks to two vertical cracks that ran over its whole surface and started to sink in the ground. The rebels and Irma looked in awe as how the section of the wall sank completely in the ground, leaving an enormous overture in the otherwise impenetrable walls of Torus Filney, raising so much dust that the light of the sun got eclipsed for a second. And waiting in the other side, hands in her hips and smiling haughtily, was Cornelia.

"What would you all do without me?" the blonde asked in a prideful tone, tilting her head at the new arrival. Around her unconscious guards lied in the ground, all of them covered in bruises product of previously being hit with rocks.

"You know Corny," Irma said as she smirked. "I'm so tired of being shot with arrows that I'm going to give you this one."

"Where's Taranee?" the Earth Guardian asked while the rebels crossed the path she had opened.

"She and Aldarn stayed behind in order to take care of the Rhinoceros Cavalry;" Caleb explained. "They will be alright, don't worry." The rebel leader surveyed the zone. Ahead he could see Will and Hay Lin fending against some of the enemy soldiers. And peeking at the walls, the archers and men operating the cannons were already recovering from the tremor that had brought the walls down. "We don't have much more time. Cornelia," the rebel leader addressed the Earth Guardian. "Bring everyone up."

Without further delay, Cornelia clenched both her fists and kneeling, hit the ground with all her strength. Another tremor shook their surroundings, and then the ground opened wide.

* * *

The first things that Lothar felt were the tremors, one after another. After the first one, men screamed and the confusion between the soldiers grew. A section of the city's great walls came down then, leaving Torus Filney with a hole in its once glorious and thick armor. The second tremor was felt next, and some of the men that hadn't still fallen behind the line formed by the Shields (that was something he had to thank to the Air Guardian, doing her best to increase the disturbance with powerful air currents) and himself fell down an enormous hole that had opened in the same spot the section of the walls had sank into the ground. And as the last of the men under his command fell in line, he prepared his sword, and a roar was heard from the hole. Upon that roar, the Keeper of the Heart and the Air Guardian stopped their attack and went to meet with their companions.

He had to give compliments to the Shields. The Viscount's elite warriors really looked fearsome all clad in heavy armor of dark grey color. The nickname 'Shields' wasn't given to them due to their defensive equipment, (in fact, each of them carried only a great-sword) but due to their thick armors and resilience during combat. But their most remarkable aspect was their spirit. Even upon hearing the roar, none of them shivered or trembled. Lothar glanced at the top of the walls, Servantis was still awaiting. Well, it made sense. Charging senselessly had won them nothing, or at least that was what Frost's absence was proving. And the oil was boiling.

"Hold your ground!" Lothar told the soldiers. "Let them attack and the Viscount to move first!"

Lothar's hand went momentarily to his wrist and touched the bracelet. Give _me strength, Tynar; wherever you are_.

The roar sounded again, and as the dust cleared; an enormous black wolf emerged from the hole and four Guardians took to the air, surely to soon be joined by a fifth one.

And behind them, the Rebellion followed.

* * *

Jade Chan had seen a lot of movies and (even if reluctant to admit it) she had read a lot of fantasy books. She had enjoyed more than anything else the long, complicated battles between armies. She had been in a lot of battles in her life, maybe too many considering how young she was, but none of them seemed like this one. They had been just clashes between her family and the Dark Hand, Shendu or the old dragon breath's family. Her adventures with the girls since coming to Heatherfield almost two months ago had been awesome too (perhaps even more), but they paled in comparison with this.

The Rebellion had taken position in the overture and hole Cornelia had made and occupying much of Torus Filney's first level, the girls (minus Taranee. Where was Taranee?) taking to the sky. The countless rebels, leaded by Tharquin and Rhouglar, appeared from that hole and were quickly joined by Caleb and the riders. Drake had apparently joined the main body of the army, not wanting to lead it and saying it wasn't his role. And who was in front of them all? She! Of course she was the one leading!

Now in her wolf form, her claws over the ground of the city's first level, Jade looked ahead. The enemy soldiers, leaded by that Lothar guy and around thirty guys clad in heavy armor were ahead, seemingly waiting for them. Yeah, because playing defense had turned out so well for them. She showed her fangs, a bit upset that they weren't as afraid as they should be. 'Amber eyes!' she heard the terrified voice of the crippled man in her head for a moment. She closed her eyes and let the voice to be gone. Any thought that she could have thanks to that memory was forgotten when she heard Caleb's voice.

"Attack!" the rebel leader yelled.

So... no epic speeches? There always were epic speeches, but she supposed there really wasn't time for that. She was the first one to charge, and the rebels followed in tow, swords, axes, spears and shields ready. Shouts of 'Dead to Phobos!' and 'Down with the Usurper!' echoed behind her. She prepared a wave of white chi and pushed forward.

She heard a yell from atop the walls. Something was thrown from them afterwards. It fell way behind her, so she continued to push forward. Lothar yelled something, raising his sword, and he and the heavy armored dudes, their helmets not letting their faces to be seen, charged forward too. Both armies clashed, fangs and claws meeting iron and steel. The girl let the wolf to take charge and direct her movements.

And then chaos ensued.

* * *

Almost no person in the universe can say that he or she has seen a battle from above. Right then, Wilhelmina Vandom could have said that with the same certainty a man can say that the sun rises from the East in Earth. She was flying over the battlefield with three of her fellow Guardians, Taranee still absent. She wasn't worried about her, she could… she didn't know how to describe it, feel her? Like some kind of warm sensation in the distance, serene as a hearth's fire. Cornelia felt to the smell of flowers, Irma to the strange sensation that being near the sea left in your tongue, and Hay Lin felt like a current of fresh air hitting in your face in a dry day of summer. So she knew Taranee was right. Unfortunately, the same couldn't be said about what was transpiring below.

Everything had been playing so well until now… Sandpit had been taken care of, the Rhinoceros Cavalry of that Frost brute was out of the picture according to Caleb and the approaching presence of Taranee, the wall Cornelia was supposed to bring down was down and now the Rebellion was inside the city. Just as planned.

But then the rebels, with Jade leading them no less, had charged towards the enemy, and the enemy had done the same. It was a… somehow artistic show to behold for the redhead. Jade had engaged some of those heavy armored guards, who seemed to be, considering how swiftly they moved, some kind of elite squad they hadn't know about; being enough to hold their ground against the wolf. All of them had focused on Jade, isolating her from the main body of the army and doing their best to contain and hurt her. Blasts of white chi stroke some of those heavy armored soldiers from time to time, but they normally evaded them, and if hit by the chi blasts, the thick of their armors was enough to protect them and made themselves to join battle once again. What kind of mineral was that armor made from, if it could be strong enough to handle the strength of the blows of a Mammal Shapeshifter and yet be light enough to allow movement?

The regular guards had engaged the Rebellion's main force, leaded by Tharquin and Rhouglar. It was ironic how two so different people could be fighting in the same side. Rhouglar fought like a rabid animal, swinging his axe with the same finery that could befit a butcher, wounding every guard that crossed his path and, if the opportunity presented itself, cutting a head or two. Alone, as if no other man mattered anything; the Mad Dog drove forward with his axe, caring neither about the enemies he was cutting or his own safety.

Tharquin was a complete opposite story, as he maintained at least two other rebels by his side all the time. However, it was clear to the redhead that the other rebels weren't they in order to work as a team, but merely to protect the Old Worm. And while Rhouglar wielded his axe violently and charged recklessly onward, Tharquin wield what seemed to be some kind of rapier-like scimitar in one hand and a short sword in the other, and he was letting the enemy to come to him, blocking an attack with one sword (or letting his 'assistants' to block it for him) and counterattacking swiftly with the other.

Moments after the charge of the Rebellion, the girls had heard someone yelling atop the walls, and the guards had thrown something from very big pots over the rebels. Whatever it was, it was black, it was boiling, and made the ones it fell over to scream in agony. Boiling oil; that had been boiling oil, like the one the cars in Earth used, just… incredibly hot. And if the current situation wasn't complicated enough, after the first minutes after the clash, both armies had mixed into an oversized ball of violence, members of both sides fighting savagely everywhere. Caleb and Drake where spotted in the middle of that ball of carnage, both of them with the back against the other's, trying to defend fend themselves as best as they could. Arrows were shot down from the walls and up from the ground, and rebels and guards fell to the ground lifeless.

And the Keeper of the Heart watched in horror as a guard cut the head of one of the few remaining Hoogongs with a long battle-axe in order to make its rider to fall to the ground and be stomped by enemies and allies.

"Serves you right!" the guard yelled as he continued with the butchery around him. "This is for the families that live here, you bustards!"

More yells joined that one as three rebels threw a couple of guards to the ground and started to beat them with their swords. Not cut, but beat, beat strong and impassively until the guards were reduced to a pulp of blood and guts.

"What's wrong, eh?!" one of the rebels said, face twisted into some macabre expression that looked like a smile, a snarl and a roar mixed in one. "Not so high and mighty now, are we?!"

"Will," the redhead heard, but didn't listen. She continued to look down, as an angel that didn't bother with the suffering of mortals. Had the Guardians been given wings in order to stay out of these situations? In order to not have to dirty themselves like everyone else?

"Will!" once again, but she didn't pay attention to this one either. She kept staring at the falling bodies. For each rebel that fell, three guards met the same fate. Ha, it seemed Caleb hadn't been lying about the rebels' determination and will to fight. Her eyes focused on Jade, the wolf sending some of the Shields flying with her chi empowered claws. Wasn't she seeing what was going around her? This wasn't like those missions, where guards and Lurdens were easily subdued, wrapped in vines, soaked in water or merely wounded by Jade; left alone to live another day. This was a massacre. This was a real battle.

This was War.

"WILL!" she heard one more time, and this time she looked at her side. Flying around her were Cornelia, Irma and Hay Lin; all with the same terrified expressions as her. Hay Lin had been the one to take her out of her thoughts, her voice sounding like the cry for help of a child in the night. "W-what… what do we do?" she asked with a voice that clearly befitted someone that didn't know how to proceed. Everyone was dependant on her, everyone was waiting for her command; weren't they? Just like Jackie had said, this was her responsibility. Was there time to doubt? Not now, it needed to be left to later, when the screams weren't anymore.

"I…" Will started to say, then she breathed in and out. "Cornelia, I need you helping Jade and repelling the enemy's first line. Irma, Hay Lin; go and join Caleb and Drake, I…"

"Will, they're…!" Irma started to say.

"I know they're killing people!" the redhead told the brunette, maybe much harder than she had intended. _Of course they're killing people_ , she thought. _This is a war, you idiot_. And the idiot part didn't felt like being called to Irma, but herself. "But… we need to do something, right?" Everyone looked at her, at how… doubtful she seemed to. The Keeper of the Heart? In the end she was just a teenager girl. All of them were.

An explosion was heard then, and Will heard something approaching her. She was so confused and scared that she didn't even react when Cornelia yelled her name in concern. A cannonball hit her, and sent her flying and clashing with the wall that separated the first level from the first.

"WILL!" Hay Lin shouted in horror as she flew as fast as she could in the direction the redhead had been sent, Cornelia and Irma looking around, their faces twisted in anger.

"Okay, who has the balls?!" Irma yelled, just to be grabbed by her hair by someone.

Viscount Servantis had jumped propelled by one of the remaining catapults; and had grabbed her by the hair, driving her to the ground. Before they fell completely, the man let her go and landed swiftly at Lothar's side, unsheathing a bastard sword and yelling courageously.

"They are not invincible!" the Viscount proclaimed. "Fight, struggle! Men of Torus Filney! Defend your home!"

And upon that command, the forces of the nobleman doubled their efforts and pushed forward, the Captain and the Viscount running directly against Caleb and Drake.

Cornelia went down in order to help Jade, just like Will had ordered. She directed one last glance to the place Will had landed before smashing against one of the Shields. She hoped her friend was right.

* * *

"Auch... my poor head..." Will whispered. Her body was hurting. A lot. Something had hit her. Something fast, hard and strong... like a train. Except it couldn't have been a train...

No, not a train. A cannonball, it had been a cannonball. They had shot a freaking cannon at her, and she had survived. Which one of the two shocked her the most wasn't very clear, to be sincere. Anyway, the pain didn't seem willing to easily leave her, and she was still in a battlefield, that hadn't been forgotten. Speaking of the battle, where was it? Where had she landed? The noises from the two clashing armies were still heard, but she couldn't see them.

She tried to stand up as best as she could. The pain wasn't being helpful at all. Pointy shards of rock, result of her impacting with the wall, were all over the place. She tried to fly next. And then the pain multiplied itself by ten. She looked at her back, and saw what, at that point, had to be the most shocking thing she had seen in her entire life.

One of her wings, the left one to be precise; was broken. Slowly healing itself, but broken. Bones cracked and feathers lost. The sight of one of her wings in such a state made tears to come to her eyes. She knew it was a stupid, childish thing to cry for that. But she let a few tears roll down her cheeks before drying them with her forearm. She needed to get moving. She needed to get back to the girls, and...

"There she is!"

Oh, no. Not now.

Looking up she saw how four soldiers had separated from the battle, or maybe they weren't in the battle at all. She couldn't blame them. But they were there, they were four, they were armed, and they were the enemy. And she was alone, one wing crippled, hurting and without powers. Damn it, she was the leader! Shouldn't she have an element too?

"Kill her!" one of the guards yelled. "Finish the Viscount's work!"

Will forced herself to ignore the pain. As soon as the first two soldiers charged towards her she dodged their attacks, not without feeling how her muscles and bones whined due to the strain she was putting over her body. She wasn't so lucky with the third one, this one employing a scimitar that came down towards her head; which she blocked between her two palms, as if she was clapping.

In normal conditions, she would have overpowered and defeated this guy. Her Guardian form made her stronger than any man, no matter how big and be it human or Galhot. However, her body was now at its limit, and it was clearly showing in how much effort she had to put in order to just struggle with the guard. In the end she was able to redirect the descending blow to her side and the ground. Then she kicked the guard in the ribs, sending him groaning to the ground.

The fourth one was the one that got her, simply by charging head on. They clashed and she went to the ground again. Only this time her back was the first thing to impact, and the guard landed on top, increasing the force of the hit. Pain surged from the broken wing, and she screamed, oh she screamed louder than she thought she could. Why hadn't she saw the cannonball? She should had seen the cannonball. She wouldn't be in this situation if she had seen the cannonball.

The guard pulled out a dagger from his belt then. He raised it, decided to end Will's life. The redhead's reddish eyes locked themselves in the dagger, and the expression of pure anger of the guard. Why was he so angry? Was... was he going to kill her? No! She... she didn't want to die!

'Concentrate, look around you'; Jackie's words echoed in her mind, a memory from that training day. 'Don't let your opponent to dictate the rhythm of the fight. Act, don't react'. She needed to get back in control. She must be in control! But she couldn't flap her wings now, like she did back then. The dagger was lowering, and she grew more scared. She was afraid, afraid as a little girl. As the girl she was. But she didn't want to die! Her hands moved practically on their own will. One second they were empty, another each had one of the rock shards inside. They moved fast.

And the next second they were each nailed in the sides of the guard's neck. Blood poured from the wounds, and the guard's throat let out a weird noise. Some drops of blood fell from the wounds over the Keeper's cheeks. And then she made the fatal error of looking at his eyes.

There is an… interesting phenomenon when you kill someone. You see, if you look directly at the eyes of that person, you can first see something; a mixture of emotions, all dancing violently. Anger, confusion, sadness, fear, and despair… all of those you can see. And after that violent dance of feelings, suddenly, you will see nothing. All those emotions will disappear in an instant, leaving the eyes empty of what makes a living person… well, _alive_.

And at that moment, Will Vandom witnessed said phenomenon. Then she found herself staring at a corpse. The corpse fell to one side, blood coloring the ground. And she screamed again, fear and disgust overriding pain and helping her to come to her feet. She felt her breath speeding violently, her eyes unable to leave the corpse.

"Gael!" another guard shouted in anguished worry. He rushed and kneeled at the corpse's side. "Stay with me Gael! Stay with me, brother!"

 _Brother? No, that can't be right_ ; the redhead thought as she put more and more distance between her and her adversaries. _They can't be brothers_. Oh, her head was spinning so bad… How much it hurt. _The bad guy's mooks don't have brothers, or families, or names... They're just… mooks._

"You..." the guard said, eyeing her with hatred. "You monster!"

Will stood still, the three remaining guards charging at her again. Voice weak, she could only master to utter a single phrase before battle restarted.

"I'm not a monster..."

* * *

Cornelia was angry. Cornelia was beyond angry. The countless guards that were wrapped in vines around her, struggling to even breathe, were proof of that.

And yet, she had forbid herself from telling Jade what had happened with Will. The great wolf was fighting by her side, and she was violent enough as things were. Damn, when had she become so... unhinged? Then again, Cornelia would now be gladly to break some bones of the guy that had shot that cannon.

And the same could be said about Irma. She was shooting one water blast after another, putting as much force as she could in them; knocking guards out without giving a damn about how they ended. How dare these idiots do that to Will?! To her friend?! She enveloped three guards in a giant bubble of water and threw them against a group of ten.

"Loose!" she heard a group of archers, but she answered the incoming arrows with a stream of water.

"You want to take me down?!" Irma said angrily, floating slightly over the ground and surrounding her firsts in water. "Bring it on, assholes!"

Caleb wasn't being as lucky against his current opponent as the Earth and Water Guardians were against theirs. Maybe not a strategic genius, his mind more focused in the matters of court; but Roderick Servantis was a nobleman, a highborn meridianite. That, in a world like theirs meant years of formal training and experience in hand to hand combat. And he was tired after his battle with Frost, even if he wasn't willing to admit that or let the sweat covering his body to distract him. Servantis was fresher, better armored and he knew how to make use of a bastard sword; that the rebel leader had to admit reluctantly. Playing the slow game, trying to either distract or tire the nobleman and then wait for his fellow rebels to come to his aid wasn't proving the best course of action either, as the soldiers of Torus Filney had quickly made sure to let their commander enough room to fight the rebel leader without interruptions.

Caleb rolled to one side, trying to evade one of the Viscount's blows, which stopped before even hitting the ground. Before rising to his feet had Caleb realized that he had been tricked, and the sword of the nobleman redirected its course, slashing Caleb across the face, just over the nose, from one cheek t another, leaving a bleeding, horizontal line over his face.

"Not so bad," the Viscount taunted him, albeit there was a hint of sincere recognition in that sentence. "I was aiming to cut your head in two. It seems the stories about your prowess in battle are not an exaggeration, son of Julian."

"Save your praise to the fool that wants to hear it, dumbass;" Caleb told him. Uhm, from where had that last one come from? Maybe he really was spending too much time with the girls…

The strange insult didn't seem to affect Servantis n the slightest. Instead, he readied his guard and waited for Caleb. "Don't be so concerned about praise from me in the matters of the sword. I pale in comparison to my mother in law in that regard. Everyone does. Come! Your head shall fly this time!"

And thus, both of them clashed.

Lothar and Drake's clash was much more equated. In the moment it seemed like one of the two was going to take the upper hand and deliver a decisive attack, the other blocked it and counterattacked. And their tedious dance would resume again, just stopped from time to time as the pair grew separated from each other in order to catch their breath.

"You know… I cannot be the only one that finds;" Drake said, resting over his sword, its edge nailed a bit in the ground; "this entire situation a bit tragic."

Lothar's eyes narrowed at those words. Light of Meridian, he hadn't changed one bit from the old days, always acting like he knew something others didn't, always joking even in a situation where his life was at risk. "Shut your mouth."

"Don't be like that, Lothar;" Drake said in a kindly tone. "We were both together then, training to be future officials in the Guard. I have fond memories of those days."

"And then you betrayed us," Lothar said bitterly. "I can understand your hatred towards Cedric, but you killed a dozen of officials, including the man that held the position of Lieutenant before me; with poison no less. A coward's weapon."

"A smart man's weapon;" Drake corrected him, taking the sword from the ground. "And I'm not proud of what I did, but the Rebellion wouldn't have accepted me empty-handed, no matter how much had I declared my revengeful intentions towards the Snake. You cannot live on in Meridian without making some sacrifices."

"Sacrifices?" Lothar asked. "Is that how you call them all? I sent a good man down to the tunnels, to Sandpit's chamber." Lothar paused for a second before continuing. The sounds of battle around them seemed to lower themselves as he spoke. "A man with honor, a man with a family, and with much more goodness in his heart than myself; and when I searched for him, I only found blood and a frozen sand monster. Did the Guardians kill him? Or was one of the rebels you broke your oath for?"

 _Oaths, oaths, oaths… what's wrong with this world and its overrated value of honor? I'll never understand why Cedric likes it more here than in Earth…_ ; Cyrus Ludmoore thought with disdain. Yet an idea formed into his mind upon hearing that. "Oh, that man? I'm sorry to hear that, I bet he really was a good hearted individual… But I threw him down the hole, and your Viscount's pet ate him whole."

Lothar's eyes widened, and the blood returned to them. He raised his sword over his head, and charged forward with a scream of wrath.

 _Now that's more like the Lothar I know, so much like Caleb, so predictable, so…_ Cyrus' thoughts stopped as soon as Lothar's sword lowered strongly, striking the cobblestones from the ground instead of him. Sparks shot from the hit and blinded him momentarily. It was enough for Lothar to close the distance between the two and hit him in the groin with the knee. "Ugh… what are you doing?"

"I played dirty, like you;" Lothar answered, delivering another kick to his adversary's groin. Then he pushed onwards and sent Drake to the ground. "Revenge is a fool's game, my Lieutenant said to me. Well," the Captain raised his sword with both hands. "I suppose I'm a fool after all." The sword descended, and pierced the youngest Ludmoore sibling's right leg.

 _Son of a biiiiitch!_ Cyrus cursed internally.

"But I won't be the one killing you; I reserve that for the gallows and the eyes of the woman whose husband you and your pathetic Rebellion killed;" Lothar took his sword out of the wound, leaving a screaming and bleeding Drake behind as he turned around and headed to face another opponent "And you are not worth the effort."

Lothar disappeared shortly after in the chaos that the battle was, and Drake slowly rose to his feet, the wound slowly healing itself, albeit not as fast as it could befit a Reptilian Shapeshifter. An enemy guard approached him, trying to take advantage of his current condition, but the head of the rebel turned quick and in the verge of a second Drake had a chunk of the guard's throat between his teeth, now turned into fangs. He spitted it and let the guard die. His fangs turned back to normal, and he raised his sword.

 _I'm still able to fight_ , Cyrus thought. _But damn it, it hurts, I won't heal completely until we go back to Sephiria… Damn it, why couldn't I have the same abilities as Cedric or big brother? Lothar, you fool…_ he thought as he defended himself the best he could in his current state, searching for his fellow rebels in order to find cover. _Talk about the sides of this war all you want… they're all the same! You should have come with me back then, because I choose the winning one!_

* * *

 _What is this?_

Will thoughts were blurry, yet she could still move and fight. Well, not fight in the exact meaning of the word, but yes evade the attacks that the three guards were throwing at her; and counterattack with some of the moves Jackie had taught her back in the day. Yet her head was still spinning, and no matter how hard she tried to order her thoughts and focus, she couldn't bring herself to fight as best as she could against the three men trying to kill her… trying to avenge their comrade… revenge aggression, revenge, aggression, and more revenge… is that all this world knew? Caleb's father, Raythor, Lothar; a war breaking a world in two… and she and her friends were in the middle of it all.

 _What am I doing here?_ She thought as she dodged another attack. _Why am I here, risking my life, killing a man? Why am I fighting for?_ She dodged again, hearing the curses that the soldiers were directing at her, but she didn't pay them any attention. Her body was basically acting in its own, muscles directing what the head could not. _Am I fighting for freedom? Am I fighting to depose a tyrant? Am I… fighting because it's my duty? Am I fighting for my friends? To see mom again? Or maybe to kiss Matt one more time? Or maybe I'm just afraid of losing them all if I take this pendant out of my neck…_

A gust of wind hit the zone then, and the trio of guards was sent flying, hit the ground and fell unconscious due to the sheer strength of the impact. Hay Lin descended fast to Will's side, her face the pure image of worry.

"Will!" the Air Guardian said. She sounded so worried, like mom when she had jumped in the deepest part of the pool in Fadden Hills back when she was just a five year old. "I finally found you! Oh my God Will, your wing!"

Oh yes, my wing it's broken; the redhead thought, glancing at her back. "Don't worry, it was worse before. Can you help me to fly? We need to…"

"Will, stop that, you're hurt!" Hay Lin told her. She was hyperventilating. Ha! The Air Guardian hyperventilating. Now that's a sight to behold!

"Did these guys hurt you?!" Hay Lin asked. Concerned, oh so concerned...

"No," the Keeper of the Heart answered. "No, not them. The cannonball did." Will breathed slowly. "You need to take me back there; we need to stop this..."

"Will, I won't until you...!" Hay Lin protested, but the redhead took her head between her palms and forced the Air Guardian to look into a very specific direction. The corpse's direction.

"Look Hay Lin, look!" Will said, fighting the tears back. "Look at that man... he's the brother of one of the soldiers that you knocked out."

Hay Lin's eyes widened in surprise, then shock, followed by fear and finally disgust. "Did... I, you... how?!"

"I killed him," Will said bluntly. Huh, go figure; saying it had been easier than she had thought previ... "I killed him..." the redhead said again, her voice trembling. Saying it easily my ass. "Oh God, I killed..." Will felt as if breathing had become impossible, looking at her feet while gasping. Her mouth let out weird noises, and if those were meant to be words... that she didn't know.

"Will," Hay Lin said then, putting a hand over her friend's back. She then proceeded to take the redhead's arm and put it over her shoulders; starting to fly. "Will, calm down. It'll be alright."

But it wasn't going to be alright. It would never be alright again.

* * *

"Fall back! Fall back!" Servantis yelled to his men. "To the second level, to the second level!"

Lothar and the rest of the soldiers obeyed. They started to fall back little by little, in the end being on the run towards one of the gates that lead to the second level of the city. Fighting the Guardians and the Black Wolf had proven easily said than done, so the best course of action now was to reorganize themselves. The Rebellion, however, wasn't going to let them go so easily.

"Pursue them!" Caleb yelled. "Don't let those bastards to regroup!"

"Aye!" many rebels yelled, and they ran onward, leaded by Rhouglar and Jade.

"Jade!" Cornelia called for her friend, the wolf-girl already dashing towards the gate and outrunning Rhouglar and his men. That Tharquin was nowhere to be seen, and the Earth Guardian supposed she had just lost sight of him during the fight. She neither liked nor disliked the old man, she had interacted very little with him, but she hoped he hadn't found his death.

"Don't worry Corny, I can handle this!" the Ben-Shui reincarnation said confidently. She charged onward, ignoring the pleas from the blonde. The Earth Guardian wasn't worried that she could handle it or not, but of what she could do.

"Cornelia!" the blonde heard at her back, the Fire Guardian having finally come to them.

"Taranee!" Cornelia said in what she felt was the most relieved tone she had used in her entire life. "Where were you?!"

"With," Taranee answered, pointing down. The rebels were already moving towards the gates to the second level of Torus Filney, leaving only wounded and dead men behind. Taranee's finger was pointing to Aldarn, who had just arrived with the few riders that accompanied him and was riding towards the same destination as his companions were, Caleb at his side. "Him. Cornelia, I need to tell you..."

"Alright, we need to wait for Will and Hay Lin," the blonde said, not paying attention to what the Fire Guardian had said. Perhaps she hadn't even heard her. Irma flew towards them and joined into looking at the show the blonde was putting in. "Then, we… uhm…" _Gosh, how does Will make this look so damn easy?!_

"Cornelia!" Taranee called again.

"What?!"

"They have guns!" Taranee yelled, thinking that doing it abruptly would be the best way to tell it. "The rebels… have guns. They used them, used them for..."

"What?" Cornelia was the one to ask shocked now. "What do you mean they've guns?"

* * *

 ** _Jade_**

Jade was rushing across a long tunnel not very different than the one that they had entered when they were searching for Sandpit. At the end of it, she could already see the light and smell the guards fleeing from them. Amazing, simply amazing! Now this was what she considered something worthy of a hero! Oh, she couldn't wait to see Jackie's proud face when she told him that she and the girls had just freed a city, that she had been able to fight, that Jackie's worries about her were just unfounded, that she wasn't a baby and…

"Auch!" she said as she noticed something piercing her back. Strange, her fur was strong enough to withstand arrows, albeit she did it poorly with blades, axes or… "Spear?" Indeed, it was a spear, as she noted while turning her head around and seeing the weapon nailed in her back. She tried to reach it with her maw, but before she could do it, her head started to spin. Before she could utter another single word, her eyes rolled inside her skull and her eyelids close. She fell to the ground and became a ball of black fur, that became a smaller ball of black hair and that ended revealing her unconscious human form, still dressed in the clothing that she had used to infiltrate Torus Filney.

"I wasn't thinking this was going to work. Then again, the old bastard really knows his poisons;" Rhouglar said as he and some of his loyal men, whose loyalty was warranted by nothing but his promises of riches and whores; approached the unconscious Jade. "Sorry kid, I like you, very much so. Who knows? If you had been a couple of years older, we could've had a good time together. But there's something better waiting for me… and I'm a man of my word." The so-called Mad Dog made a sign to two of his men. "Take her to Tharquin, that old bastard should be waiting where I told you about." Rhouglar then pointed to the rest of his men. "Now lads! Let's kill 'em all!"

The soldiers answered with a roar matching their commander's; and they crossed the tunnel. The two men dragged Jade out too, but instead of heading straight to battle, they choose a different route; one that went out of the second level and inside the first again, albeit in a totally different section than the one the battle had been fought. She was dragged directly into the sight of the Old Worm, Alistair Tharquin, the old and bitter soldier waiting patiently in the company of thirty men that had helped him getting out of the battlefield. That's the problem with big battles, you cannot keep track of everyone in them, and who would miss thirty men while fighting against the Viscount?

"Is she still alive?" Tharquin asked to the two men who were dragging Jade towards him.

"Aye sir," one of them answered. "Just like you asked."

"Excellent," Tharquin said, his voice showing not even the slightest hint of joy. He then directed to some of the men behind him, pointing to the couple that had brought Jade. "Kill them."

Arrows shot from a couple of crossbows so fast that the pair of men under Rhouglar's command weren't able to do anything before the arrows struck them in their faces and they dropped dead. Tharquin directed one last glance to the second level. Fires had started to burn, eating the houses and other buildings with their flames. The Old Worm shook his head; typical of Rhouglar to transform anything, even battle, into one of his macabre spectacles. Then again, he had been the one to instruct him into how operating to get to Lady Ishol. Well, she was a reasonable sacrifice for the purity of his Rebellion now, and Meridian in the future.

The man of stone ordered some of his men to take the unconscious Jade and the small party walked out of the city.

* * *

It didn't take too long before the battle had changed from the first level to the second, but that didn't make it any less violent. The streets if the second level, a perfect emulation of an average meridianite village, weren't as ideal for fighting as the first level had. And thus, some men had set houses and buildings on fire, either with the hope or achieving more space or hurting the enemy. No side was willing to let the other win, and so the struggle between the two seemed to have intensified.

Caleb fought tooth and nail, the metallic flavor of the drops of blood that were falling from the wound over his face to his lips making only being a small inconvenience, and so did Aldarn and the rest of the Rebellion. Servantis and Lothar weren't less, cutting and piercing enemies with their swords. However, the rebel leader had noticed that there was someone in this scene that was missing.

"Where's Jade?!" Caleb asked as he kicked a guard down. The enemy forces were standing their ground better than before. The girls really made the difference, didn't they?

"I can't see Rhouglar either!" Aldarn yelled. "And where are the Guardians?!"

Damn, what the hell was happening?! He hadn't come this far to lose now! What would his father say?! He recalled what the Mage had taught him. Sometimes, harsh decisions needed to be made for the greater good.

The rebel leader raised his sword.

"Open fire! Use the new weapons!"

* * *

The Guardians, or at least three of them; were currently over the walls that separated the second level from the first one. Cornelia, Irma and Taranee watched impotent as the screams filled the air again and the flames ate everything and everyone that dared to cross their path. It wasn't that they couldn't do anything; their powers were the most useful in this type of situations actually; but that they didn't know what they should do or if they should do anything at all.

Will and Hay Lin appeared shortly after, the redhead being carried by the bubbling Chinese girl, and arm around the Air Guardian's shoulders. The other three girls didn't say anything at first, their eyes focused into Will's back for a few moments.

"Will, your... your wing..." Taranee muttered. She wasn't there when the cannonball hat hit the Keeper of the Heart, so this was the more shocking to her than her friends.

"It's okay," Will said, looking at her back. The wing was now just a few feathers down and with just a couple of cuts over it, nothing in comparison with the mass of broken bones it was when she had first looked at it. "It looked much worse before." Will's eyes travelled between her friends. "Listen..."

Will wanted to say a lot of things to her friends. She wanted to scream, and apologize, and gave a very detailed explanation about how 'that' happened, and apologize again... but she didn't get the chance. Not now.

A shot cut the air, and it was followed by many others. Will's voice cracked and she ran to the edge of the wall. What had happened with the archers, she wondered for a second. Had they died too? She reached the edge and looked below. What the redhead saw was something that her mind automatically associated with Hell.

The flames were running rampant, and between the inferno they had crafted, the rebels had started to use guns against their opponents. Shotguns, machineguns, even just simple pistols… Bullets flew across the air, striking the guards and leaving corpses were brave men had stood before. Not even the Shield's thick and strong armors could do much against the projectiles of a shotgun or a machinegun. The forces of the Viscount were on the flee moments later, trying to get out of the bullets' way.

"I told you that they have weapons!" Taranee said.

And the worst part was that laughter could be heard amongst the rebels and the flames. Were... were they laughing at this? How could they be laughing at this? Her head was spinning again...

"Will..." the redhead noted the Earth Guardian's hand over her back at the same time she heard her name.

"Stop them," Will muttered. "Stop them!"

"Will..." Cornelia said again. "You..." the blonde's eyes fell over the redhead's back. "Wait here. We'll take care of it."

The other four girls took flight, and Will waited there, looking at the ongoing carnage. She could see how some groups of rebels separated from the main army and started to head towards the entrances of the third level or entered the houses of the second that had yet to be burned. Was this the same Rebellion that had boasted of its desire to free Meridian? It looked like a bastardized caricature of itself. Or maybe this was the real rebellion, and what she had seen until now was just a mask. Or maybe both faces were just halves of the Rebellion's true visage.

With those thoughts in her head accompanying the memory of the dead guard and no more people around to see her, Will proceeded to vomit anything that her stomach contained.

* * *

 _This battle is lost…_ Lothar thought as he made his men to fall back to the third level this time. They had lost too much ground, but were lucky that the third level would take the Rebellion a bit more of time to reach than the second one. The gates had been closed, and his men were building an improvised barricade with whatever they could find. The rebels were smashing them tough, and Lothar was sure that it wouldn't take them long to break through them. However, thanks to those barricades, they had a bit of time to catch their breaths and rethink their strategy. However, the Captain was certain that said strategy could be centered on fighting the rebels anymore. The men were down in morale, that was obvious; and he himself was starting to feel now the tiredness that had resulted from the intense battle. The confirmation of Tynar's demise, alongside the reveal of Drake's involvement in it had been a hard hit to take. It had been a bluff, hadn't it? He had wanted to kill him, but I the end he had just pierced his leg. There was a time when Drake and he would laugh in the barracks of the Capital, before his friend's mother was killed by Cedric, and he changed sides, taking the lives of so many men with him. Tynar's words about revenge seemed to gain a much deeper meaning with that in mind.

And the Rebellion had proved today as a far more dangerous force than first thought. Up until now they had only attacked prisons or settlements in the outer ring of Meridian, or ambushed caravans in the way to their destination. Small operations for a small army, but today… today they had been able to balance the fight; and while still less in numbers, the Rebellion had proven to have much more power, first with the aid of the Guardians and the Black Wolf and then with those strange trinkets of them. A cannon's power with the precision and speed of an arrow, those weapons had opened wounds in his allies with the same ease fire eats dried wood. From where had they taken those? They didn't seem the work of magic, so they must be some kind of mechanical machination, but they were too advanced to be made by meridianite hands. Had they come from Earth? Was that world supporting the Rebellion? Anyway, that mattered very little. His soldiers couldn't stand against something like that.

"Lothar?" The Captain heard the Viscount.

Looking in the nobleman's direction, Lothar could see how the Viscount looked extremely tired too. No, tired was not the term… perhaps mortified suited him better? Oh, how ferociously had the highborn man fought in the first and second levels, when his city was just shaken, her armor merely broken! But now, now when her body had been set on fire and ravaged, when her children's blood colored the streets… now the Viscount looked frail. It seemed as if the pain that the Rebellion had inflicted on his city was reflected upon his body. The dream of creating a better Meridian, the dream of saving as many innocents lives as it could be done from this war… it all had shattered with those walls, haven't it? "I have an assignment for you."

"Sir, the men cannot fight anymore…"

"No, no they can't;" Servantis agreed. "That is the reason you are going to take them across the third level, then the opposite section to this one of this city, and then out and back to the Capital."

Lothar's jaw dropped from the surprise the nobleman's words had instilled on him. "I won't abandon you."

"And what will you do? Lead these men in a hopeless battle?" Servantis asked. "No, too many have died here already; I won't allow any other to waste his life. We weren't prepared for this kind of outcome. When you reach the Capital, send a message to the Archduchess of Blackrock Island. Tell her… tell her I failed in my promise, and don't omit detail of what has happened."

"But what about you? What about the commoners?" Lothar asked.

Servantis shook his head. "The Rebellion won't risk harming the commoners; their image within the smallfolk would be destroyed if they did that. And my wife and I are too valuable to kill. I need to reach her." Servantis extended a hand towards the Captain. "It has been an honor, Captain of the Guard."

Lothar looked at the Viscount, and without thinking it two times, he shook the hand he was offering. "No my lord, the honor has been mine."

"EVERYONE! PREPARE TO LEAVE! WE LEAVE TORUS FILNEY!"

Before Lothar's sentence was finished, Servantis had already shot to the tower that was the center of his city, and where his wife and the rest of the citizens awaited.

* * *

 ** _Lady Ishol_**

"The Lord Hoel prepared his mighty spear, and without doubt he pierced the wing of one of the Nine Demons, breaking it and forcing him to flee. 'Curse you Hoel!' the foul creature yelled while two of his minions carried him away."

"And then? What happened then, Lady Ishol?"

"Then?" the noblewoman asked with a small smile. "Oh, then Lord Hoel returned to his King, Mighty Escanor and to the other three Knights. And they threw a party in celebration of their companion's victory!"

Lady Ishol had always loved these stories. Since her most tender childhood, when her mother or any maid used to repeat them time after time, in order to make her to go to sleep. They spoke of nobility, camaraderie, bravery and selflessness triumphing against monsters, demons, and other terrors. Ishol always found them reassuring and calming when she was a child, something that could distract her from other, less idealistic situations. Now she found herself being the one telling them to the new generations, in order to distract them from the horrors that were happening outside. The chamber they were in was enormous, enough to house all the women, children and others not fit to fight. She hated the uncertainty of knowing if Roderick was well or not the most. She should be out, with him; but she knew it was a stupid thought, that she would just get in the way. She had never been a woman of swords, preferring courts to training grounds. How ironic that the daughter of the woman that was still considered the best sword on Meridian could only play a few tricks with knives.

"Another one Lady Ishol, please!" a boy with brownish hair and dark skin pleaded.

"Yes, yes, yes!" a little girl joined in, and the rest of the children around her joined in the plea too.

There were others, older ones around. Their ears weren't for her stories, but for the noises of the battle going on outside. The same could be said about the women, the same worry that reigned over Ishol's heart reigning over theirs. Another story couldn't do any harm then.

"What's that?"

Ishol didn't get the chance to tell another story. Shame, she was going to tell the one about Brandis and Didier taking from the demons what now was known as Heliosport. She could heard them too now, the noises. She searched inside her dress' sleeves and let her fingers to feel a knife inside it. Then she got up from the stone floor and approached the gate that served as the only entrance and exit of the chamber.

"Lady Ishol?" one of the women asked. Fear was clear in that sentence. Fear for the children, for all the people in there.

"No need to worry," Ishol answered warmly. "I'm just going to see if the guards are still in their posts. I will be back in no time, I promise."

Ishol crossed the door, accessing to a long passageway that ended in another door. While approaching it, the noises intensified. She tightened her grip around the thin blade of the knife. She opened the door.

The guards Roderick had left behind, or at least the ones that were still alive had engaged a party of rebels. The rebels must have outnumbered them when this had started; Ishol didn't understand how her husband's loyal and brave men had been reduced to so few otherwise. She was quick to close the door and activate a mechanism that sealed it.

"Lady Ishol!" a soldier exclaimed. "You shouldn't be he- UAGH!"

The soldier fell onward, an axe encrusted in his back. The Lady of Torus Filney contemplated how he died before her eyes.

"Strong people, these ones;" she heard. Rhouglar was the one speaking, standing with a half a dozen men around him. He kicked one of the corpses in the face. "But not enough it seems."

Ishol tensed her arms. "It's no use rebel, I have sealed the gate, you won't be reaching this city's people."

"The people?!" Rhouglar exclaimed with amusement. "Screw the people, my lady;" the 'my lady' was said with the most mocking of tones Ishol had ever heard. "I've you! You see, long ago I told a friend of mine named Tarion, 'Man, one day you'll get between the legs of a highborn lady'. But Tarion died, Vathek cut his head off that day. Meh, he was funny to have around, but nothing out of the blue. But I'm a man of my word, and I get really out of my mind when I can't keep my promises. So if Tarion doesn't get between the legs of a Highborn lady…" Rhouglar's mouth opened, his tongue getting out like a depraved, rabid dog's and licking his lips. "Then I will! Don't you agree, lads?!"

The half a dozen men yelled in approval, a sign of sharing their commander's desire. However, Ishol moved her arm, and one of her knives ended nailed into one of those men's skull. As the body of the enemy fell to the ground, the Lady of Torus Filney smirked.

"You can try," she challenged.

* * *

"Push!" Caleb ordered. "Push forward!"

The gates of the third level were finally broken, and the Rebellion crossed to the central level of Torus Filney. Yes! It was almost done, the city was theirs! But the incredibly calm way that they had been received stroke Caleb as very suspicious. In the other two levels the forces of the Viscount had fought ferociously, but now they were… gone.

"Sir, they are fleeing!" one of his fellow rebels, carrying a club, told him. "Look!" he added, pointing to the mass of escaping soldiers. Caleb looked and saw the enemy, both guards from the Capital and soldiers native to the city running away from them.

 _Scared like little children_ , Caleb thought haughtily. _But I won't let them to escape and inform about our deeds here_. "Aldarn!" he called for his friend, who still mounted over what surely was the last remaining Hoogong, approached him. "I need you to take the Viscount tower."

"What?!" Aldarn asked, a bit enraged. "Caleb, the enemy is still…!"

"The enemy is defeated and escaping," Caleb said. "We need to take this city, and you are my best man here. I need you to take that tower, and secure the smallfolk inside!"

Aldarn eyed his commander and friend for a few seconds. After debating with himself for enough time, he nodded silently. "Alright, I will do as you order." _But those bastards should be mine to kill as much as they are yours, my… commander._

Aldarn departed with a few of the men, and Caleb spurred the ones that were still with him into running forward. "Don't let them escape!" the rebel leader yelled. "For Meridian! Don't let escape not even one! Fire!"

Caleb didn't know if the new weapons would be able to reach the enemy at this distance, they had proven incredibly useful until now, and had played a key role in their ongoing victory that could be matched only by the Guardians. The bullets were shot one more time…

Only to impact in a mass of thick vines that sprouted suddenly from the ground amongst pieces of debris, crafting a wall of roots and stone faster than Caleb had seen in his entire life. The wall grew in size, blocking their path and stopping their pursuit of the enemy soldiers. The Rebellion had been trapped, and as Caleb looked above, he discovered that they hadn't been trapped by the enemy.

"What are you doing?!" the rebel leader asked enraged.

"Stopping you," Cornelia Hale answered as she, Taranee, Irma and Hay Lin flew down and landed in front of him and the rest of the Rebellion. "This… this madness ends here, Caleb."

"Why didn't you tell us you got guns?!" Irma asked in a way angrier manner than usual. Her dad insisted her and Chris almost daily of how dangerous a gun could be in the wrong hands. This whole situation had proven her old man right.

"What are you talking about?!" Caleb asked. He really didn't need this right now. Of course he hadn't told the girls about the guns. They were a tool of great power, but they were a tool of destruction too. The girls wouldn't have approved, and he needed those tools to make a difference in this war. The rebels behind him had lowered their weapons, if they were motivated by fear or respect; that he didn't know. "We don't have time for this, victory is almost ours!"

"No Caleb, it already is!" a fifth Guardian yelled then. Will arrived at the scene, flying as best as she could with her still damaged win. She landed just in front of the other four, her tongue still sour from the vomit. "Don't you understand what's happening? Don't you understand what you are doing?!"

"What I understand is that we are in the verge of victory, and that you are in my way!" the rebel leader yelled. "This is necessary in order to make the Rebellion to advance in our goal! It's my plan, my responsibility! We need to win, these men need to win! Meridian needs to win! After all we have scarified, after my father scarified his life, and countless others had suffered under the Usurper's grasp!"

"Don't be such an idiot!" Will yelled in pure anger, running towards the rebel boy, taking him by the throat and starting to fly until they reached the top of the wall of roots and stone that Cornelia had raised. "Look!" she said, forcing him to look at the fleeing soldiers. Lothar could be seen amongst them, helping a man with a broken leg up. She descended again, her wings still not strong enough to support Caleb for long enough. She threw Caleb down afterwards. "Don't you get it?! They don't want to fight anymore! Each one of them… each one of them has a family or someone waiting for them at home. And we already won."

"Will's right," Cornelia chimed in.

"So if you want to go after them, rebel boy;" Irma joined them.

"And continue with this senseless carnage," Taranee continued.

"You'll have to get over us first!" Hay Lin ended her friends' boast.

The rebel leader's lips tightened in a line out of fury. "You can't be…"

"Caleb," the green eyed boy heard Drake's voice. Turning around, he saw his fellow member of the Small Council limping towards him across the lines of rebels, leaning over his sword and using it as a cane and an improvised bandage around his leg. "They are right; we have Torus Filney, that's what we wanted. Besides, we have many of our men wounded. You know this is not the best course of action."

Caleb snorted. This was the operation he had designed, his plan and his moment, wasn't it? The moment that marked the start of their counterattack against the tyrant. And yet… he had worried, not so long ago when the new weaponry had been brought from Earth… he had worried then, about his Rebellion becoming not better than Phobos. The Mage had beaten that worry out of him, after all they were the ones with a better goal, they were the ones fighting for Meridian's safety and freedom from Phobos' clutches. But now he glanced back at the levels they had already taken… and they were burning, weren't they? What would his father say? Shameful, shameful…

"Alright," he said after a while. "Call the fight over."

"It's over!" Drake yelled, even making the effort of raising his sword in the air. "It's over! The fighting is over! Torus Filney is ours!"

The Rebellion erupted in cheers of victory, albeit not as loud as one could expect. They were tired, all of them; tired of fighting. Yet they wuld have kept doing it if necessary, such was the strength of the hatred inside their souls.

"We need to find Aldarn," Caleb declared. "I sent him to the tower in order to see were the smallfolk are and to take the Viscount's bastion for us."

"We'll take you there," Will declared, taking to the skies again. Her friends followed near, but they stayed behind, Cornelia carrying Caleb across the skies of torus Filney. How ironic, the day should be now entering the afternoon, and the skies had ended cleared and of a brilliant blue. It was almost as if the nice weather was mocking them for their actions. As if saying 'look, you ruined the beauty that is me'.

"What happened to her?" Caleb asked, having sensed the enormous tension that the redhead was feeling over her.

"She told me…" Hay Lin answered, her voice quivering. "She told me that she killed a man."

Cornelia, Irma and Taranee's eyes widened in the same fashion than Hay Lin's had done when first seeing the corpse. Caleb, however, just lowered his gaze.

"Ah," he said. "I understand."

* * *

Without wanting to push the matter anymore, the group fell in silence and continued flied. Below them, the ravaged Torus Filney could be seen. It was almost as if one could hear the city giving up her last breath of hope.

Viscount Servantis had asked for this tower to be built tall and strong in order to be able to house the commoners in this kind of situations and to be a sign of the city's strength. He had once considered it a very well thought decision. Now... he was thinking otherwise.

 _Run, run, run... Turn left in the next hall. Run, run, run... Go up the stairs... Run body! Run I say!_

His body wasn't having none of that however, must to the nobleman's chagrin. He was tired from the fight from before, and his armor weighted too much to let him go up the stairs as fast as he could do otherwise. But why was he wearing it then? He paused for a moment and took his armbands and breastplate off. He let them to fall before reassuming his march. He kept the sword, just in case.

 _Ah, there it is!_ Roderick thought while pausing and catching his breath. He had arrived at a long and narrow hall. Under a first glance, it only directed to a window. But then the Viscount pushed a brick and a secret passage that lead to some stairs was revealed. Servantis started to climb them until reaching a wall in which he pushed another brick, revealing another secret passage, this one leading to the room from which you could access the passageway to the chamber in which the commoners were. What he found there almost drove him insane.

First off, there was the silence. There shouldn't be any silence; he had left some soldiers behind. There should be voices, or at least sounds product of their movement. But then he noticed. Of course there wasn't movement, there were all dead; both the guards and some individuals that he supposed were rebels. It was how the six dead rebels had died that caught most of his attention, though. They had died thanks to knives, knives to the head that had pierced through flesh and bones with astonishing precision. The Viscount knew of only one person so good at throwing knives.

"Ishol!" he called, looking around. "Ishol, where are...?!" his voice cracked. His wife was there, lying on the ground over her left side.

Ignoring the tiredness that had compelled him to abandon his armor, the Viscount rushed to the Viscountess' side. He kneeled and held her tightly in his arms.

"Ishol," he called for her while inspecting her body. There were no wounds, and she was breathing. Thank the Light of Meridian... "Ishol," he called again, but he didn't get an answer. "Ishol?" he called one more time, looking at her face. The sight broke his heart.

The light in his wife's eyes was... gone. She was still breathing, her heart still beating... but Ishol wasn't there. Servantis hugged her tightly, and forced himself not to cry. His eyes travelled over his wife's body, taking notice of her clothing. They had been torn apart, not only the dress but the gown under it; enough to reveal her legs and modesty.

And he understood. He left his wife delicately in the floor, incorporated, unsheathed his sword and walked slowly out of the chamber. His blade, which he wasn't even bothering to hold up, made a disturbing sound against the floor.

* * *

A couple of halls away from the Viscount, Rhouglar was walking in order to get out of the main tower. He was carrying his axe with one hand, while the other was over his left eye, trying to stop the blood that was coming from it.

 _That cocky excuse of a whore…_ the Mad Dog thought bitterly. This hadn't turned out as easy as that old bastard Tharquin had promised him it could be. Sure, he had found the highborn lady where Tharquin had told him, the Old Worm explaining that he knew how that woman worked from his old day in the court. But had it been easy? No… it had cost him six, six fucking men! And his eye, which was more important than any of those fuckers! But in the end, the woman had run out of knives, and he had been able to knock her to the ground with a punch. There she had revealed to have one knife left, one that she had thrown at him and that he had almost dodged by throwing his head backwards… keyword being almost. The edge of the weapon had impacted over his eye, leaving him half-blind. Him! And the woman, oh… the woman had smirked proudly at him. That had enraged him beyond belief.

So he had raped her. Violently, rabidly; like an animal. He hadn't even focused on enjoying himself like all those other times, no. He had just wanted for that fucking smile to disappear from her face. But it didn't.

So he raped her a second time, even more violently. He also strangled her, out of sheer anger, trying to get that fucking smirk out of her face by asphyxiating the damn woman. When he had ended, he had gotten up and decided to leave. And the woman had spoken, weakly.

"Pray to the Light of Meridian to have mercy on you," she had said. "Because my husband won't have any."

And he had raped her a third time. He had also chocked her during the act, until leaving her unconscious. Then he had spit over her and had left the room. Such an act of cruel and unnecessary violence and pettiness… Such was Rhouglar, the Mad Dog.

The Galhot started to descend yet another staircase. Damn, why was this place so labyrinthine?

"Excuse me," the rebel heard then at his back.

He couldn't turn around as fast as he would have wanted, and he got kicked in the back and went tumbling down the stairs. It was a miracle that he didn't kill himself with the axe. Looking up at the stairs, he saw Viscount Servantis descending them now, his sword making a sonorous _CLENK_ sound every time it dropped from one stair to another. He was looking at the Mad Dog without even blinking. "Was it you?"

 _The Viscount?_ Rhouglar thought as he incorporated. _What is he doing here?! How is he here?! Oh shit, did he see…?_

"Was it you the one who raped my wife?" the Viscount asked again.

CLENK!

"Depending on your answer…"

CLENK!

"I shall give you a fast or a slow death…"

CLENK!

The Viscount was now in front of Rhouglar, the Galhot taller than him. The nobleman's gaze fell over his bleeding eye, and he narrowed his eyes.

"Ah, slow and painful it is then," he said. "Because that is a wound only my wife's knives could inflict."

"Ha!" Rhouglar laughed. "Big words for a highborn man, but can you back them up?" Rhouglar said, raising his axe in the exact time to stop a blow from the nobleman's sword.

"Don't underestimate a Galhot's physical might!"

* * *

"Aldarn!" Caleb called for his longtime friend, the other young rebel standing into the entrance of the Viscount's tower.

"Caleb, I heard the cheers of victory;" he said in a much more joyful tone than before. "Guardians," he greeted the girls too.

The quintet of girls wasn't even trying to hide their discomfort, greeting him coldly at best. Noticing this, Aldarn; quirked an eyebrow, but didn't push the matter. "The situation here is controlled," he informed Caleb. "I have my men searching through the halls and rooms, and we have found no resistance. This tower is ours, the same as the city."

"Excellent" the rebel leader proclaimed. As he headed inside Aldarn followed him and the Guardians followed both. The Rebellion's second in command noticed how they seemed down in spirits. Why was that? They had won their biggest campaign in the Rebellion's thirteen year lived history! And it had been mainly thanks to their presence and efforts. The insides of the first floor of the tower consisted of a very plain looking and simply room from which apparently, and considering the outrageous number of doors that were in it, could lead you across the different parts of the tower.

"Drake informed me that we left many wounded behind," Caleb continued to speak, ignorant of his second in command's thoughts. "We should send word to the Infinite City of our victory and request Sephiria's presence immediately."

"I will have one of my men to take my Hoogong and do it," Aldarn said. "But the animal must rest before."

"Alright," Caleb said. "Has anyone found the chamber with the smallfolk?"

"Not yet," Aldarn answered sincerely. "But sooner or later… Wait, did you hear that?"

"Hear what?" Caleb asked.

"He's right," Aldarn heard the Air Guardian's voice. "There's a noise."

Clang…

"What's that?" Cornelia asked then.

"The sound of someone fighting…" Caleb said, starting to search for the sound.

Clang…

* * *

CLANG!

Sword and axe met each other as Servantis and Rhouglar fought. The Mad Dog had started this fight confident, almost willing to crack a joke. But it had all ended when he had actually started to fight the nobleman. Strong as he may be, Rhouglar's greatest trick in a battlefield was just swinging his axe and let his 'Galhot physical might' to do the work, cutting foe after foe. Now he wa facing an opponent with formal, methodical and practiced sword training. And it was really showing off. To think that a madman like Rhouglar, who swung his weapon in battle with the same finery a butcher does; could stand a chance against a formal trained and seasoned swordsman…

"GUAGH!" Rhouglar screamed as Servantis rotated over himself and cut his abdomen with his sword. The Mad Dog went to the ground. Again.

Would be madness.

"How do you wish for it to start?" Servantis asked as he kicked Rhouglar in the face. Just in the bleeding eye. "Perhaps I should cut your tongue or your manhood… Or perhaps I shouldn't kill you at all. Perhaps I should just cut your limbs and nose… but leave the ears. And every children will point at you and say 'Here goes the monster, here goes…' Ah… Sorry. How are you called?"

"Fuck you!"

"An appropriate name!" Servantis said as he kicked Rhouglar again. The Viscount looked unrecognizable. Gone was the honorable and kind nobleman, this was a total different person moving his lips, using his mouth. Servantis took Rhouglar for the shoulders, forcing him to his feet. Then he kicked him in the gut, making him collide with a small window ahead. The window cracked. Which floor were they in? He didn't know. And frankly, he didn't care. The Viscount kicked the Mad Dog again, and the window broke.

* * *

CRASH!

Now they all were able to hear it, from one of the higher floors. The Guardians flew straight towards it, while Caleb and Aldarn ran in the search of a patheay towards said point in different directions. In the rush, no one noticed how Aldarn approached a wall around which several weapons had been left. He searched between them and pulled a gun before reasumming the search.

Meanwhile the girls had arrived at the spot the noise had come from. What they found was Rhouglar, trying his best to stand up from a mix of drops of blood and shards of glass. He wasn't badly injured from the window, which made sense since it wasn't more than two meters up from where the Galhot had landed, yet the wounds in his eye and gut were keeping him from just standing and running away, instead crawling away from the window.

"Ah, it was one of those windows that led to other parts of the tower's insides... Why do we have those in the first place?"

Servantis appeared jumping out of the same window, landing swiftly. He swung his blade a bit as he approached Rhouglar. He hadn't noticed the Guardians standing meters away, too focused in enacting revenge upon Rhouglar.

"Or perhaps," the Viscount continued to talk, eyes focused in the crawling Galhot at his feet; "I should quit the useless banter... and just cut your head!"

"Please... mercy..." Rhouglar begged.

"Mercy?!" an outraged Servantis asked. "Did you give her mercy?!" He put a foot over the rebel's back and raised his sword over Rhouglar's head. "Did you give her mercy, you monster?!"

BANG!

The shot wasn't expected. The bullet passed right between the heads of Cornelia and Hay Lin, and ended hitting the hand the Viscount was holding his sword with. The blade fell, and Servantis looked at his hand, or what was left of it. Only the thumb remained amongst the fingers, what was left of the palm was an amalgam of twisted flesh. The Viscount didn't scream though, instead pushing forward after giving two steps back due to the shock.

BANG! BANG!

Another two shots, these ones impacting over his abdomen. The Viscount tumbled back and fell on his knees, panting and bleeding.

"Haha… serves you right, nobleman…" Rhouglar mocked him, yet he continued crawling away towards his allies. Better to be completely safe, less the Viscount be able to get up again, somehow.

Turning around, the Guardians were met by the sight of Aldarn; carrying a shotgun and having shot the Viscount with three of four bullets. He prepared to shot a fourth time... Ahead were two men fighting for their lives. Too much violence...

"Enough!" Caleb yelled, arriving at the scene. He grabbed Aldarn by the arms, forcing him to lower the gun.

Aldarn narrowed his eyes at the teenager he had once thought of as his best friend in all Meridian. What had gotten into him? This wasn't just a mere soldier, this was Viscount Servantis! One of the Usurper's supporters, the man who had forced Vathek to execute his companions! He deserved to die!

"That's an order, Aldarn!" Caleb shouted, and the Rebellion's second in command let his grip round the shotgun to soften. But his eyes didn't lose any confusion, or anger. And as Caleb stepped ahead of him his eyes focused in his friend's back and his mind came to a conclusion. He had grown tired of looking at that back.

"You… bastards…" the Viscount, still in his knees cursed, trying to incorporate.

"Stop it already," Will pleaded him. So much senseless violence this day… It needed to stop, now. "You can't keep fighting, you must stop."

"Stop?" the Viscount asked with a sad grin. "You come to my city… you sack it, burn it… kill so many of my men… you…" tears of pure anger and impotency thanks to the fact that his body wasn't answered anymore started to roll down his cheeks. "You raped my wife… the love of my life…" his body started to fall towards the ground, all strength lost. "My Ishol… oh, I'm so sorry…"

The Viscount fell completely, lying face down in the floor, tears still fresh. The Guardians and rebels looked down at him. Just like Torus Filney had been broken and had fallen; so had its founder and leader. The only thing that interrupted the silence that followed to the Viscount's complete defeat was Rhouglar's laugh.

"Hahahaha!" the Mad Dog cackled. "Serves you right! To you and that… whore you got as a wife…"

"Rhouglar;" the Mad Dog heard an angered voice. Looking up from the floor, he saw Caleb leaning over him. "Hey there, Caleb… Can you help me…?"

"You raped this man's wife?" the rebel leader asked his fellow rebel. His companion and subordinate.

Rhouglar raised an eyebrow. "What about that?" A gasp was heard amongst the Guardians, and both Aldarn and Caleb looked more shocked than in any other moment of their lives.

"What about that?!" the green eyed boy repeated angrily. "You… you raped a woman, and you act ad if nothing happened?!"

"Don't give me that shit, _commander_ ;" the Mad Dog said, mocking Caleb by calling him commander for what seemed as the first time to the green eyed boy. "Because I've been doing this since the first day! Me and my lads!" Rhouglar put one feet on the floor and then the other, rising up. "And many of the battles we've won were won thanks to me, and the fear I got in those bastards' guts! And you act as if this surprised you now?! Now?! Ha! Don't be such an imbecile! What would you do without me?!"

Caleb's vision became red with wrath. Everything turned blurry, and he didn't hear anything around him. For how long? He had heard the rumors about Rhouglar's deeds, but he had thought of them nothing but that, rumors. And now this happened. So, for how long? For how long had these things been happened under his nose? For how long had he been focused in the enemy in front of him, that he hadn't seen the one laughing at his side? Before even him could notice it, his sword was in his hand, and it was moving fast. It stroke Rhouglar's neck strongly, and next the dark-skinned Galhot's head was flying, falling to the ground with the sadistic, lustful grin still intact. And so, like that met his end the Mad Dog of the Rebellion, chewing more than he could eat. Once the head touched the ground, however; the silence was broken by the cries of the Air Guardian and the yell of the Fire Guardian.

"JESUS CHRIST!"

* * *

 ** _Hours later_**

The next hours to their victory passed by quite mechanically, and Caleb was grateful for that. He had decided to sit down outside the tower, seeing his men go in and out of the building. It didn't take long for a scout to go to the Infinite City with the news of their victory and bring Sephiria and the rest of the faithful here so they could start attending to the wounded.

"Wine?" he heard behind him. He didn't need to turn back in order to recognize Drake's voice. He could practically see him, holding a bottle in one hand. No matter where they were, Drake always knew a manner into which get himself a bottle of wine. He shook his hand tiredly.

"No, thanks;" the rebel leader answered. Only when Drake got into his range of view (and already drinking the bottle of wine to its half), Caleb discovered his fellow rebel wasn't the only blonde that had come to him. Cornelia, still in her Guardian form, was with him. She sat at his side, no one able to look directly at the other. So they kept staring ahead.

"How… how is everyone doing?" Caleb asked the Earth Guardian.

"Hay Lin is still crying," Cornelia answered. "Taranee's with her, and Will's… Will is just working, helping Sephiria with the wounded, even after all this… but in the moment she's alone I bet she's going to cry too."

Caleb lowered his gaze to his feet. "Was it the first one? For Will, I mean."

"Of course it was!" Cornelia replied, as if Caleb had said the most outrageous thing in all worlds.

"Sorry," the rebel leader answered. "The first one is always the worst. You should make sure that Will eats properly, I spent three days without eating after my first kill."

"Caleb," Cornelia continued their talk, this time more calmed. "W-when… when did you…?"

"Eleven," Caleb answered. "When I was eleven years old."

Cornelia didn't say a single more word. Drake, who had already emptied the bottle of wine, took advantage of this opportunity to talk himself.

"According to Sephiria, the Viscount will live;" the blonde rebel informed. "But his right hand will have to be amputated. Accessing the chamber with the smallfolk will take some time, but we will open it. Also, Aldarn was able to find the woman that Rhouglar raped. She is alive but…"

"Alright, I will look into it," Caleb interrupted him. "Later."

 _Feeling guilty, aren't we?_ Cyrus thought. _Because of the innocent lives lost here or maybe because you had a monster like Rhouglar at your command this entire time? Welcome to reality, rebel boy… it's not as simple as when you thought we were the heroes of a children's tale…_

"Hey guys," Irma's voice came from behind. The Water Guardian had been walking around, and now that she found herself with nothing to do, she had discovered that she was missing someone. "Has anyone see Jade around?"

"Jade? Last time I saw her, she was charging with the Rebellion," Cornelia said. "Why? Has she not appeared yet? Where is she?"

"Caleb…" a concerned Drake asked of his leader. "Have you seen Tharquin?"

* * *

 ** _Jade's inner world_**

Red.

The only color that Jade could see around her was red. Red carpet, red walls, red ceiling… all of them were the same color. Whoever had designed this castle had a very shitty imagination… But why was she in a castle? She was… she was in a battle, now she remembered. Then how come she was in a castle now? And why was she floating? And why was she being pulled towards a direction against her will. And why…?

"You ask too many questions at once," a feminine, whispering voice sounded across the wall. "I thought Grigori was exaggerating when he said that your inquisitive nature equaled or even surpassed his, but dear he was right."

"Who… who's there?" Jade asked.

"And again, another question," the whisper said in a tired tone. "Then, if you are so desperate for answers…"

Jade felt the force pulling from her body strengthening. As a 'Whoa!' left her mouh, she found herself now in a complete different place. She had been in a throne room only once in her life, but she was able to recognize one. It was a red throne room, in the same color as the rest of the castle. And in that room, in its center to be precise, was a small throne, not very opulent; perhaps not befitting of a King or Queen, but yes of a lower noble.

And in that throne, someone was sitting, posture stiff and proper. A pale, slender woman in the middle of her twenties with bright auburn hair that almost shifted to a strange shade of red was sitting on the throne, wearing one of those overly complicated dresses of the XVI century, her hair tied into an equally weird fashion that reminded Jade of the one of Princess Leia in Star Wars. Her eyes were of an intense red, and her lips were making a small yet happy smile.

"W-who're you?" Jade asked.

"Me?" the woman answered, looking at the black haired girl in front f her with the utmost curiosity. "My name is Elizabeth Báthory, Countess of the Kingdom of Hungary."

"And I'm so eager to finally talk with you, my reincarnation."

* * *

 _When I was young, my father always spoke of war in the great hall of the castle, housing parties and drunken, boasting in his stupor how some soldier had shit himself while crossing him in the field. But one night, one night when the castle was empty, he called for my siblings and I. Morgause and Arthur were both hiding behind me, their blond locks of hair against my dress. They were scared of what father ought to say. But when we arrived, father wasn't drunk. He spoke with us sincerely, and gave us the most important lesson of our lives. It was one single phrase: "Even if you must fight to protect or conquer, remember, my children… that no one but monsters win in War."_ Morgana Pendragon, paraphrasing Uther Pendragon

* * *

 **Author's Notes: Hey everybody. Long time no see, right? A month without updating, Christ; which is something I wouldn't be complaining about if it wasn't something I didn't intend to do. But this chapter was hard to write, it was incredibly complicated to do the fight scenes and then get every plot thread I wanted in this one in a proper manner. And after three rewrites of the thing… I think this is the best end result I could get. Anyway, I will let the chapter to speak for itself, but it seems that sending teenagers to fight wars is not always the best course of action, eh Kandrakar? Oh, and by the way, the title of this chapter is a reference to one of my favorite characters of A Song of Ice and Fire, Tywin Lannister and his 'Sack of King's Landing'. Read those books if you haven't, they are astonishing. Next chapter shouldn't take so long as this one, mainly because I have things clearer for that one than for this one and that there is not going to be much action.**

 **Bye, bye!**


	13. To Lose by Winning

**Disclaimer: I own neither the WITCH cartoon-show nor Jackie Chan Adventures; they are the property of their respective creators, writers, and producers.**

 **Author Notes: Hello again, dear readers. I'm glad for all the positive feedback I'm receiving for this story, and I'm glad that the whole 'war is hell' thing I was trying to portray in the Sack was well received. Many thanks to Zim'sMostLoyalServant and to anyone that has been working on the TvTropes page for this fic, because it looks amazing! Also, like I did in the previous chapter, a little warning for things to come. I mean, this chapter (alongside the previous) is going to be probably the darkest in the first season or perhaps the entire fic, so you've been warned. Having said that, on with this chapter! Enjoy your read, and leave a review if you feel like it.**

* * *

Guardians, Wizards and Kung-Fu Fighters

Episode Thirteen

To Lose by Winning

* * *

 ** _World of Earth; Chang's building; the third day_**

Eleven in the morning, a desk full of documents, men and women coming in and out of his office, Crane dropping from time to time to crack some joke that only he seemed to understand; these all had become parts of routine in Jackie Chan's (false) new workplace. And the most ironic of it all was that, in any other circumstance, this would have been the job of his dreams. He had a peaceful office, a flexible schedule, he had a good working environment, health care and a (maybe too much) good salary… in the surface it was perfect. He could now understand how people as normal as Harold or so many others working in this building were able to live so comfortably in the employ of someone like Chang if he kept offering them something every man of middle class dreamt about.

However, since Hak Foo had gotten his hands (or rather, his face) into that red Oni Mask and command over those weird new Shadowkhan that looked like Mantises, the façade of being a legal, well meaning business had practically broken into pieces. Under Chang's orders, Hak Foo had put the Mantis Khan to good use, helping the Dark Hand's American branch to regain the glory lost in Valmont's attempt to please Shendu. The archeologist had to at least admit that Chang's modus operandi was much more brilliant than the one of his old nemesis. Instead to use Hak Foo and his new personal army to rob banks or to commit crimes directly, Chang was employing him as a mercenary in order to help other, smaller criminal organizations across the country, or even Canada or Mexico. Hal Foo didn't complain, as he loved to put his new demonic powers to use, usually going to those missions with the happiest of moods and leading the Shadowkhan from the frontline. This meant two things. One, those organizations were left in debt with the Dark Hand; and two, they had witnessed the power Hak Foo had, adding the fear factor to their loyalty and their monthly payment to Chang's organization. No wonder Harold was so indispensable here, this criminal organization worked more as a bank or business than as a stereotypical Syndicate.

Sometimes Jackie wondered if Hak Foo would end possessed as Lothar had, or if he already was. Frankly, he didn't know if he would be able to tell the difference if Hak Foo was possessed by a demonic warlord of not. But considering that the Shadowkhan hadn't stirred a revolution within the Dark Hand yet, he supposed Hak Foo was still in control. Good thing that Uncle and Tohru had a removal potion and spell ready in case things got out of control.

Speaking of Hak Foo, Jackie was now walking towards a part of the building dedicated to house a training room solely for the redheaded enforcer, modeled after a dojo and occupying two floors no less. According to Crane, it had been the only thing the Black Tiger had requested when entering into Chang's service. Jackie crossed a door, entering to a balcony that surrounded the whole floor and that let you peek at the training session that was going on below. Crane and Chang were already there, and so was Harold, to Jackie's surprise. He and the blond man didn't coincide very often.

Things would be so much simpler if Harold would just come to their side… but for the moment Jackie had to force himself to search for information about that abandoned subway tunnel Ross had talked him about by himself. Things progressed slowly, but it was clear the Dark Hand was preparing for something big. The fact that the Armbands of Shiva, once studied by Uncle and determined as magical had to be delivered to Chang and that he hadn't sold them to some crazy guy that wanted to have four arms for some weird reason was proof enough for him of that. Speaking of Uncle, the archeologist had to endure a lot of his yelling for having to take the Armbands back to the Dark Hand. And once there he had to put into his most convincing of faces and lie about how he had gotten his Uncle involved into all this, telling the Taiwanese crime lord that his elder had agreed after Jackie had told him about the photographs concerning the girls and Jade, trying to appeal to Chang's desire of control. Jade… how would be his niece doing? She had treated the whole situation (according to her a five day mission on Meridian) as some kind of school field trip, but he wasn't sure of…

"Mr. Chan?" he heard the man that, for lack of a better term, was his boss. "Has your little investigation over what I asked of you come to success?"

"Yes," Jackie answered. Approaching the three men, all of them near the edge of the balcony, Jackie could heard shouts of 'Demon destroys piteous enemy!' or 'Shadow Army impales weak Human!' coming from below. Glancing down as he handed Chang a bunch of papers detailing his investigations over a piece of art called 'Gauntlet of Indra' Chang was interested in (Jackie supposed he was more interested in the part about 'commanding the storm' than in its historical value); the archeologist saw Hak Foo (now back in the same attire Jackie had first met him, the one composed of blue vest and red pantaloons) practicing his new moves against a bunch of training dummies hanging from the ceiling by ropes. Training dummies with a very clear stylization. "Why do they look like me?" he asked as the scythes of one of the Mantis Khan cut one of the dummies' head and Hak Foo reduced one to dust with one punch.

"Uhm?" Chang asked, speed-reading the papers Jackie had given to him. "Oh, Hak Foo has some kind of obsession with you," the crime lord said, eyes not leaving the paper. "If not for my continue insistence, the one down there instead of the dummies, would be you."

Jackie gulped. He hadn't seen the new, empowered Hak Foo in full action yet, but according to Jade and his own memories of facing Lothar, it wasn't something he was very eager of experiencing.

"Sometimes I wonder if his obsession with you won't be born from something deeper than mere rivalry," Crane chimed in, grinning like a cat. "I mean, I never saw him showing interest in any woman, you know Jackie?" the handsome thief joked.

This time, instead of gulping Jackie found his stomach aching momentarily.

"Don't be like that, Phillip. And a job as great as always, Mr. Chan;" Chang complimented Jackie. His eyes left the paper and focused in the scene playing below. "But aren't they magnificent, these Shadowkhan? They don't tire, they don't protest, don't eat, and don't leave bodies behind," Chang said with a very sinister gleam in his eyes. "Plus the enormous movement capacity they grant is astonishing, not to mention how much Hak Foo's strength has increased. Valmont used to talk to me about them, but these ones are clearly different from the ninja he used to describe." Chang turned his head towards Jackie, his flesh hand holding the papers while he rested the jade one over the balcony's edge. "What is your opinion, as a man that has faced them before?"

Jackie narrowed his eyes at the training Black Tiger and his army. He analyzed their fighting style and how they fared against the dummies. After a couple of minutes, Jackie came to a conclusion. "He could use them better."

"What do you mean?"

"Hak Foo is a very remarkable martial artist, and it's clear that these Shadowkhan are more inclined to aggressive offense than the ones Shendu could summon," Jackie explained. "But their combat styles are clearly different. Hak Foo is used to attack head on and continue the fighting one on one until a fighter falls. These Shadowkhan, I don't know how to put it, but their aggressiveness seems different."

"Really?" Crane asked now. "How come?"

"Jackie is right," Harold cut in. "They are clearly meant for offensive maneuvers, but they aren't meant to be infantry. They seem more like cavalry, supposed to rush the enemy, pierce through it and then regroup in the opposite side and do it again… What?" Three perplexed stares had fallen upon Harold, the blonde man noticing them and stopping his explanation.

"That… that was pretty accurate," Jackie said in a puzzled tone. Forget accurate, it had been a perfect and plausible explanation of how these Shadowkhan were supposed to be used! From where had exactly that come from?

The blond man shrugged and passed the index and middle finger of his left hand over his moustache. "I like history, and I usually read history books depicting medieval societies and, of course, warfare."

"Ah," Jackie offered as a retort. That was an answer as good as any other.

"Well, I may be enjoying this little conversation;" Chang interrupted. "But you have no other thing to do here, Mr. Chan. You have done a splendid work, you can go home."

Sometimes Jackie felt as if Chang was expecting a bow from his underlings when he let those phrases out, but Jackie never found out in any occasion, as he left the room as quickly as possible. He didn't enjoy the least to spend time with Chang. Crane was a fairly humorous and decent person, and at least Harold was able to maintain a civil conversation once all the tension between the two had passed and Cornelia was kept out of the conversation, but Chang was… different. He seemed like that kind of person that could take advantage of anything you said. And besides, he could really use the free time, Uncle had asked him to buy even more mayonnaise for his new spells.

So he gladly got his things from his office, closed it with the magnetic card he had been provided with and headed out of the building, leaving the criminal ploys and the shouts of 'Angry Demon Crow Takes Flight!' behind.

* * *

One of the things Jackie liked the most about the flat he had acquired in Heatherfield was that it was near the supermarket. So once he had parked his car, he could calmly go there and buy his groceries and head through the always so lively streets of the city towards his home.

 _Home, eh?_ Jackie thought. _When did I start to refer to this place like that? Perhaps in the moment Jade told me how great she felt here..._

What would he do once this whole situation ended? Go back to San Francisco? Not likely, he would feel terrible having to take Jade away from the girls. Typical of his niece to finally find friends her age in girls that transformed into element welding fairies. Then again... would staying in Heatherfield be so bad? Of course he would have to do a lot of bureaucratic maneuvers to get a job here after leaving San Francisco's University (which would be incredibly difficult) but he wouldn't have problems to find a job in the city's museum with his curriculum. Or he could just stick with Section 13 after all this business with the Dark Hand. The Dark Hand which had actually paid him a lot of money already... No! That was not an option! That was filthy, dirty money. But a lot of filthy, dirty money...

BUMP!

Jackie had been so lost in his own thoughts that he hadn't seen that he was walking straight into a person. A person smaller than him, but a person nonetheless. This caused him to tumble and drop one of the paper bags he was holding. Thank God he hadn't dropped the one with the mayonnaise. He could almost feel his Uncle's dope slap against his head if he had dropped the jars of mayonnaise.

"Look around you, jackass!" he heard a bratty voice belonging to a young girl insulting him. Then he looked for the first time at the person he had collided with.

It was a girl of a thin wiry figure that was starting to hit puberty, with medium-brown skin, bright green eyes looking angrily from a round and young face, and (this was what shocked Jackie the most) purple hair. Really purple hair. _Must be dyed_ , the archeologist thought. Clad in a simple black T-shirt, and a half-length leather jacket with white fur lining on the edges and cuffs, she also wore a pair of black combat boots, black and purple stockings and a a black double-layer skirt. She didn't seem much older than Jade or the girls. Heatherfield really offered the most varied range of people, didn't it?

"Don't try to help me, that'd be too civilized;" the girl remarked sarcastically, her butt still on the ground. Only then he reacted.

"Sorry, sorry!" the man quickly apologized as he lent her a hand. "Here, let me help you."

"Thanks," the purple-haired girl said as he incorporated. "But you're still a jackass."

Jackie smirked upon that comment. "I really am sorry."

"Okay, okay; I heard you the first time;" the girl started to take the fallen contains of the paper bag, putting them back inside and giving it to Jackie. "Here, your things."

"Thank you," Jackie said. "And..."

"If you apologize again, I'm gonna punch you;" the girl threatened. "Don't make a world out of it," the purple-haired girl said, walking past him and slapping the man in the back. "Everyone's got an unlucky day."

Jackie smiled and continued his walk. The girl walked in the exact opposite direction. Then she took Jackie's magnetic card out of her sleeve and tossed it up and down before putting it into her jacket's pocket. "Unfortunately," she said with a grin. She walked by the side of a hot dog stand, kicking its side a bit, generating a bunch of sparks as purple as her hair. The stand started to move and ended up in the middle of the road, where a cab slammed directly into it, causing a small commotion that she used to escape. "Everyone else's unlucky days are my lucky ones."

* * *

The first thing Jackie noticed upon arriving at the flat was that it was reeking to a strong and unpleasant (for not defining it with a much worse word) smell. Taking his fingers to his nose, the archeologist headed directly to the flat's kitchen, from where small clouds of dark green smoke were coming out from time to time.

"What... what are you doing?" the man in the blue pullover asked upon entering the kitchen. He found Tohru and Uncle there, returned from Japan just a day before; looking over an enormous pot full of a green, boiling liquid. And inside that liquid Jackie could see... onions?

"Has nephew bought the mayonnaise?" Uncle asked, extending a hand upon Jackie's affirmative nod. The archeologist put a jar of the sauce over his elder's palm which Uncle proceeded to empty by pouring the sauce inside the pot. The liquid inside bubbled violently for a few seconds before letting out another green cloud. Then the boiling stopped.

"Uhm... mayonnaise really is a great conductor for Chi Magic!" Uncle said happily. "Apprentice! Take good note of it later!"

"Yes, sensei;" Tohru said as he started to fill small flask with the liquid.

"Uncle? What is this... _thing_?" Jackie asked, pointing to the potion.

"Apprentice had a wonderful idea!" Uncle said with happiness.

"It was more a theory than an idea," Tohru replied, humble as ever. "In Japan, confronting Tarakudo, I charged an onion with chi and used it to harm him. It worked perfectly, since according to old Japanese tales, Oni are vulnerable to onions. So, if we could make an elixir or potion based on onions and that could conduct chi with efficiency…"

"We could get a very useful weapon against Oni!" Uncle practically cheered, rising his arms up. "Haha! Apprentice will one day be an excellent Chi Wizard!"

"What about the other Masks?" Jackie asked.

"We have the removal spell for the one Hak Foo is wearing ready," Tohru explained to him. "And the Hana Fuda cards directed us to a new one, this one on San Francisco. We called Captain Black, and it's already under his possession, just like the one that holds General Uta imprisoned. We also prepared a spell for that one, this time based upon Japanese rice, just in case."

"Then…" Jackie said, leaving the two paper bags containing his groceries over the kitchen's table. "I think I will go and take a shower," the archeologist said, exiting the kitchen. However, before he could even get near the bathroom, the doorbell rang.

"Jackieeeeee!" he heard Uncle from the kitchen. "Answer dooooor!"

Sighing, the martial artist headed towards the flat's entrance. Opening the door revealed someone he wasn't expecting at all that day. After all, this was just the third day, and they had said they would be out for five.

"Will?"

In the doorframe, accompanied by the greenish dwarf that was Blunk the Passling; the redhead raised her eyes from her shoes towards the man in front of her. She was wearing the same civilian clothing she had gone to Meridian with, in her human form. But her face didn't look normal at all, the way she looked at Jackie, those eyes were showing guilt, sorrow, despair. Something had happened. And the fact that she wasn't the girl whose return from another world he was waiting for made an alarm to ring inside Jackie's head.

"We… we won;" the girl said, slowly. "But… but Jade…"

"What?!" Jackie reacted almost automatically, grabbing the girl by her arms and pulling her near him. "What happened to Jade?! Where is she?!"

Will looked heartbroken at the man, at the clear anguish in his eyes. If she could have given him an answer, be it good or bad… but she couldn't. Instead, she let out a phrase out of her mouth that was even more devastating for the man.

"I don't know."

* * *

 ** _Across the Veil; Meridian; Unknown Location_**

Tharquin inhaled deeply, and then he couldn't refrain from sneezing. Dust was everywhere in this old, wrecked place, they had been riding all night to reach it; and his body was old, even if it hurt to admit it. He hadn't come to this place since the old days, since he was Captain of the Guard of Queen Weira, so of course it was full of dust and dirt, and if he had to be sincere, he didn't like it very much. A small edification built underground, using a preexisting cave as a base to build the hideout; that was where he was standing right now. He hated the Usurper and the monsters he had called to his side with all his soul, but he had to admit that Phobos had made his crusade… somehow easier. Back in the days of Queen Weira, or even in the last days of the reign of her mother, Queen Arianne; when Tharquin had first become Captain of the Guard… Oh, how incredibly tiresome had been to pursue his crusade back then; especially under the old Queen Arianne. Her daughter had been much easier to avoid, but the Usurper's grandmother had been like some kind of all seeing creature that for some reason didn't see the sacred goal of his crusade as something that should be pursued at all cost. A part of Tharquin still thought that she had given the post of Captain of the Guard to him just to maintain him and his followers under the range of her magic blasts. But Arianne had died and Weira had ascended to the throne, and that had made Tharquin's sacred task easier… but not so much. He had needed to resort to this place, conducting judgment against the abominations in secret, only helped by the light a bunch of torches and candles provided.

But once the Usurper had killed his mother and the nobility had sided with him… oh, how much joy had the birth of the Rebellion inspired in the Old Worm! No more hiding, no more shame! Not only that, but the rebels had provided him with a new legion of followers! And the fact that a filthy Beast was the tyrant's right hand man guided their hearts in the right direction. But then Julian had disappeared, Caleb had taken command over him (what was the Mage thinking there? was she blind to the fact that he was the one with the more experience?) and then the Guardians had appeared.

And with them, the Wolf. The Beast. And the Rebellion cheered for her, laughed with her, fought with her! Well, the youngest part of it did, at least. And that… that he would not tolerate, he could not tolerate! Younger generations were the future! Who would keep fighting the crusade if not them? How could they fight it if they considered the abominations their friends? The scars on his back itched again as he remembered his father's lessons. No, he won't tolerate it. He won't permit it! But Alistair Tharquin wasn't an idiot. He knew that just killing the Wolf would be stupid. She was still well respected by the Rebellion; she was a friend of the Guardians of Kandrakar, for the Light's sake! No, just killing the Beast wouldn't change anything… in fact; it could transform her into a martyr. Fortunately he had ways to make sure that everyone remembered how vicious a Beast could be.

He approached a table in the hideout, checking the substances in flasks that were over it. "Is everything ready?" he asked.

"Yes, sir;" one of his underlings, one of the few that hadn't been tricked, answered. "The girl has been secured, but she's still unconscious…"

"Don't dare to refer to that thing as a girl!" Tharquin suddenly yelled, scaring his follower. Then he pointed to the flasks. "Mix them in the order I told you and pour them in the three barrels of water over there. Then bring one of them into the room and go stand guard with the others. I don't want anyone disturbing me, unless to bring me another barrel, or if there is an attack, understood?"

"Y-yes, sir;" the man answered meekly.

"Good," Tharquin said. "And it's not sir anymore. It's Lord. Lord Alistair Tharquin, Paladin of the Light of Meridian, and Destroyer of all Beasts!" The Old Worm picked a whip and a small dagger with a curved blade that was dripping a black substance; and ventured into the deepest part of the hideout. The sound of chains awaited him. Ah good. She had woken up just in the perfect moment.

* * *

 ** _Jade_**

"Ugh… my head…"

Jade had never been under the effects of a hangover before, but considering some of the descriptions of the thing she had heard before, she supposed this was how it must felt. Her tongue and mouth were dry, and her body weighted a ton. She tried to remember, where was she before?

 _Let's see... C'mon head, remember! I was on that city, then a fight, then a spear, then nothing, then the creepy lady in that red room, then nothing again..._

She tried to move, but she couldn't. She looked around and tried to adjust her eyes to her surroundings. There was such low light... just a couple of torches that didn't do the best work of the world into illuminating what seemed to be some kind of small room. There was almost nothing of relevance, just a wooden chair in front of a wooden door that, considering the lack of natural light and thus windows, was the only entrance (and therefore exit) of the room. She tried to move again, to no avail. Only then she discovered that her feet weren't touching the ground, and that her arms were over head and she was unable to lower them. The sound that accompanied each of her movements made easier to discover what had happened.

Chains. Chains and shackles, actually. Shackles around her wrists, around her ankles, even a big one around her neck. And that wasn't the worst thing. No, the worst thing was that she was practically naked. Her bra and panties were still on, but the meridianite dress that she had been given was now almost torn to shreds. Well, only one reaction could be expected in this situation.

 _Shit_ , she thought. She tried to call upon her chi, but her magic didn't seem to be willing to give her nothing else than an augmentation of her current headache. _Shit, shit, shit!_

The wooden door opened wide then, letting more light in. Jade got blinded for a second, then the door closed. Jade's teeth grinded as her nose recognized the smell of the person that had just walked in and her mind was able to put two and two together. Her eyes narrowed at the newcomer, and her words were said as if acid accompanied them.

"Tharquin..."

The Old Worm ignored her venom-dripping word and just sat down quietly in the wooden chair. Jade noticed that he was missing the armor he usually wore and any other of his usual clothing. He was just wearing one of those brownish, dirty shirts and a pair of old trousers that commoners usually were dressed in. It really emphasized how old the man really was, now that she was forced to look at him for more than a minute. Only then she fell in the account that he was looking at her too. She hadn't complained about how her body had started to enthusiastically hit puberty at twelve thanks to her transformation into a Shapeshifter, frankly, she enjoyed the fact that her bust and rear were finally developing and gaining some volume, especially considering that now she hanged out with people with chests like Irma's or legs like Cornelia's. Right now, with Tharquin staring at her almost naked body... she wasn't pleased in the slightest.

"You awakened before than estimated," the old rebel said in a cold tone.

Jade tried to regain some of her composure. She stopped struggling against her chains and let her (still hurting) head to work. It didn't take a genius to know what was happening there. Especially considering some of the rumors she had heard about the Old Worm from other rebels and the glares he shot towards her each time they saw each other.

"Tch. And silly me here thinking for a second that I got my ass captured by that Princey again..." Jade said sarcastically. "And it was you;" Jade's eyes shot sparks of fury towards the old rebel and she showed her teeth, transformed in fangs. "What is your damn problem, man?!"

"You should refrain from shifting into your Beast form," Tharquin stated, not paying the smallest attention to her threat. "The shackle around your neck is made of a brand of iron resilient enough to choke you before you get to transform completely."

"Tell me what I'm doing here, you...!" Jade shouted, but Tharquin ignored her again. He rose from the chair, pulled out a dagger dripping some black, viscous liquid, and cut her in the arm.

"Agh! You sick...! Ugh... w-what's go..." the world became a blurry mass of colors then, and even the little light that the torches gave started to disappear.

"A part of me feels," she heard Tharquin's voice as she felt in the clutches of Morpheus once again; "that you are not at fault here. That your current condition is just the result of the unholy machinations of the Usurper's Archmage. That you are a victim. But how you embraced it, how you indulged on it, how you boasted of it... And how everyone reacted to it. ' _Jade Chan! The Good Wolf! Jade! Jade!_ ' How much I hated that... and it is your fault. You spread sin. And it is the holy duty of a Paladin to exterminate sin. And when we are done, everyone will remember that you are nothing but a filthy Beast;" Jade heard the sound of a whip against the ground and then darkness took a hold of her; "and Jade Chan shall disappear."

* * *

 ** _Jade's inner world; Lady Báthory's Red Room_**

"Back so soon, my reincarnation?" Elizabeth Báthory asked with half a smirk in her face, head tilted and resting over her hand, her elbow over one of her throne's armrests.

"Can someone please explain what's going on?" Jade, at least dressed here in her usual civvies, her new orange hoodie included; asked tiredly.

"Ah, and she brings new questions;" the woman said. "Fantastic."

Jade rolled her eyes. She was quite adept at sarcasm, but she hadn't been able to discern if the woman in front of her was being serious or joking.

"Well, some answers cannot do any harm;" Báthory stated. Her voice was so soft that Jade had to make a great effort just to hear her. "Grigori used to come with questions too, when he first awakened as our reincarnation; though his were more in line with how to please and control the Tsarina, and how survive almost anything. Anyway, I think it is pretty obvious that you have been captured. I suppose the next one will revolve around how you have been captured, won't it?"

Jade narrowed her eyes at the Countess and thought for a few seconds, recalling what had happened for her. That spear and that dagger... "He drugged me," the girl said.

"Indeed. And more importantly, whatever poisons he used seem to be interceding with your ability to use Chi Magic properly. Then again, it is miraculous that you continue alive with all the substances elder men have been able to inject into your system;" Báthory said calmly. "You have now found explanation to the 'How'. But that is not the only reason, child. Your next question should be the most important one. Why?"

Yeah, that was a good one. Why was she in this situation? Jade made an effort to think of a plausible explanation, but of all the reasons she could imagine in order to give reason to Tharquin's actions, there was only one that came to mind.

"He wants to… kill me?" Jade said, looking down at the red floor. "Because… because I am a Shapeshifter?"

Báthory clapped her hands. "Bravo. But it must be something else, either you would be dead already. And now that you have the 'Why' of your captor, what is yours?"

"What do you mean with that?" Jade asked of the woman. She didn't have time for this! If Tharquin was trying to kill her, then she needed to find a way to escape, transform and kick that creep's ass so hard…

The half-smirk disappeared from the Countess' face then, and she discarded the relaxed posture in exchange of a much tenser one. "Now that is exactly the problem here, my young reincarnation. All that 'kick ass' and 'being awesome' and or 'cool', or whatever gibberish your generation uses in order to address battle. You should quit it, because it is what brought you where you are standing now."

 _Oh right, no private thoughts here…_ Jade thought for a moment. "Wait, what do you mean with that? I'm here 'cause that Tharquin madman captured me! He poisoned me and…!"

"And he was able to poison you because?" the Countess interrupted her. "Tharquin wasn't even at your side in battle, Rhouglar was. There is a huge possibility of them having struck a deal against you. And the worst part is that, according to your memories, you knew how dangerous they could be, especially Tharquin. Did you take precautions, did you prepare for the strike that would certainly come? No you didn't. You acted like a fool, an idiot rushing to battle without thinking about the consequences. The only reason that spear ended encrusted on you was because you wanted to be the first one reaching the enemy lines, isn't it right?"

Jae frowned, her fists clenching. She looked the woman directly in the eye. "So what about it? I've been always the little one, the one everyone worried about and the one they left behind! With the Dark Hand, with Shendu, with this whole Meridian business! And what I finally can get in their level, what?! You call me out for it, you tell me it's my fault I got captured?!"

"Yes," the woman answered in her soft voice. "I do understand your feelings, I do understand your desire; but to rush into battle without thinking can only lead to one's premature demise. Look at what happened to Grigori, back in the day. For all his manipulations, all his charisma and tricks… he grew confident in the spells I designed and taught him, and he accepted that invitation that lead to his doom. Not even all the spells he casted over himself or all the potions he drank saved him. The poison and the bullets would have ended damaging him after a while, and not even a mind like his could foresee that the ice wasn't thick enough to walk over. Russia's greatest love machine, they used to calm him;" Báthory chuckled dry and sarcastically. "Killed by a cold bath, how unsightly pathetic;" the Countess' eyes turned towards Jade. "Is that how you want to be remembered? As the Wolf that howled strong but at the end couldn't bite?"

Jade closed her eyes for a moment and breathed slowly. Had… had she been acting like an idiot? But what was wrong to being like that? Not an idiot, of course she didn't considerate herself such; but what was wrong with enjoying fights? Jackie fought, the girls fought, Uncle and Tohru fought... and now she did too! What was wrong with celebrating it?

"There is nothing wrong with celebrating your newfound strength; I myself used to break walls childishly during my first weeks after awakening as a Ben-Shui reincarnation," Báthory explained. "But that is not how you win a war. A war isn't won like that; it isn't even fought like that. A war is fought in your mind, over the tables in which strategies are designed, by scheming and manipulating. You do not use all of your strengths all at once; you hide them and use each of them when it suits you."

"Why are you telling me this?" Jade asked, tilting her head and letting her black bangs of hair to fell to a side thanks to the gravity. At least gravity still made sense inside her. "What do you get out of this?"

A complete smile formed in the Countess' lips this time. "I was waiting for this question in particular. I gain by this exactly the same that I gained when I helped the curious Rasputin in his young days and misadventures in the Tsar's court. I'm able to make a point. That we are not just another step in a circle of reincarnation; that we are not just another faceless hero against the darkness; and that we have names that should be remembered through history due to our greatness. I don't want those foolish men serving Phobos to talk about a Black Wolf; I want them to talk about Jade Chan in the same way Earth talks about Norton, Rasputin, Dracul or myself. Be a hero or be a monster, which one I don't care, but don't be just a memory."

Jade didn't say anything for an entire minute. Then she broke the visual connection with the woman in front of her. "I just want to help my friends. Isn't that what everyone wants? I don't want them getting hurt, I don't want them crying… I don't want to lose them, and be alone again." Báthory's smile widened upon sensing how the strength in the child's voice grew. "And I want to see each world this universe has! And I want to learn magic, and see that excuse of a Prince that Phobos was, rotting in a cell for the rest of his life for what he did to Will and me!"

"Those cannot be done if you are dead, right?" Báthory said, and for the first time, she got up from her throne. "Come then. I have such sights to show you…"

* * *

 ** _Dreaming…_**

"Freedom! Freedom! Freedom!"

For thirteen long years, the Capital's palace, the Castle that had housed the Queens of Escanor for generations; had known only darkness and thorns. But those days, those somber days had finally ended! And as the yells intensified, the gates of the palace fell down, and the Rebellion entered bravely in the dark building.

"Freedom! Freedom! Freedom!"

And oh, how glorious they were! The sun of midday reflected upon their golden armor and blades, and the light returned to the Castle of Escanor as they marched through its halls!

"Freedom! Freedom! Freedom!"

And there he was, commanding and sword in high. Caleb, son of Julian; leader of the Rebellion, his blade shinning, his armor and helmet the most golden of them all!

"Freedom! Freedom! Freedom!"

And by his side, his companions, the new heroes of this world! Even his father, Julian, with the face clean saved, brown locks of hair as his son's tied into a ponytail; was there to fight, and he looked at his little boy with pride in his eyes. And Caleb's heart felt warmed. After all, what does a son desire but to be worthy of his father's approval?

And thus they charged, Caleb on the lead, brave and glorious, oh the mighty rebels! No minion from the tyrant, no monster or soldier was able to stand in their way! Frost? The brute conquered! Tracker? Only his clothing remained! Wong? A frail old man that didn't stood a chance! Cedric? He was now a mere piece of leather!

They ended reaching the throne room, where the darkness was darkest and the thorns were thickest. And there, in the Thorn Throne, sat Prince Phobos, the Usurper, bane of Meridian, garbed in robes of black and red, siphoning energy from their world as if was some sort of cosmic leech.

No moment was given for words to be said, Caleb was quick to jump towards the throne, golden sword in hand; and pierce the Usurper's torso and heart (if he had any) with his blade. Caleb turned around with a triumphal smile. Yes! Finally, the tyrant was gone!

But it wasn't gold or light what met with him. No, the golden armors and swords were gone. Instead, they had become red, brown or as black as charcoal. And the cheers of noble victory had become mocking laughter, the brave smiles snarls full of fangs more befitting of beasts than of people. At the feet of his not-so-honorable-anymore companions were the countless bodies of people. Not soldiers, not the Prince's monsters but... people, just people. Commoners, mainly, their faces contorted into grotesque expressions of horror, each wounded in one manner or the other, creating a carpet for the Rebellion to stomp upon.

"And this is what is supposed to bring my downfall? Ridiculous."

The rebel leader turned on his heels and was met by the sight of the tyrant, smiling at him smugly, the blade still nailed in his chest and yet alive.

"Perhaps I should have enlisted your help instead of the one of the Lurdens," the Prince mocked as he sat again in the Thorn Throne. "You seem much more comfortable with savagery than them."

Not wanting to hear any other word, the rebel leader took the hilt of his sword with anger and forced it upwards, splitting the tyrant's upper body in two vertical segments. Yet no blood or entrails came. Instead Phobos' broken body revealed another individual that seemed to have worn the body of the tyrant as a coat. And the throne changed too, the thorns replaced by barking and rabid dogs. And the Usurper became Rhouglar, the Mad Dog of the Rebellion.

"What's wrong, commander? Why the long face?" the Mad Dog asked, emitting a disturbing laughter. "You won! You killed the Escanor asshole; just in time to save our world! But you didn't kill me in time to save those women I used as I pleased, right? No!" the rapist laughed again. "In fact, the reason I got to rape so many of them, was thanks to you!"

"Shut your mouth!" Caleb yelled, punching the Mad Dog across the face. The visage of his former underling cracked as if it was weak stone, and fell revealing the one of Viscount Roderick Servantis; the dogs around the throne becoming members of Torus Filney's Shields, except their armors were broken, and only skeletons were inside of them.

"Look at what you did to me!" the nobleman yelled with a sorrowful expression. "Did my wife deserved what your bloodhound did to her, did my city deserve you sacking it?!"

Caleb didn't find an answer, instead standing still in the place he was. The Viscount threw his head back, and his face broke in shards like Rhouglar's had done. When the head rose again, the Shields had become a bunch of blue roses, and the ones staring at him were the almost completely black eyes of Charles Ludmoore.

"I told you that there was more to this war than a bunch of teenagers playing heroes, didn't I?" Ludmoore asked in his usual cold, emotionless tone; the golden dots that served as his eyes' pupils practically piercing through Caleb's skull. "And how did you name me? Opportunistic, greedy for not serving your Rebellion, King Smuggler… and what is the alternative? That one?" the man asked, pointing ahead.

Something grabbed Caleb's ankle then, and he was forced to turn towards his army once again. Several of the corpses from the floor were crawling up the stairs to the throne, and one of them had grabbed Caleb. Unable to resist, the rebel leader was dragged away from the throne towards the mass of bodies.

"How could you do this to us?!" the mass of bodies spoke in unison. "We believed in you! And you made us cry! You made us bleed! You made us die! What happened to the promises of freedom and peace?! We also wanted to see the castle to be bright again; we also wanted to go back to our homes!"

"I didn't want to! I just wanted to help!" Caleb told the mass of bodies taking him down. He tried to lift his sword, but he couldn't; it was too heavy. He found his arms shorter, his body lighter… and smaller, way smaller. He found himself being just a tiny, little boy again, and his sword was too heavy for him to lift.

"I'm sorry!" the green eyed boy cried, tears falling from his green eyes as a corpse's hand grabbed his brown hair and pulled from it. "You can't come with me to the castle! You… you all are already dead! I'm sorry! I'm sorry, I swear!"

"Is that an apology?" Ludmoore asked as his face broke, revealing the visage of the Mage. "Apologies won't bring the dead from their graves;" the Ancient One spoke in her whispering voice, her face cracking and revealing Caleb's own. He sat in the throne, and the thorns grew back. And as the younger Caleb was submerged in a sea of lifeless arms, he looked at his older self. "Then again, why should we apology? We are fighting for the greater good! For freedom!"

"Freedom! Freedom! Freedom!"

The throne he was sitting in was the very same as the Prince's. And as a rotten arm took Caleb around the head and blinded him, the face cracked and broke one last time, revealing the one of Phobos again, smiling smugly as if nothing had affected him.

Nothing had changed.

* * *

 ** _Torus Filney_**

"No!"

Caleb woke up covered in cold sweat; dressed in nothing but the pair of pants he usually used on Meridian. Breathing heavily, he put his hands over his face and tried to calm down. The images of the nightmare were still fresh, practically engraved with fire in the back of his eyes. He started to breath slower and slower, until he was sure he wouldn't be having a heart attack.

He was in a room in the Viscount's tower, or he supposed it was the rebellion's tower now; lying on a bed that he didn't know to whom exactly had belonged before. He doubted it was of the Viscount, it was too small; but perhaps of a servant or a high-ranked soldier of the city? The bed was accompanied by only a small closet and a little, handmade construction holding a pile full of water for the owner to wash himself. It probably belonged to a servant and not to the Viscount or his… he stopped his mind, he didn't need to think about that right now.

He got up from the bed and approached the pile of water, washing his face. He winced slightly as his fingers happened to touch a certain part of it. Touching his face with more caution, he discovered that the wound the Viscount had inflicted upon his face was still there, not fully healed but in the process of becoming a scar. Sephiria had offered to heal it the day before, but he had ordered her to save the Viscount's life instead, an order she had carried out albeit a bit confused. But the Viscount and... and his wife, much less harmed in body but considerably more in mind; were thoughts for another moment.

 _It's true_ , the rebel leader thought as he put his robes on. His body was hurting, the battle had left him incredibly tired and Drake and Sephiria had forced him to sleep in order prevent him from fainting out of exhaustion. _Right now, the priority is Jade_.

He exited the small room and searched for the stairs. As he walked, sounds started to fill his ears. The Rebellion, albeit many had retreated to the Infinite City either to be healed or to bring more help, was still in the city, organizing itself to fully occupy it and use it as their secondary base of operations. Cornelia had repaired the broken wall, and Torus Filney had her armor back... but the body was a whole different story. The streets were empty, houses and buildings burned until the only thing that remained of them was either their scorched wooden silhouettes or simple ashes. As such, rebels wandered from one point to another, and the ones who weren't working were either biding their time or dedicating their effort to more... profitable deeds.

"Hey, why the heck did ya' pick this stuff?" Caleb heard a rebel speak. He stopped near the corner of a hall, gazing carefully in order to not get caught. They were two rebels, carrying a large box from which half opened top fabrics of numerous colors could be seen. "We ain't gettin' anything for these dresses!"

"You idiot!" shouted the other one. "These are the dresses of the Lady Iahol! They're made of silk, they must worth a fortune! And they were the only thing left behind. The others must've got to the jewels before us."

"So what do ya' want to do?" intervened the other one. "Sell 'em to a Passling?"

"Why don't we contact that Ludmoore guy?" the other rebel intervened. "See, Gareth told me the other day, you make deals with him. You give him something, he gives you something. Gareth just talked with him and..."

Caleb stopped listening and continued his way. A part of him was infuriated for what he had listened and ought to punish those men for their dishonorable behavior. However, he knew that even if this was his first time hearing this conversation, it wasn't the first time it (or one very similar) was spoken. But he hadn't heard it, or perhaps he had not wanted to hear. Did he have the right to call them out on their wrong?

' _And you act as if this surprised you now?! Now?! Ha! Don't be such an imbecile!_ '

No, he supposed he didn't.

* * *

"Are you sure you are alright?" Drake asked of Caleb once he had arrived at their meeting point, the chamber that now housed a frozen Sandpit. It was the best spot, a point near the entrance to the Infinite City and that was inside Torus Filney per se. It eased communication. Four Guardians were there too, albeit in different points of the place. Taranee was leaning against a wall, looking at the ceiling, arms crossed over her chest; clearly angry at him. Both Irma and Hay Lin were sitting at the edge of the hole that used to be Sandpit's 'home'. Hay Lin was looking somberly at the bottom, where the frozen remnants of the monstrosity lied, and Irma was swinging her legs in the air. The only one standing completely was Cornelia, a few feet away from Drake. All four of them were back in their human forms and someone had had the decency of bringing their earthling clothing back from the Infinite City. "You could still go to Sephiria."

"No," Caleb answered bluntly. "Sephiria is needed with the truly wounded. Where is Aldarn?"

"In charge of... securing the commoners," Drake answered, not very sure of which word use to refer to it.

 _You mean of imprisoning them_ ; Caleb thought. That had been what had hit him the hardest. Upon reaching the chamber that housed the smallfolk of the city and opening it, Caleb hadn't expected for them to react the way they did. They had yelled, they had cursed them and their ancestors' names, and some of the oldest children had even tried to attack them. So the Rebellion had to resort to other means in order to deal with them.

And so they had been imprisoned in cells in the Infinite City, bars of energy provided by the Mage containing them. The Viscount had been put in one too, alone. They were fed three times a day, but the cleaning of the cells was proven as a harder task. Just like when he had been imprisoned. Just like Phobos did with the innocents. The only ones out were that Vera woman and her whores, their freedom payment for them helping the rebels into Torus Filney; and the Viscountess, just because she needed to be fed by another in order to eat properly.

"Has there been any progress?" the rebel leader asked.

Drake shook his head. "I have my men scouting, but Tharquin knows how to cover his tracks."

 _Damn it_ , Caleb thought. They had spent almost the whole previous night searching for her, but she hadn't appeared. That, together with the fact that Tharquin and his little troupe of fervent Shapeshifter-hating followers had disappeared didn't leave a lot of options to think about. "What about Will?"

"She went with Blunk searching a Portal;" Cornelia told him. "To bring Jackie here, I think."

 _And he will probably kill me_ , Caleb thought. "We should go back to the Infinite City," the rebel leader said. "Maybe the Mage can help us with this."

No one said a word. They just started to move towards the tunnels. Taranee delayed herself a bit, and took Caleb by the shoulder. As the Guardians of Earth, Water and Air started to walk down the tunnel leading to the Infinite City, the Fire Guardian was left alone with Caleb and Drake.

None of them said a word for an entire minute. Then Taranee broke the silence, at least.

"Why didn't you tell us about the guns?"

The question lingered in the air for a few seconds. Caleb put his hands inside the pockets of his brownish and old long jacket and walked a couple of steps.

"Aldarn and I, along the Mage;" Caleb began; "bought the weapons, the guns as you call them; from a man named Chang. It was the day Ludmoore put that Mask Lothar wore on sale." Caleb stopped walking. "That Chang man... we didn't want to walk out of that meeting with our hands empty, and I suppose he took advantage of it."

"You're avoiding my question," Taranee told him. Caleb, in response, just shook his head and continued his speech.

"When we used them for the first time," the rebel leader continued. "I saw what they could do. You would need an incredibly thick armor to stop those bullets, as Chang called them. They could kill a man in an instant, and they have. And then I remembered how you fight, how you do things. In all those encounters with Phobos' forces, you never went for the fatal blow. You just immobilized the enemy, wound them at most. We need this city; else we would have been trapped in an endless cycle of small attacks against Phobos, unable to make any progress in this war, with or without your help. The guns have given us... the power to make a real difference."

"And in order to make that difference;" Taranee retorted "innocent people had to die? A woman had to be..." the Fire Guardian's voice trembled; "raped? Didn't you learn anything from what happened with Raythor? There should've been another way. There must be."

"I'm not very sure about that."

Both Caleb and Taranee's eyes turned towards Drake, the blond rebel looking down the pit that occupied most of the chamber. His eyes were fixated upon the frozen form of Sandpit. A proper bandage had been put around his injured leg, albeit he walked with normalcy now.

"Taranee," the blond rebel addressed the Fire Guardian, in what seemed to be the first time he referred to her with her name and not as Fire Guardian, Guardian or something like that. "I can understand how you feel, considering how young you are and this must have been the first battle you were in and that could be called really a battle. But no matter how you look at it, this is a war, and those guards and soldiers would have killed you if given the opportunity. If I understood correctly what Cornelia told me, then the man that Will killed was trying to kill her too. Of course, this doesn't mean that the guards, soldiers or the rest of men serving Phobos are monsters, sans some exceptions; or that Rhouglar's actions are just collateral damage."

"But…" Taranee began, but Drake interrupted her, his eyes nailing in hers.

"But what?" the blond rebel asked. "You don't want to dirty your hands; you don't want to trouble your mind? Then sorry, but this is a rebellion. This is what rebellions do. Soak our hands in dirt and blood so others have them clean in the future, in order to raise something better from the mud. Yes, there must have been another way in the past, but now? We have been in this war for thirteen years, Taranee."

The Fire Guardian didn't retort to those words. She couldn't, they were, once again; logical. Her mind told her the blond rebel's explanation had sense, even if it was a cruel one. Yes, that crocodile Shapeshifter had been trying to kill her; that was true. But did it mean that he deserved to die? It was all so confusing… And jade was still the priority. Where was she? What was Tharquin planning to do with her? So instead of continuing with a discussion that could last for hours, the black girl just followed in the steps of her three companions. "I'm not a weapon;" Taranee said to them. "Not me, not my friends. I'm not a killer."

"No one said that you were," Drake told her, even if she didn't turn around this time. "But sometimes, there is no other option than kill or be killed. It may be cruel, but it's true. That doesn't mean their lives worth less than ours. Try no to not forget them. Don't forget them, their names or faces;" Drake's eyes fell once again over the pit of the frozen sand monster. "I doubt they would forget yours."

The Fire Guardian disappeared out of sight, leaving the rebel leader and the member of the Small Council alone.

"Drake," Caleb called for his fellow rebel then. "Tell me, have I been a fool? Is this… all product of my poor leadership? In what did I fail? I just wanted to…"

"Be a hero?" Drake asked. "Heroes and villains are things of the tales and songs of long past. You, and your father before you; all of you had the best of intentions; there is no doubt about that. But you called to your side every person willing to fight against the tyranny, and justified each one of their movements by telling them that they were the only ones fighting for good, and that left the door open for men like Rhouglar and Tharquin. I suppose your father and the Mage only let them in due to pragmatism, but you just… thought that because they were on our side they were automatically well intentioned. An army made of thieves and killers will still be an army of thieves and killers, no matter how noble their goal. In fact, just because they fight by your side, it doesn't mean they have the same goal as you, or that they are noble. And the same can be said about Phobos' forces. Just because they fight for him, it doesn't mean they are as monstrous as him, Cedric, or Wong. Torus Filney needed to be taken for strategic reasons, but you must know by now that the smallfolk were safe under Servantis' care."

"And how am I supposed to know that?" Caleb asked, a bit enraged both with Drake and himself. "How am I supposed to tell the difference between a good man and a bad one?"

"You can't;" Drake answered cryptically and he walked in the same direction the Guardians had walked before. "But if you want to know better, why not ask the Viscount after we have found Jade? I bet he could provide you with some insight into how this war has really been working."

* * *

 ** _The Infinite City_**

Nerissa Crossnic hated surprises. She was a very skilled woman in the art of adapting to the unpredictable and taking advantage of the chaos that unpredictability caused, her current owning of the Dragon Talisman was proof of that. But this whole situation was getting out of her hands very quickly. As she stepped into the room she had designed to hold meetings of her Small Council, she noticed how now only two of its members (plus herself) were attending. Sephiria was still attending to the wounded; Aldarn was either looking over the prisoners or doing what God knows what, Rhouglar was dead (something that actually pleased her, the Mad Dog had really outlived his usefulness as of late, considering the Guardians and the Chan girl's presence) and Tharquin… Tharquin had dared to think himself a player when he was just a piece in the board, endangering her control over much more important and strong pieces by doing that. And now here she was, the fallen Keeper of the Heart; wearing her 'Mage' glamour and looking at the table shared by Drake, her boy, the current generation of Guardians, that Passling named Blunk and Yan Lin and her family relatives. According to a messenger that Caleb had sent before to report about the situation of Torus Filney, Will had gone to Earth in the company of that Passling in order to bring young Jade's uncle here, and the whole family had ended being dragged alongside him. And albeit her 'Mage' disguise didn't betray any emotion, Nerissa was feeling a mix of unpleasantness, nostalgia and curiosity behind it.

The situation of the room didn't seem any better than her mood, with the man she supposed to be Jackie Chan (a man in the middle of his thirties, and quite pleasant to the eye, albeit not in the same way as her Julian) practically roaring, desperate to know where his niece was and seemingly in the verge of simply jumping from his seat, running out of the Infinite City (if he encountered a way out, that's it) and willing to travel all Meridian by feet if that was necessary to find her. The rest of the attendants didn't seem any better or calmer than him. Nerissa had devised spells of her own in order to manipulate, control or just perceive negative emotions; based over years of investigations back at Kandrakar and under the late, real Mage's tutelage. The 'Chink in the Armor of your Soul' she called it. And right now she could see many of them, especially from her successor, sank in the chair she had been provided with, arms crossed over the Heart of Kandrakar, the jewel beating rhythmically over her chest, eyes narrowed and no word leaving her mouth.

 _Ah, they had finally reached that point, eh?_ ; the 'Mage' thought. _All people or armies reach a point in which they discover that those they are fighting and killing are no better or worse than themselves… and don't I know how much harm that can do to an individual's self-image_. Good, those emotionally hurt were easier to control. _And if things have progressed as I predicted and will progress in the same way, then I won't need any spell to turn this whole situation in my favor_. But first things first, the Wolf needed to be retrieved before the fool that Tharquin was could get rid of one of her pieces with more potential. She looked at the turmoil of negativity that the room was for a few more seconds and then stepped inside, making her presence clear.

"If I may," Nerissa spoke through her 'Mage' disguise, her voice the same whispering rough voice as the one of her late mentor. "Perhaps I can be of some assistance. But first we need to calm down."

The eyes of all the attendants turned in her direction. If there was something she appreciated the most about the stolen image of the Mage was that even beings of other worlds seemed to understand that this figure commanded respect. Even the worried beyond belief Jackie Chan stopped from asking questions and yelling, and stared at her.

"Great Mage," Yan Lin greeted her with a respectful bow that the 'Mage' matched.

"Former Guardian of Air," the 'Mage' answered her greeting. _Hello, former best friend who left me to rot in a cell for more than two decades. If not for the real Mage I would have died there, you know?_ Nerissa thought. Ah, those had been the hard times, imprisoned in the same location in where a stupid fit of rage had cost the life of her first love. The late Mage's intervention in her desires of redeem Nerissa had been the only thing that had saved the fallen Keeper of the Heart from madness born of isolation at Mount Thanos. An entire decade she had spent under the Ancient One's care, learning and planning. And then, albeit regrettably, she had killed the Mage and then supplanted her. At least the Mage had the consolation in her death that Nerissa had been able to see the bigger picture… except she had seen the real one. "And…" the 'Mage's tuned her head slightly towards the Chinese old man sitting only a seat away from Yan Lin. He hadn't risen up in order to greet her.

"This is my cousin, Lady Mage;" Yan Lin explained, not knowing that she was saying something that the 'Mage' already knew. "He is a great Chi Wizard from Earth. His apprentice, Tohru," she said pointing to the large man; "and his nephew, Jackie Chan."

 _So the boy who couldn't find the guts to ask Kadma out to prom night has finally become a real Chi Wizard_ ; Nerissa thought. _Interesting…_ "Greetings," the 'Mage' said.

"Hello," the old man answered bluntly. Nerissa chuckled in her mind; so many years and still the same manners.

"Has there been any progress finding young Jade?" the 'Mage' asked as she sat down at the table. _Let's focus on matters at hand_ , she thought. _If I lose that girl, I can bid farewell to the Guardians next, and this Rebellion cannot afford that now_.

"None;" Caleb answered sadly, making Jackie, now sat like the others to tighten his fists in pure impotence. "According to Drake, Tharquin made his men to split and depart in three different directions, riding over terrain where their footsteps are nearly impossible to follow."

 _Is that idiot thinking he can outthink me?_ Nerissa thought with anger.

"Then do something!" Jackie yelled, rising from his seat again. "Make a locator spell or something like that! You know this Tharquin, right? You must know where he is!"

"Nephew!" Uncle said in an authoritative tone. "Just yelling won't bring niece back. Sit down and let us think. We lost Jade before, remember? When she ended banished to the Netherworld alongside Bai Tza, and we got her back, didn't we?"

Yes that was true. But as Jackie sat down again, he also recognized how different this situation was from that one. For starters, Jade had been banished to the Netherworld alongside Bai Tza by accident, and Shendu's siblings hadn't known that the girl was there with them until she had been able to use that condition in her advantage. This time, however, she had been captured; which meant whoever this Tharquin was had purposely targeted her. But to what end?

"Why?" Jackie asked weakly. "What does Tharquin want of Jade?"

"Shapeshifters are not," the 'Mage' began; "the most well-liked amongst the races that populate Meridian. Through the centuries and millennia they have been seen as deceivers and backstabbers, a trait more befitting of their ancestors, the original Fair Folk, than of them. But a beautiful exterior that can shift into an animalistic being stronger than a dozen of soldiers, together with decades and decades of stories about how horrible they were... that creates men like Tharquin, obsessed with the idea of purity, obsessed about Shapeshifters being monsters, obsessed with... exterminating them." _What a bunch of fools, men like him. Just like Himerish, unable to see how useful some people can be just because they go against their 'sacred principles'_ ; Nerissa added in her thoughts, an image of a green skinned woman, lying dead on a floor of marble while a blonde mute boy whimpered over her corpse and a blue haired man yelling angrily at her for killing her flashing through her mind. _Isn't that right, Ari?_

While Nerissa was lost for a few seconds in her memories, Jackie stared at Caleb for the same amount of time. The boy's green eyes met with the ones of the archeologist. Those eyes were asking for an explanation, they needed one. He thought many but he only found truthful one: it was his fault. The raping, pillaging, the burning... Not the acts per se, but wasn't he the leader of the Rebellion? Wasn't he supposed to maintain control over them, wasn't he supposed to stop those acts before they had even begun?

 _But you knew, remember?_ a voice said inside his head. It sounded awfully familiar and yet unknown, like a mixture of many voices. His father's, Raythor's, Tristan's and his; all of them forming an amalgam inside his head. _You heard about what they did, and you thought of it as rumors. Lies of the tyrant, remember?_ And outside their minds, the conversation continued.

"Niece has very strong and intense chi," Uncle explained. How he could remain so calm in this situation was something that escaped the comprehension of many in the room. "Uncle and apprentice can make locator spell, but it will be veeeeery difficult with the immense amount of Raw Magic around this place."

Well, that was true. The walls of the Infinite City were charged of Raw Magic to an egregious limit. It made spell casting way easier, in Nerissa's opinion.

"If I dispel enough of that energy, wizard;" the 'Mage' said; "shall you be able to locate the girl?"

"Yes," Uncle answered, confident in his skills.

"Then we shall done that immediately;" the disguised Nerissa declared, rising from her seat. Seconds afterwards Uncle and Tohru did the same and followed her out of the room.

* * *

"Jackie?"

The archeologist had been the last one left in the room dedicated to hold meetings of the Rebellion's Small Council. He had just remained there, sitting in the chair that, just moments before, he couldn't remain in due to his restlessness. But now the adrenaline product of the worry, anger and another number of emotions that he wasn't so sure how to name was gone; leaving just the emotions. And that had tired him, greatly. How could he have been so stupid?! Letting Jade to go fight a war, to let children go fight wars?! Is that what Kandrakar did? Send children to do their dirty work? Only the voice of the redhead took him out of his trance.

"Will?" the man asked. "Has there been any...?"

"Tohru just told me that they will know where Jade is in a few minutes," the Keeper of the Heart told him.

Relieve coursed through him. Good, that meant that Jade was still alive. And that sudden boost of relieve made Jackie to focus on Will for a moment. The redhead looked incredibly tired too, or maybe the most appropriate word was beaten.

"Will?" Jackie asked of her before the Guardian could disappear again. "Will, can you please sit down?"

The redhead, slowly, sat at the table again. They both remained in silence for several moments, the only thing sounding the drumming of Will's fingers against the table.

"Will, what happened?" Jackie asked. "In that... mission Jade told me about."

"We won," Will said, fist clenching, visual contact breaking as she looked down. Jackie Chan may not be a genius or a child psychologist, but his martial arts training had given him some ability to red people's body language. He didn't like what he was seeing. "We won," the redhead admitted.

"Will, you know you can trust me;" Jackie told her. "But if you don't want to talk, then I can understand..."

"No," Will interrupted him. "I want to talk, but... we won. That's what matters right?"

"Will..."

"We won," Will sentenced, and looked up again. Her eyes were teary. "But... but... but..." Will started mumbling, struggling to finish the sentence. "But..." the girl breathed deeply, and the tears rolled down her cheeks.

"I killed a man," the girl cried, finally breaking down in tears.

Next thing she knew was that two arms were wrapped around her. Jackie was hugging her. It felt nice, it remembered her of how her father used to hug her back in Faden Hills, when she woke up from a nightmare or fell to the ground. Jackie didn't say a thing, he just kept holding her tight.

"I... I didn't want to;" the redhead said while crying. "B-But he w-w-was just over me, and he was gonna kill me, and... he was so angry at me!" Will paused for a few seconds dedicated to her sobbing. "Oh God, I killed him... and I don't even... don't even remember his name! And he had a brother and... And then that monster did that horrible thing to that woman and the fire and... Oh God, so many people..."

"Will, Will;" Jackie called for her, but the girl wasn't listening. "Will... I'm so sorry." The archeologist didn't know if he was comforting her or apologizing. After all, who had told her that you can't run away from all this things involving magic but him?

Jackie's thoughts stopped when Will's fingers gripped his blue pullover. The sobs had stopped. "I won't..." she said, calming down, her voice growing more confident. "I won't let it happen again. I won't, I swear. Not to me, not to Jade... or to any innocent I can save. Whatever it means, I will protect them. Whatever it takes."

The Heart beat strongly, and for the smallest of moments, Jackie could have sworn that alongside determination, he had seen sparks of lightning in her reddish eyes.

* * *

 ** _Jade's inner world; Lady Báthory's Red Room_**

"Excellent," the soft and whispery voice of Elizabeth Báthory echoed through the room she and Jade were now. Meters way from her, Jade had ended casting a spell that the Countess had designed years ago. "I must admit you are incredibly talented for this."

"Yeah, but I got Uncle and Tohru around casting spells all day;" Jade replied, her hands losing the intense color that the incantation had produced. "And you say you designed these… just by yourself?"

"Oh, our former incarnations provided enough guidance;" Báthory answered, walking a few steps. The old dress she was wearing covered the lower half of her body completely, and that combined with the fact her steps produced almost no sound gave the image of her levitating like some kind of phantom. "Then it was just a matter of using… imagination."

"You have some sick imagination then," Jade said, knowing perfectly she couldn't hide her thoughts from her past life. The comment, however, made the pale woman to put on that half-smile of hers again.

"You could say that," the pale woman declared. "But you do not gain a reputation just by playing nice, you already know that. Anyway, you still have doubts, don't you?"

Jade didn't answer, just looking at her side and letting out one of her characteristic 'Tch'; hands in her dream clothing. Báthory closed her eyes and let out a long sigh.

"And what will you do, if you do not follow my counsel?" Báthory asked. "Men like Tharquin are just parasites. They are what my mother used to call 'Waste of flesh'. If you don't proceed as I told you then… you will die. Do you want that?"

Jade kept silent for several seconds. "No," she finally said.

"Then you should know what must be done," Báthory told her. Then she looked around, the red of the walls, ceiling and floor starting to disappear. "It seems you are awakening again. I won't be able to help you out there, and remember; find his weaknesses, play unto them; in the moments he loses control he will commit an error. And you will won in that moment."

* * *

 ** _Tharquin's hideout_**

Jade awoke in a similar manner as she had done before, finding herself still prisoner of those chains and shackles, her head hurting, albeit less than her first awakening in this damned place. However, there was one, enormous difference.

She was _thirsty_. Not thirsty in the same way you are after running for a few kilometers or after a training session in some sport, or as you are in a hot day… she was thirsty as if she had been running, non-stop in the dessert, while dressed with winter clothes. And it was getting worse by the minute.

"Do you want to drink?" she heard the dry voice of Alistair Tharquin. Looking ahead she saw the Old Worm, still sitting in the chair from before. However, a barrel had been placed at his side. A barrel full of water… that smelled incredibly weird. As weird as that dagger she had cut her with before.

Tharquin took a wooden bowl from the floor and filed it with the water. Then he approached Jade and put the bowl in front of her face. "Go ahead, Beast. Drink."

Jade looked at the bowl for seconds that seemed like an eternity. Her nose was yelling at her brain that the water was filled to the brim with drugs or whatever equivalent of drugs Meridian had. But she was so damn thirsty! She fought against her instincts for around three minutes… and then she drank the entire bowl.

The water poured down her throat and relieved her out of her thirst… and then the world started to spin violently. Her head started to hurt incredibly, and albeit the thirst was finally gone, now it had been replaced by something way worse. The pain was unbearable! It felt as if her skull was going to break in two!

 _That should do it for now_ , Tharquin thought as he retired the emptied bowl from her mouth. _She should become thirsty again after a few hours. Now…_ "Who are you? Tell me your name, Beast."

Beast, Beast, Beast… why did he keep calling her that? She wasn't a beast, she was a… a… what was she? A girl, a Ben-Shui Chosen One or a Shapeshifter? She was… she was… "I…" it hurt a lot to talk, the pain multiplied tenfold when she talked. "I'm Jade Chan…"

"No, you are not!" Tharquin suddenly shouted as he approached her. He put his wrinkled, wet and cold hands over her cheeks and forced her head to look at him. His expression, eyes wide opened and face twisted in a strange grimace; was nightmarish. Or maybe it was the drugs twisting her vision. "You are a Beast, a filthy Beast."

"I'm not. I'm Jade," the girl repeated, and for a few seconds she was able to see pure anger in Tharquin's eyes. Perhaps the plan of her creepy past life wasn't so hard to work with. "I am me. I'm Jade Chan."

"You are a Beast," Tharquin continued to say. "Don't you understand? You need to disappear so Meridian can shine. As a Paladin and defender of humanity, is my sacred duty to exterminate all of you, so the purity of this world can be preserved. And when we are ended, everyone will see how much reason I have. Because once I'm done with you, you will embrace your true nature, and you will show all of them the monster that you are."

Tharquin turned around and started to fill the bowl again. She needed to drink more, even if he had to force the poisoned water down her throat. Yes, that had always been his modus operandi. He would capture a Beast and then feed it with the poisons his father had passed down to him. The subsequent torture would break their sense of individuality and personality, forcing them to reveal their savage and real selves. Then he would kill some of them, but sometimes he let some free in the wild, in order to make Meridian remember why these creatures were monsters. His family had been doing that for generations. One day, one of his men had asked him if he had ever seen a Shapeshifter attack against the smallfolk that he hadn't provoked by turning one of the Beasts he had captured into a rabid monster. The man had been quickly killed. He didn't need unfaithful followers.

"H-Hypo…" Jade's voice came from behind. "Hypocrite," she called him.

"What?" Tharquin asked. "What did you call me?"

"I called you… hypocrite;" Jade said, narrowing her eyes at the man, aggression clearly seen in them. "You… you aren't human yourself. You're just like Raythor, or Aldarn, one of those half-breeds… you're just the same as a Shapeshifter."

"How dare you?!" Tharquin asked offended, approaching Jade and pulling from her hair. "Don't you dare compare me with creatures like you!"

"But you're a half-breed;" Jade continued to rub in the wound. Ah, just like Báthory said, she had found a weakness to be exploited. "What's wrong? The other noble kids treated you bad 'cause your daddy slept with a Galhot lady? Don't blame him, though. Have you seen those green skinned babes? They look gorgeous…"

"Silence!" Tharquin shrieked, slapping her strongly across the face. "You know nothing! About! My father!"

Tharquin let her go and walked away from her, picking the whip that patiently waited at the side of the chair. For a moment, Jade thought he was going to start whipping her. However, he took his own shirt of, back turned towards her. And in that back, Jade saw an innumerable amount of scars, covering all the skin he had there. And he started to whip himself, opening new wounds that would heal and become more scars.

"I am a pious meridianite; I am a pious meridianite…" Tharquin repeated with each hit. And in those hits, in each of those blows… Jade saw a boy. A boy even younger than her, dragged against his will by the severe hand of his father. And then the father would beat him with the same whip he was using now, forcing to repeat the mantra over and over again, until the boy believed it with his entire soul. Compassion towards that boy grew inside of Jade's heart.

And then that compassion died when the boy's older counterpart turned the whip towards her.

* * *

 ** _Hours later_**

"How much longer?!" Will, flying across the skies of Meridian with the other four Guardians, asked. They had been searching for hours, and thank goodness there was another entrance to the Infinite City near here, else they would have lasted more. Tharquin must had forced his men to ride all day and night in order to came here.

In the ground, a cart pulled by two horses that were guided by Caleb and Drake and that contained Tohru, Jackie and Uncle, the latter holding one of his blowfishes imbued in green chi magic; was travelling in the girls' same direction with a speed matching theirs; moving across the land as best as it could. Wherever Tharquin had taken Jade, he had taken her far away from Torus Filney, since they had left the barren the city was in far behind and they were now almost out of Meridian's medium ring, the dried grounds around the great city becoming ones of dark green grass. Contrary to all expectations, however; Tharquin had rode towards the center of the kingdom instead of the outer ring.

Uncle moved his blowfish to the left and the glow that came from it intensified.

"Not much!" the elder yelled. "Over there!" he said pointing in the direction the blowfish had shinned strongest. It was just a small rock formation, no bigger than a hill. And there was an orifice on it that travelled down below. A cave.

The five girls flew down while Caleb made the horses and thus the cart to stop. Uncle dismounted with his apprentice's help and approached the cave's entry, blowfish pointing towards it and brightening with each step he gave towards it. Jackie, Tohru, the girls and the two rebels were just behind him.

"There she is," the elderly Chi Wizard declared. "Niece is inside this cave. We must proceed with carefulness!"

"Cornelia;" Will called for the blonde. "Inspect the terrain."

The blonde nodded and then kneeled in order to smash her hands against the ground. Eyes closed, she seemed in deep concentration. "Tunnels, more tunnels, a very big cave with smaller caves around..." she said; "furniture. And people;" the Earth Guardian opened her eyes and rose up. "At least thirty guys, I think. And they're all in the same place."

"Tharquin must have thought of this possibility;" Caleb said. "He is expecting us."

"Then let's not disappoint him;" Will said. "Irma..."

* * *

Darkness. Nothing but darkness was surrounding her, so thick that she couldn't even see her own hands. Did she even had hands here? Why did people have hands anyway? Hands hadn't served her for anything, and Tharquin had been whipping her for hours, only stopping in order to force feed her that water of his. Oh, how bitterly the girl had grown to hate him for what he had been doing to her.

Jade was sure she had fallen unconscious after a while, and now she was probably in her inner world or whatever it was called. But she didn't remember her inner world being so dark... was this a dream product of the drugs? Or... or maybe...

 _Am I dead?_ Jade thought. No! It... It couldn't be! She didn't want to die so young! What about her family, what about her friends?! She still had a lot of things to do!

 _I'm not gonna die here!_ she thought strongly. _I won't die here!_

Then something shook the darkness around her. Something powerful, violent and... rhythmical?

Bump-bump... bump-bump... bump-bump...

 _A... a heartbeat?_ Jade thought for a second, but the sound grew stronger, way stronger than before. She would have put her hands over her ears, but she lacked hands now; and she doubted she had ears either.

 **MORTAL**

The voice practically broke her. It was deep, way deeper than any she had ever heard. It was also way more inhuman than even the ones belonging to Shendu or any of his siblings. This voice was... terrorizing her. It was hurting her, even.

 **MORTAL, YOU SHALL NOT DIE HERE. SUCH I HAVE DECREED**

 _What?! Who?! Where?!_

 **MORTAL, YOU WHO UNIFIED TWO AND BROADENED THE GATE, YOU SHALL SURVIVE**

 _Please, stop!_ Jade begged in her thoughts, but she doubted that this voice would paid any attention to her. _You're hurting me!_

 **MORTAL, WE WILL MEET AGAIN, DURING THE PROMISED TIME, UNDER THE BLACK SUN**

 _Please! I don't understand!_ The heartbeat grew stronger in its intensity, and she thought she was going to lose consciousness. Could someone lose consciousness in a dream? Apparently, yes.

 **AND YOU SHALL BECOME APOSTLE AND PONTIFEX, AND BRING FORTH THE AGE OF DESIRE**

* * *

Jade woke up gasping for air, her body and head hurting worse than in any moment of her life. Her nose was still sharp enough to smell her own blood, falling from the wounds in her back, arms, legs, and torso that Tharquin had inflected with his whip, and that had already formed a small crimson pond below her suspended body. Before she had the opportunity to breath properly, Tharquin was already feeding her another bowl of that disgusting water. It tasted even worse than before. Had he augmented the dosage? Poor fool, it wasn't going to make him any good in the end.

"Who are you?" Tharquin asked with clear exasperation on top of his anger. This was taking way longer than usual, and he didn't understood why. Was it her magic abilities, the fact that she wasn't a natural Shapeshifter, or mere determination?

"I'm…" the girl seemed dubious for a few seconds, but then a smirk forced its way to her lips. "I'm Jade Chan…"

Teeth grinding in anger so strongly that the old man was sure that some of them had cracked; he took his whip and started to use it against her again. He was so lost in his petty anger that he missed how each drop of blood that went down her body to the small pond was charged with a small aura of scarlet energy.

* * *

While Tharquin was busy in his private torture room, his (for lack of a better term) acolytes were mounting guard outside of it, occupying the biggest section of the cave their boss used as a hideout. However, their duty wasn't being performed with as much devotion as the self-proclaimed Paladin of the Light of Meridian would expect and demand from his troops. Some were talking, some others were lying around (either in the ground or in some chairs that had been left around) and some were even playing dice. But why wouldn't they doing that? They had done this very thing a lot of times and no one had bothered them. That was the reason why, when they heard some strange sound coming from the entrance to the cave, they disregarded it as a product of nature. So when a stream of water big enough to befit one of the biggest rivers on the kingdom came down towards them, they did nothing but scream.

And as all of them laid in the ground, now soaked and defeated due to the strength the water had hit them with; The Guardians, the rebel leader, Drake and three fourths of the Chan Clan appeared in the cave, and Jackie grabbed one of them by his bad tattered clothing.

"Where's my niece?!" the archeologist screamed in the face of the man, who coughed water as a response.

"W-What?" he asked confusedly. So much water in the inch of a second, and then a man appearing and yelling in one's face wasn't the best of paths to obtain a clear and logical answer.

"The Good Wolf, Jade Chan;" Caleb said, stepping into Jackie's side. "You captured her and brought he here. Tell me where is she and maybe, just maybe, I won't cut your damn tongue."

 _Whoa, aggressive_ ; Irma thought. _Then again, I saw him cutting a head_ …

"But, but sir!" the man, clearly more scared of Caleb's presence here (after all he was his leader) than of Jackie's said. "She's just a Shapeshifter… GAGH! My hand!"Jackie had taken the man's hand between one of his, and was clutching it so viciously that it seemed that it was going to broke any second.

"That girl is my niece," Jackie said in the harsher tone any of th girls had seen him use. "And you will tell me where she is!"

"T-Tharquin has her there!" the man said, pointing into the direction the Old Worm's torture room was. "I swear! Please, we were just scared of him!"

"I bet you were," Jackie said darkly and let the man down, caressing his hurt hand, which had started to become red and inflamed. Without paying any attention to him or anything else, the archeologist ran furiously towards the door.

* * *

"Say it! Say it!" Tharquin screeched with all the strength his old lungs were able to muster up. "Say that you are nothing but a filthy Beast!"

The whip hit the girl again, and then it stopped. Panting, Tharquin stopped his small torture session. The girl was still alive, semi-conscious, and breathing. The small pond of blood at her feet had grown, but only by a small margin. Why?! Why won't it work?! It had worked with each one of the other abominations he had brought here!

The door behind opened then, and the Old Worm turned around angrily. Great, just what he needed; one of his stupid underlings coming for questions about when would it end or if all those screams were necessary. Of course they were necessary! He was trying to purge Meridian of a plague! "What?!" the Old Worm asked.

His answer came in the form of a hand grabbing his throat and rising him up from the ground. He met with the sight of an angry Jackie Chan, who proceeded to toss him over him across the opened door, making him land in the floor outside. There, Tharquin was quick to use his whip against the man, but Jackie grabbed the weapon with both hands and pulled from it, kicking the old man in the gut and sending him back to the ground, this time without any weapon.

There, vines shot from the ground and trapped him. Looking at his side, the Old Worm was met with the sight of the five Guardians of Kandrakar, Cornelia's in particular, who was pointing a hand towards him.

"Move one single muscle, and I swear I'll crush you;" the blonde threatened.

"What?!" Tharquin screamed. From behind the Guardians, Drake and Caleb contemplated the sight of the otherwise calm and cold man. Who once was stoic as a stone, now had his face red as a tomato, eyes bulging and spit coming from his mouth due to his uncontrolled mood. Such a shameful sight to behold. Pathetic. "What are you doing, you fools?! I am the Paladin! How dare you interfere in my sacred task?!"

"Well, this guy's gone cuckoo;" Irma declared.

Jackie, meanwhile, had entered the room. It was dark, and his eyes lasted a bit to accustom themselves to the dim light that came from the torches. "Jade!" he called, and he almost fell when he tumbled over the chair Tharquin had been using.

"U-Uncle… Jackie?" a weak voice came from ahead. But even if weak, the martial artist was able to recognize the voice of his niece.

"I need light!" Jackie said, and seconds after, the five girls, with Taranee in the head came into the room, the Fire Guardian creating a number of small fireballs and making them levitate around the room.

Only then were the archeologist and the five girls able to see his niece. You almost could hear the man's heart skipping a beat upon seeing the bad state his niece was in. Tharquin really was a master with the whip, wasn't he? Able to make cuts in the flesh as deep and wide as you could expect from a blade. They didn't reach the bone, and the Old Worm had been very careful not to leave any injury that damaged tendons or muscles permanently. He needed the girl to survive in order to transform her into the monster he believed all Shapeshifters were. So the wounds could heal, and of course the girl wasn't in any danger of dying. But the sight of seeing her, only covered in her now damaged underwear, bathed in her own blood, her skin full of cuts from the whip…

Hay Lin contained a gasp of horror as tears rolled down her cheeks, and the other four girls just stared horrified at what Tharquin had done to their friend.

"Take those shackles off!" Jackie said. "Take them off!"

Taranee approached Jade and used a little yet potent flame that she conjured in the tip of her index finger to break the shackles around Jade's neck, ankles and wrists. The girl would have fallen over the pond formed from her own blood if not for Jackie taking her in his arms. His clothes dirtied with his niece's blood, but he didn't seem to care.

"J-Jackie…?" Jade called again.

"It's okay, Jade;" Jackie said, putting his best efforts into making a smile. "Don't worry. Uncle is here."

"You monster!" Irma shrieked, exiting the room and storming towards Tharquin, tears of pure rage rolling down her cheeks in a similar fashion than Hay Lin's. The only reason she didn't reach him was because Tohru wrapped his arms around her and restrained the Water Guardian.

"Let me go!" Irma yelled. "I'm gonna drown him! I'm gonna kill that bastard!"

"Irma, stay calm!" Tohru told her.

"Why?!" Irma said, turning her head around as much as she could. "He hurt her!"

"I know," the sumo said, and Irma was able to see a rage even bigger than hers in the mountain of a man's. He was containing himself while containing her. S she calmed down as much as she could. However, Tohru kept grabbing her; just in case.

"We have to bring her to the Infinite City!" Caleb said. "Sephiria and the Mage should be able to heal her!" the rebel leader turned towards Tharquin. "As for you…"

"What will you do, boy… Agh!" Tharquin protested as Caleb put a foot over his throat.

"Don't taunt me," he said. "Rhouglar did the same, and he ended without a head."

"Caleb," Drake interrupted him, grabbing his friend by the arm. "Matters at hand."

"Nephew," Uncle, having entered the room and kneeling at Jackie's side, told the man holding Jade. "Jackie. We must get Jade out of this foul place. She needs attention, she needs healing."

"A-Alright," the archeologist, voice trembling, agreed. "Jade? Jade, we are getting you out of here."

Jade mumbled some incomprehensible words, her eyes blinking a few times before finally opening as much as they could. She looked around, and then she looked at Jackie. "Hi... Jackie..."

"Jade, stop talking;" Jackie told her warmly, helping her to incorporate over the small pond of her blood. "Save energy."

Jackie tried to make her walk, and he was sure that he would have taken her in his arms a few seconds later had she walked. But instead she froze. Looking ahead and pass her family and friends, Jade saw the restrained body of her capturer and torturer. Her eyes narrowed and she snarled, some of her teeth becoming fangs.

"Tharquin..." she whispered.

"Come on, Jade;" Jackie told her. "We will take you out. He won't hurt you anymore..."

"No," Jade whispered. "No he won't."

A chill ran through the cave, and Tohru and Uncle shivered. The willies? How come? The only one here with chi instead of them was...

"Niece!" Uncle yelled. "Don't!" But his words didn't reach her. It all happened so fast...

Jade let out a shriek and her body coated itself in her chi energy, although instead of the usual white, it was a red even more intense than the one of Will's hair. And speaking of Will, she and everyone else, Guardian of not; were hit by a wavelength of Jade's chi, sending them away from her. From the small pond of blood, drops ignited in the same crimson chi as Jade was covered with. The girl started to walk forward, and then ran towards Tharquin. The pond of blood rose from the floor and followed her, dividing itself in four equal portions that took the form of spears.

Jade jumped over Tharquin, her feet smashing at his still bounded body. Each spear of chi-hardened blood pierced through his hands and feet. The Old Worm let out a scream. Jade's hands shifted into something midway her human limbs and her wolf claws, and after tearing apart the vines Cornelia had used to restrain him, she nailed them in his chest.

"You, you, you, you!" Jade yelled. "You called me a monster! You wanna see a REAL monster?! Look at yourself!"

The blood-red chi started to invade Tharquin's body. He let out another piercing scream of agony. The Guardians, the Chan Clan and the pair of rebels, still knocked away by the red chi; looked at the nightmarish scene without even having time to think about what to do.

"Blood Chi Magic... Aiyah..." Uncle whispered, fear (fear!) in his voice.

"Say it!" Jade yelled. The veins in Tharquin's body were bulging. "SAY IT!"

"My blood is burning!" Tharquin said in pure agony.

"SAY! MY! NAME!"

"Jade... Chan!"

Afterwards there was only a cracking sound. Blood poured from Tharquin's mouth, nose, and ears. Whatever Jade had done to him... it had destroyed his blood vessels; maybe even dissolve some portions of his organs. After a few seconds of gargling, Tharquin's body stopped moving. He was dead.

Jade let out a relieved sigh and then closed her eyes. She fell unconscious over Tharquin's corpse, her blood-red chi fading away. And the most disturbing part of it? She was smiling. Like a child having the most pleasant of dreams.

* * *

 ** _The Infinite City; an hour later_**

The travel back to the Infinite City had been frenetic, to say the least. Their arrival, however; was even more so. Appearing with an unconscious Jade in his arms, Jackie and Caleb yelling for help and demanding someone to see Jade m since the first second they stepped into the Infinite City.

Sephiria treated Jade's wounds as best as she could; applying the same ointments, bandages and small incantations she used with the wounded rebels. Under the stares of Jackie, Uncle and Tohru, the Soft Bishop of the Rebellion did her best. But while it did some good in stopping the bleeding, it couldn't fully heal the wounds instantaneously. She even remarked that maybe the injuries Tharquin had inflicted upon her were too grave, or that she maybe had lost too much blood.

Before Jackie could take Jade and head in search of a Portal to use to get back to Earth and bring his niece under real medical treatment; the 'Mage' stepped into the room they were currently in and approached the bed where the unconscious Jade was. She looked over her for a few seconds.

"Out," the 'Mage' commanded. "Now."

"Why?" Jackie, lost one more time in a turmoil of emotions, asked weakly. Why should he leave his niece's side? Look at what had happened for leaving her.

"Unless you want your niece to die," the disguised Nerissa told him; "you all shall leave me alone to do my magic without interferences."

Tohru practically dragged Jackie out of the room, Uncle and Sephiria following nearby. Once they were gone and the 'Mage' had made sure they weren't coming back, a circle of light ran from her feet to her head, and the glamour hiding her true appearance disappeared.

The gray haired, green eyed wrinkled woman leaned over Jade. "Look at you," Nerissa said as she passed her flesh and wrinkled hand through the girl's black bangs. "Adventures and magic are not so bright anymore, are they? I know how that feels. Drake just informed me of you killing Tharquin with some kind of strange magic blood. I knew you were adept at Chi Magic, but to be able of such a feat at such a young age... Raw or Chi, Blood Magic is extremely complicated to cast, not to say dangerous. Losing you now would be troublesome, and..." the fallen Keeper of the Heart looked at her metallic prosthetic arm, specifically to the Dragon Talisman embedded in it; "if not for your stories I wouldn't have this, would I? Let's repay a debt."

Nerissa put her flesh hand over the girl's chest, and breathed deeply. "Quintessence;" she whispered. Bluish white lightning coursed through her body and entered in Jade's, fully closing her wounds, replenishing her loss of blood and healing her. "I will leave the wounds of your back so they become scars, though." Nerissa declared, stopping her magic, putting again in her 'Mage' glamour and heading out. "As a reminder of the reality of the universe you live in."

Outside, she told Jackie that Jade had been put out of danger, but that she would need rest. The man thanked her and headed into the room, he would not leave her side until she woke up. Tohru did the same, but standing out of the room. Uncle and Yan Lin decided to have some words with the 'Mage' in order to inform themselves about what had happened. Sephiria went back to her duties, and the youngest Ludmoore brother decided that this was the perfect time to get a drink and write in his book.

As for Caleb… Caleb decided to follow Drake's counsel and headed to the dungeons of the Infinite City in order to have a conversation with the Viscount. The Guardians of the Veil followed him when he declared his intentions. They also needed some clarifications, especially Will. Or maybe it was that none had the guts to look Jackie in the face.

* * *

 ** _The Capital_**

While the Guardians and rebels fought with their inner demons, Anna, Tynar's wife; was doing her house chores. She and her son Tash had ended their lunch mere hours before, and the boy had gone upstairs, surely in order to look dreamily to the sky that could be seen out of his room's window. Not that the sight was very pleasant to the eye, even since Phobos took the throne and started to siphon energy from the land, the days were of a strange, sick yellowish color, and the nights were plagued by storms. You had to ride way out of the range of the Capital to actually see blue skies at day and stars during nights. She supposed her little boy had just an enormous amount of imagination and that he made the skies to turn blue again in his mind.

 _But the lad must be imaginative_ , the blue-haired, green-skinned chubby woman thought as her hand touched her wrist, where a bracelet incredibly similar to the one Tynar had worn was. _He's made another four in very little time. Well, at least someone in the family's talented for something better than butchering_.

Someone knocked at the door then, and Anna stopped doing what she was doing in order to answer it. Who could be now? Maybe it was Sasha or any other of the women of the market? Or one of those little girls that were friends with Tash and that always came looking for him in order to play with flowers? Regardless, she opened the door with a wide smile when whoever was at the other side knocked at it.

"Coming, coming… no need to make a flush about it," the chubby Galhot woman commented. "What do you… want?"

The last word was delivered with none of the enthusiasm that usually characterized the woman. Instead, she kept staring ahead, eyes wide opened. In the doorframe was Lothar, some bandages seeing under his armor, and at his side were a guard (a sergeant that used to drink with her and Tynar sometimes, she thought that his name was Erick) and Frost. The current Captain of the Guard gave a few steps towards her in order to enter the house, and his eyes said it all. The chubby woman trembled a bit and leaned first against the doorframe and then one of the walls as she gave the same amount of steps Lothar had given backwards.

"No…" the woman said, almost whispering. "Please, tell me it's not true."

"Ma'am, I'm so…" Lothar began, but before he could finish the sentence, Anna's hand moved fast and struck his cheek with enough strength to force his head to turn to one side. Her eyes were teary, but in them Lothar appreciated one of the purest angers he had never seen. He didn't complain about the slap, though. A part of him even thought she should have hit him harder.

"Get out," the woman said bitterly. "Get out of my house! You have no place here!"

"Ma'am, please…" Lothar tried to say something, but what could he say? Apologies, explanations, promises? What could those do in order to bring his Lieutenant back to life?

"Mom?"

Both Anna and Lothar felt their souls cringing as they looked up at the stairs that connected the two stories that this house was composed of, and saw Tash peeking to them from above. "I heard voices… Is that the Captain? Is daddy back already?" the boy asked, a happy grin appearing in his face.

"Tash go back to your room!" the woman ordered, and the boy obeyed quickly, not fully understanding what was going on. "Get out," she repeated to Lothar again. "Get out and don't you dare to come back here!"

Lothar didn't even flinch from that comment, and he silently walked towards the door once again, walking out of the house and marching ahead, Frost and the other guard following him, but before they could turn the corner, Anna's screams reached them.

"This is your fault! Yours and of that damn Escanor Prince you are fighting for!" the woman yelled. And Lothar found himself without the ability to counter that argument. Once they turned the corner, however; Lothar took frost by the shoulders and smashed him against the wall of one of the buildings.

"What the hell do you thing are you doing?!" the Hunter asked enraged.

"Why did you take the Rhinoceros Cavalry out of the fight?!" Lothar asked the bulkier man. "You should have come and…!"

"And what, and die?!" Frost made a question in order to answer. "Don't search for excuses, Lothar; you know we couldn't fight whatever those things were! Now that we know about them, maybe; but then? We would have all died! I won't risk my life and my men's in a suicide attack!"

"Your oath to the Prince demanded for you to fight!" Lothar yelled in his face, but then frost was able to get rid of his grip.

"Oaths?" the Hunter asked. "To the Abyss with all the oaths! What good did it do to you? Or Raythor? Or Tynar? What good does that honor of yours do to you when your oath is towards Phobos? I may not be the most moral man around and I may enjoy the fighting a little too much, but I'm here because the Prince pays better than the rebels, nothing else!"

Lothar narrowed his eyes, but (he couldn't believe he was thinking this) Frost had a point. "Well, then you can tell him those very words, since we both have to report about this entire situation."

Frost gulped. For all his bravado, the Prince was clearly someone he didn't desire to anger. Lothar looked towards the sergeant then, and after searching between his robes, he handed him a large scroll.

"I don't care how," the Captain said; "but I want that reaching Blackrock Island and in the hands of Archduchess Galiene in less than a day. Understood?"

"Yes, Captain;" the man answered, and parted with the message.

Afterwards Lothar and Frost headed towards the Castle, mentally preparing themselves to report to the Prince.

* * *

 ** _The Castle; throne room_**

"Torus Filney… conquered by the rebels?!" Prince Phobos, sitting in his Thorn Throne as usual, asked in legitimate surprise. Servantis had been by his side since the first day, even sooner than Cedric, who joined his court half a year after his ascension to the throne. As such, the Viscount's defeat, especially after granting him Sandpit and the founding to fortify torus Filney, was something that Phobos had judged impossible… until now. "How?!"

"My liege;" Lothar, knelt down in the center of the throne room; began. "The Guardians broke into the city's underground somehow and froze Sandpit, then brought the majority of the rebel army inside. We fought ferociously," his hand touched the bracelet Tynar's son had made; "and lost many good soldiers; but the rebels had the Guardians and their Shapeshifter, and then they used some kind of strange weapons we couldn't fight against..."

"Excuses!" Phobos exclaimed, slamming his right palm over his throne's armrest and producing a small shockwave across te room. "Excuses, nothing but excuses!" The thorns around him started to take energy into his body, and the Prince breathed long and deeply. He calmed down and sat back in his throne.

"Irrelevant," Phobos said after a while. "Double the guards in the castle, take them from the city's posts if necessary." _I won't let those rebels to bother me when I'm so near to bring my sister back home... no matter how brief her stance_.

"With all due respect, my Prince;" Lothar said, rising his head to look directly at the monarch. "But the guards in the city are needed to prevent crimes. And we should warn and call for the rest of the nobility! The Rebellion won't make an attack in the Castle, the Capital or even the central ring of the realm until they completely control the medium ring! There are another eleven great cities there, and that's not counting the villages or other settlements! With Torus Filney under their control they hold the tactical advantage due to the terrain! There are innocent people living in the other cities that the nobility has there! We cannot keep underestimating the rebels, we must prepare for a full war!"

Phobos had then the nerves to put in his usual smug smile. "Let the nobility to fare by itself, I spent years helping Servantis with his projects, and both Carhaiz and Torus Filney have ended in ruins. Every man that died in that city should thank the Viscount for it."

That was going too far. The Captain of the Guard rose to his feet and looked at his monarch directly. "The only reason you are still sitting on that throne, is thanks to all those men and the Viscount!"

Silence took hold of the throne room for various minutes. Frost, who until this point had maintained himself several feet behind Lothar and watching from the sidelines, held his breath for what seemed to be an eternity.

Then, without uttering a single word, Phobos extended his hand and shot a beam of energy towards Lothar. The magic attack struck the Captain, sending him to his knees again. However, he kept staring directly into the Prince's eyes, and he didn't scream. Frost knew that he would have screamed, that even Cedric would have screamed. Daolon Wong had screamed when punished for his failures. But Lothar didn't, he just kept staring at Phobos, letting his magic to harm him, yet no giving any indication that he was suffering.

The Prince stopped after a while, not wanting to keep wasting the precious energy he had spent so much time siphoning. He reclined in his throne and started to recharge himself. Not that he needed it, he spent so much time in that throne that, at exception of experienced and fully developed Heart-wielders, he could defeat any sorcerer by might alone. But he keep doing it, he didn't want to lose any inch of that power. He didn't want to feel weak.

"I am Prince Phobos of House Escanor, ruler of Meridian;" the man said with authority. "This world keeps spinning because so I desire, and you keep breathing because so I desire, Lothar. I hope you understand that."

"I do, my Prince;" Lothar answered, going to his feet again and lowering his head a bit. "Now, if you would excuse me, I shall attend to my duties as Captain of the Guard."

"Dismissed," Phobos said.

Lothar walked towards the gate of the throne room silently, the two Lurdens that were guarding it opening the damn door for him and Frost, who gladly accompanied him out of the room. Phobos let out a tired sigh.

"Having problems with your toys?"

"Miranda," Phobos said, not even bothering to look at the darkness of his throne room's ceiling, from which a spider-web string fell down, the Shapeshifter girl descending from it and landing just at the feet of the stairs leading to his throne. "What news about Cedric?"

The four legged spider-like being climbed a few stairs while shifting back to her human form. The blue eyed raven haired girl extracted a paper from her dress. A math test to be precise.

"This is from your sister, something that it's called 'Math Test' in Earth;" the girl explained to the Prince. "Cedric supposed it would be perfect for…"

"A symbol of her mind, yes!" Phobos said, making the paper to fly towards his hands. "With this and the sample of her breath Cedric already sent me, the only thing missing is a symbol of her body! I am so close…"

Miranda turned around and rolled her eyes. She shifted back to her spider form and climbed back to the ceiling. Sometimes, she wondered if Phobos wasn't just a child in his own mind…

* * *

While Prince Phobos made another step further towards his goal of obtaining the Heart of Meridian; Lothar was walking as best as he could across the halls of the palace. Some of his men were there, worried about what kind of punishment the Prince would have inflected upon their commander. In the end, his body yielded to the pain and he started to fall. But he didn't reach the ground, instead stopped by a bunch of hands graving him. His guards were keeping him up, even Frost was keeping him up; carrying more of his weight than none of the others.

"Damn it, you idiot;" Frost told him, but not in a harsh tone. The Hunter was, in fact, grinning. "You may not be as smart as Raythor, but damn it all to the Abyss if you're not as gutsy."

"Captain!" another of the soldiers called for him. "Can you stand?"

"I… can;" Lothar stated, straightening up. He looked around. So many of his men were there, and… were all they caring for him?

"We could hear you and the Prince from outside," said a guard.

"He has no right to say that, The Viscount treated us well, you treated us well," another continued.

Was it loyalty, honor or maybe something much simpler? There had been a time in which he hadn't even bothered to remember these faces, too consumed by his desire for revenge. And now here they were… no, they had always been here.

"Who is the man… with the highest ranking here?" Lothar asked.

"Me, sir;" one of the guards answered. "I'm a sergeant."

"Take them out," Lothar ordered.

"Sir?"

"Each guard in this palace," explained the Captain. "Take them out to the city; reinforce the patrols that take care of thieving and crime, and leave them there. If the Capital is attacked, tell them to fight to the end. If the Castle is attacked… tell them to ignore it. The Prince won't care for us? Fine, I won't care for him. Our duty is to Meridian and the Crown, and whatever is in that throne room, it's not part of this world and it doesn't deserve a crown. I'm done with putting the lives of good men, men with families… at risk just to satisfy a self-entitled brat."

Lothar kept walking. One by one, each of the guards that were there took a fist to the chest in signal of respect for their commander. Even Frost, not know for showing any type of kindness to his fellow soldiers, did the same.

 _Captain Raythor_ , Lothar thought. _You cared about all of us like we were your sons, and you were the most honorable man I have ever met, carrying each oath with the greatest diligence, as if breaking your promises and contradicting your word was worse than death for you. You tried to teach me that, and you did… but Captain, I'm not you, and your code is not for me. Your code is not for these times. I will make a new oath, an oath for Meridian, and follow my own code._

That night, no guard would be left in the palace; only Lurdens guarding the gates and halls. And the Prince would not notice, as self-centered as he was. Many messages were sent to the noble houses of Meridian. If Phobos wasn't going to fight for the realm and the Rebellion did more harm than good, then Lothar would take upon his and the nobility's shoulders to save as many as he could. He wouldn't tolerate the Rebellion destroying more innocent lives.

* * *

 ** _Infinite City_**

Otherwise cheerful and idealistic Hay Lin was feeling incredibly down. In fact, that definition wasn't even remotely close to describe how she really felt. Maybe she was feeling too many emotions at a time. Look at what that horrible man had done to Jade, to her family. Look at what she had done to him! Look at what this whole ordeal had done to all of them...

This wasn't supposed to be like this. It hadn't started like this. It had all started so well! Her grandma had been a magic hero, and she and her friends got to be magic heroes too! And she met new and cool family, and then Jade got cool powers too, and, and...

And it all had gone tumbling down. It hurt to admit it, but now she didn't feel like a magic hero. This was a feeling emphasized by the fact that neither she nor her four Guardian teammates were in their Guardian forms. They were just five normal girls, all clad in their civilian, earthling clothing and following the rebel leader across the silent and, now that she focused on them, phantasmagoric halls of the Infinite City. From time to time, between one step and another; her mind would travel back to Jade killing Tharquin, and how her (no matter how many times removed) cousin's magic, of which she had been once amazed; had terrified her. And now her new and awesome extended family was beaten emotionally, all of them wandering around Jade, waiting for her to awaken. A part of her thought that she should be there too... but there was another, stronger part that told her that she needed to be here. That this was important. However, she wasn't prepared for the yells.

The cells of the Infinite City were in a tall, circular chamber behind a waterfall, and they were little more than cavities in the stone. Filling half of them and with bluish energy bars keeping them at bay were the commoners of Torus Filney. The only thing heard from the cells were whispers and soft sounds... or they were, until one of the prisoners spotted them walking towards one of the stairs that connected the prison's center with the lower cells. Then they all started to yell at them while they descended to the bottom of the prison.

"Rebel scum! Rebel scum!"

"You bastards! My father was fighting you! Give him back!"

"You burned our houses! Our home!"

"Monsters! Monsters!"

"Is not pleasant, is it?"

The last sentence didn't belong to any of the smallfolk. The lower cells of the prison were empty, all except one. The voice that had spoken had come from that one, the cell belonging to Viscount Roderick Servantis, the nobleman looking at them from the other side while sitting on the cold floor, his back against the wall. It was clear that the Viscount had seen better days, now dressed only with a pair of trousers and his beard growing wildly without the care one had to put in it to make it grow elegantly. His naked torso let the two wounds that Aldarn's bullets had inflected upon him to be seen, not as well treated as one could expect. Even if ordered by Caleb, it was clear that Sephiria hadn't put as much effort into healing him as she would have healing rebels. The flesh was still red around where the bullets had impacted, sewn badly with some weird cords as if they were mere holes in clothing and albeit said flesh had started to cicatrize, it was clear that sudden and violent movements would make it bleed again. The worst part, without a doubt, was the remnants of his arm. Albeit what Aldarn had destroyed with his shot had been the hand the Viscount was carrying his sword with, Sephiria had been forced to take almost half his arm in order to prevent it from becoming gangrenous; the whole section of the limb from below the elbow to the fingertips gone, leaving a mere stump that smelled quite bad. He was looking at them with hatred and contempt, but his lips were forming a thin smirk. As if he found them funny in a pathetic sort of way. Mocking them.

"No… how could it be pleasant? They are insulting you, cursing your ancestors, mocking your ideals! And it hurts, doesn't it? You want to yell at them too, yell at them and tell them all they don't know. That you have reasons, that you have excuses, that all of you have suffered too… But they don't want to stop, listen and talk; do they? No… they just keep yelling and yelling, cursing your name as if it belonged to some foul beast that had clawed its way out from the Abyss itself." Servantis made a pause and rose from the floor with great effort. He approached the energy bars and looked at them. He snorted, as if the Guardians and Caleb were just a bad jest that a drunken man had invented in his stupor. "Is not so pleasant when it's you the one they are yelling at, is it?" the man laughed a bit. It was clear that laughing hurt his injured body. "I must admit, it feels quite invigorating to be on the other end of this ordeal for the first time…" the man sighed. "And to what I own the honor of the presence of the great leader of the Rebellion and the Guardians of the Veil? Is it a taunt? Come to mock me?" his eyes surveyed Caleb and the girls, and a big smile appeared in his lips, followed by a laughter. "No! It is guilt what I see in those eyes! Why? You conquered my city, killed my men and raped my wife!" the laughter became a whimpering sound. "Are you feeling guilt for that? Perhaps you have come to apology, to demand an explanation, or maybe to cut a deal? Well, it's too late!" the man said bitterly. "It's too late… Years of hard work, years of meticulous planning in order to safe as much innocent lives as it could from both Phobos and you… all for nothing."

The girls and Caleb kept staring at him; no one said a word for perhaps too much time. The mocking grin fell from the Viscount's face and was replaced by a scowl that quickly became the expression of a hateful man. "Well?!" the nobleman asked angrily. "Say something!"

"Why?" That was the only word coming from Caleb's mouth. He had thought so much about this, of what he wanted to ask this man. And that was the only thing he could phrase, the only question that his lips formed. A single word, that was all. "Why, why is someone like you fighting in the name of someone like Phobos? I know Meridian's people; they wouldn't defend someone that doesn't treat them well. Your city was a peaceful one. That I must accept in the same vein I must accept the fact that you are a good man. But… Why? Why is someone like you fighting for Phobos?"

"Fighting for Phobos?" the Viscount mimicked his voice. Then he laughed bitterly again. "I'm not fighting for Phobos, you stupid _boy_ ;" he put emphasis in the 'boy' word. That hurt Caleb, and the girls could clearly see it. Many rebels, especially the older ones, still didn't hold him with as much respect as the younger ones did. Some of them were just wounded in their prides… but other actually reasoned it, saying that someone so young couldn't understand how the world worked. It seemed that the Viscount was of the latter group. "Neither has been the rest of the nobility." _Not until now_ , he added in his thoughts

"But thirteen years ago, when Phobos killed Weira, you were the ones that sided with him!" Caleb told him. "You can't just tell me that…"

"Queen Weira Escanor," Servantis cut him with authority, putting as much strength as he could in the title of the late Queen. "Was a good woman, and she was my friend. When I was a child my father used to bring me to the castle, and he and the old Queen Arianne would talk for hours, and I would play with Weira. I grew up with her, I laughed with her. She was idealistic; she was a woman that liked seeing the best in every individual that crossed her path. Always diligent, always proper, and always decided to not see the wrong of any situation;" a real smile formed its way to Servantis' lips this time, thanks to the memory. "She was the one to organize my wedding with Ishol, and in return, I was the one to organize hers with Zanden. Zanden was never meant to be the Royal Consort, it should have been his older brother, but he was already in a relationship, and Weira objected to breaking it. This… this should have been my first clue about what was about to happen;" Servantis said somberly, and he stopped for several seconds in order to catch his breath.

"So we ended growing up, and distanced a little. Then Weira ascended to the throne after his mother's death, and both Ishol and I found incredibly difficult to reach her… She was young, really young, and many nobles feared that the pragmatic and rational demeanor that characterized Queen Arianne hadn't passed down to her. A fact that was true, in many other matters than court, to be precise. And then Phobos was born. Years passed, and as the Prince grew, so did discontent for royalty amongst many commoners. I found myself back in court one day, when Phobos was just ten years old, around three years before his… our cup. The child struck me as incredibly cold. He wouldn't even hug his own mother back when she put her arms around him; and he did not with malice but… as if he didn't know what to do. He was too cold, thinking that the world was centered on him, or if it wasn't, it should;" Servantis made another pause, and this time he coughed.

"Weira had a problem with the smallfolk, though. They hated her son, his very existence; many saw him as an unnatural creature that was never meant to exist, others as a danger to the power held by the Escanor line… But Weira loved her little boy, no matter what. This… should have been my second clue. Weira wanted for everyone to be happy. The smallfolk, the nobles, her husband, the Mage and Kandrakar, her son… and her desire for seeing the best in a person seemed more akin to a defense mechanism in order to not have to face their flaws and how much harm they could bring. So in order to solve the problem without having to restore to making people unhappy, Weira did something unheard of. She gave some commoners, some village chiefs and mayors, rule over the others. It wasn't an idea overly complicated, just give the commoners an authority of their own in order to make them feel empowered and take some responsibilities from the nobles, an intermediary between us and the smallfolk, you could say. Of course, this didn't solve the problem with Phobos, but it maintained the smallfolk jaunty and without protesting."

"What's wrong with that?" Irma asked then, interrupting the speech of the nobleman. "What's wrong with giving people power?" In movies and books, the best royals were the ones that fought for the people. The nobles were the mean, greedy ones. Always.

"The idea was good. In fact, it worked perfectly during some time, but power without the knowledge of how it must be used can only corrupt;" Servantis said. "Then some of those people holding power started to think that maybe the nobility wasn't needed at all, since they could govern themselves. And perhaps the royal family wasn't needed either, after all Phobos existence was proof that they weren't as divine as they thought. So they stirred a little revolution, that handful of conspirators, assaulting one of the residences of a fellow noble and friend of mine… and killing everyone there. The men, the women, the children… every last soul was slain. Of course the Guard was deployed and those that attacked them were executed, they were criminals. But even today, the fact that Queen Weira gave the smallfolk power is one of the things that make her the best Queen Meridian has ever had in their eyes. And us nobles? The smallfolk hated us, even if we had protected and guided them for centuries. Even if it had all been the Queen's failure to begin with, they started to slander us in the entire outer ring and even in the Capital because of Weira's mistake while she passed to history as the Good Queen of Meridian! They called us murderers for doing what it was right, and called Weira a saint for actually starting the whole problem in her naïveté! It wouldn't have taken long for other attacks on the nobility, and then the kingdom would have crumbled over itself. There is a saying in my family, you see: _The smallfolk serve the nobles, the nobles serve the Queen, and the Queen serves the realm. If some of those parts of the chain forget their duties or try to take more power than they deserve, then it falls on the remaining ones to restore order and serve the realm. That is the reason our family is called Servantis. We all are, ultimately, servants_."

"It was at that moment I realized Weira was a good Woman…" the Viscount continued after a long pause; "but she knew nothing about being a good Queen." Servantis coughed again, and looking at him he seemed even more tired than before. This whole conversation was tiring him beyond what his body was able to do know. "So when the Princess was born and I saw the incoming clash between the Queen and Phobos… I sided with the Prince. The original plan was just to remove Weira from the throne but… but he ended killing her. And then the young Princess disappeared, sent across the Infinite Dimensions to another realm, Phobos obsessing over where the Heart of Meridian was day by day. However, considering all that happened; I don't regret my decision. Not anymore."

"But Phobos is…!" Caleb tried to say, but the Viscount cut him like last time.

"Phobos is, first and foremost, a fool;" Servantis explained. "But he has power, and a fool with power is a dangerous thing. We nobles thought of maintaining him under control, telling him that we would handle the politics and that he would just have to sit in his mother's throne, which was what he always wanted. And for the most part, we were able to do so. My original plan was to take all the commoners out of the Capital and leave the mad Prince there, alone. Of course, nothing happens as one desires, but at least I knew me and the nobles were saving lives. And you, you and your Rebellion have shattered that dream."

Caleb's eyes widened once the Viscount had ended his explanation. What was in front of him was not an underling of the tyrant, or even just a simple noble man that served Phobos for the wrong reasons or due to his code of honor. What was in front of him was just a desperate and broken man, trying to do his best with what little he could find. And he and his Rebellion, lost in their grandiose cause, had destroyed all his efforts. Now that he put thoughts upon it, there could have so many other options. Make alliances with the nobility, try to talk with them, bring some of them to their side by showing that they were all fighting for the greater good. But as those thoughts came others, these ones telling him of how much the Rebellion hated the nobles and worse, on how much he had hated them too once. He had thought of them as mere pawns of the tyrant… because now that he thought of them as people, he felt nauseas at himself. And with those nauseas, came the realization. Having or not the Guardians in account… what would happen if they dethroned Phobos and left his head in a spike at the castle's walls? Who would rule? Would he rule? The Mage, perhaps? Or, since there was no other with royal blood in his veins to take the throne, perhaps the smallfolk would want to rule itself. The smallfolk knew about harvesting and forging or even fighting while in the Rebellion; but that knew nothing about ruling. He hadn't thought about that, had he? About what would happen after Phobos was gone? The lost Princess was, well, lost in Earth. And even if she was rescued… would she know anything about ruling?

"Question," Will Vandom finally spoke. Servantis' eyes fell over the leader of WITCH, who had left the Heart out of her clothes so it could be seen and the people could recognize her as what she was. "If what you've said it's true, then… Why are we here?"

"For Zamballa, of course;" Servantis said almost instantaneously. "You know what happened in Zamballa, don't you?"

"I think my grandma dropped the name sometime," Hay Lin said, but it was clear that neither she, nor the other four girls, knew about that.

And the Viscount let out another mocking (and this time considerably more sinister) laughter. "You don't know, do you? You don't even know why Kandrakar sent you here, neither why is there a Veil around this world!" The nobleman paused and then explained once again. "Zamballa is another world part of the Known Worlds and Kandrakar's Congregation. It's populated by tree-folk, I believe. Six months after Phobos' coup, a man that had been granted the title of Lord by the Prince appeared in court. A blue-eyed blonde man dressed in green robes."

"Cedric," Caleb whispered hatefully.

"People used to refer to him just as the Snake of Cavigor back then," Servantis proceeded with his speech. "If he was a prisoner or a warden on that hell-hole, that I don't know; but it earned him a reputation of being violent and fearsome. And Phobos loved that; his own private Shapeshifter Lord that inspired fear in the hearts of his enemies and literally torn them apart. I thought of him like that at first too, as nothing but a killer with a pretty face to masquerade it;" Servantis snorted and went back to the shadows of his cell's depths. There, he sat down again and put his back against the cold stones of the wall. "So foolish. Cedric is smart, way smarter than me. We let him around the Prince, thinking that he was just Phobos' attack dog. Months after his arrival he was standing always at the Prince's side, sometimes even behind his throne. And Phobos had grown even more delusional, proclaiming that we should invade and conquer Zamballa, and then the entirety of the Known Worlds!" Servantis coughed one last time, and his voice became weaker. He took his only remaining hand to his mouth and he looked at the red splat his coughing had left in his palm. "Zamballa ruined everything for us. The army faced three Guardians, one of them had been given the Heart of Zamballa... they crushed Phobos. The injured soldiers kept talking about the earth attacking them for months. The Veil was raised shortly after. The only reason you are here is because Phobos insulted Kandrakar's laws. There were Queens in the past... that did so many wrong things... there are records about one, that… flayed her courtiers alive just for doing bad jests... and Kandrakar didn't move a finger for this world."

The Viscount closed his eyes, and his voice lost strength.

"After Zamballa, Phobos grew paranoid and started to siphon energy in order to empower himself... and Cedric kept... whispering in his ear. Then appeared the likes of Frost, and then monsters like Tracker and Wong... then the Lurdens, motivated by fear and the desire of regaining lands that our ancestors stole from them… your Rebellion ended organizing itself under your father's banner... Miranda came years later... but Cedric, Cedric's the important one. If I knew what he wanted, I could control him by giving him that. But he doesn't seem interested in power, or money, or the Prince winning... just conflict, for the sake of... conflict. There must be something else... something I'm not seeing... ugh..."

"Viscount?" Taranee asked.

"I'm so tired; I think I'm going to sleep a bit... so many failures... Zamballa, Torus Filney, my wife, Carhaiz... Weira... I'm just so... tired."

No more words came from the cell, only the steady and weak breathing of the broken nobleman. He had fallen asleep, his body forcing him to rest.

The Guardians and Caleb kept staring at him for a few moments, letting all the words that had left his mouth to sink in their minds. Then, step by step; they started to leave the prison. The hateful yells of the citizens of Torus Filney followed them until they had crossed the waterfall again.

"Guys?" Cornelia asked once they were walking through one of the halls back to the main rebel base."Do you think he was… you know, lying?"

"Not likely," it was Caleb who, walking at the head of the group, said. None of the girls could see his face. "I don't think he is that kind of man, and besides… What could he gain with lies?"

"Uh… hurt us?" the Earth Guardian asked weakly.

"I think he did a pretty good job at that with the truth," Will was the one to speak now.

The group fell in silence once again, until Irma broke it by asking. "Do you think Jade's awake by now? I want to see how she's doing."

The others accorded that that was probably the best idea they had heard in the entire day. The group started to walk a bit faster, and while doing so, Will Vandom was toying in her head with the ideas that had derivated from something the Viscount had said.

' _If I knew what he wanted, I could control him by giving him that_ ;' the nobleman had said. That, in combination with all the information he had given them. She would need to discuss it with the others later. And with Jade, Jade would be incredibly necessary for this. And the Mage, the Mage would be needed too, the redhead supposed. However, as soon as they reached the rebel base, the group found someone waiting for them; someone big, and it wasn't Tohru.

"Vathek?" Caleb asked; a bit surprised to see the bulky blue Galhot there. True, he had left the man behind during their attack over the city, but frankly, he had almost forgotten about him due to all that had transpired in the last days. The man's somber visage, however, didn't indicate that he was bearer of good news. The papers he was clutching between the thick fingers of his blue and big right hand didn't increase the hope of the rebel leader's already beaten spirit. "What… is that?"

"Something we need to talk about," the blue Galhot answered seriously. "About your father…"

"And about Carhaiz too."

* * *

 _To lose by winning, what an irony; and yet, how appropriate to describe any conflict. No matter how good your heart may be, no matter how much you insist in having found the ultimate ideology… there will always be loses, because the people that will rise in front of you to defend their ideals against yours are as good as you are. Even if you are the one to win; or if they are the ones to, and no matter how innocent and good-natured you both are… someone will lose. That's how any conflict works. That's how life works. Your actions have consequences, and not always they may be good ones. Accept it, learn from it, don't be weak and continue walking_.  Kadma Starlighter

* * *

 **Author Notes: You know, I played with the idea of naming this chapter 'Plot Overload' for a while, or maybe 'Servantis explains it all', but no. This is the message of this chapter, the girls and the rebels win, but they lose too. And many, many others lose due to them too. And it's time to accept it and grow. However, we are still not done. Next chapter will revolve around how the girls, Caleb and the Chans finally adapt completely to their conflict, accept it as a war and… well, wait for it and see. Chapter fifteen will be mainly calm, and chapters 16 to 19 (both included) will be dedicated to dealing with the Dark Hand. 20 to 30 will be for Elyon and the rest of my cover of the first season. And then straight into the second.**

 **I really hope you all enjoyed my portrayal of Weira, and how I did it. I knew it's risky, but I wanted to give the nobles a plausible reason without doing a disservice to the kind and good woman Weira supposedly was in both source materials. Then I thought, why being a good person would automatically make you a good queen? Weira was kind but naïve and she basically wanted to be a queen of a fairy tale in a real world. And a good queen in a real world must be just with her subjects, but also incredibly pragmatic to maintain social order. Then again, this is more of a theme for my cover of season 2.**

 **In another note; that girl Jackie 'met' at the start of the chapter? Meet the new OC of the fic, provided by fan of the story and fellow FF member nightmaster000. I'm going to maintain the name of the character in secret for now but I wanted to tell you that she's going to play a little part during the Dark Hand mini-arc.**

 **Anyway, thanks for reading and hope you all enjoyed. Leave a review to tell me how you felt about the chapter. Until next time.**

 **Bye, bye!**


	14. The Shift in the Chessboard

**Disclaimer: I own neither the WITCH cartoon-show nor Jackie Chan Adventures; they are the property of their respective creators, writers, and producers.**

 **Author notes: greetings, readers. Not a lot to say here, except my usual thanks to all the reviewers that take their time to read this story and leave a comment afterwards. Glad that you enjoyed it even with all the dark tones I put on it. This chapter, while continuing in the trend from 11, 12 and 13, will not be as dark as those. Having said that… what happened in Carhaiz?**

* * *

Guardians, Wizards and Kung-Fu Fighters

Episode Fourteen

The Shift in the Chessboard

* * *

 ** _World of Meridian; Carhaiz; two years and a half ago_**

If there was something Meridian had in abundance; it was villages. It was actually pretty understandable, since almost anyone could gather a group of people, then take some tools and wood, and built a couple of houses around at the entrance of a forest. With time, more people would join in, and built more houses around the ones that were already built. Then they may create a road that connected the new village with other ones, or with one of the main roads of Meridian. Thus, the number of them around the outer ring of Meridian or even in the medium ring, where they usually didn't stay far away from the great cities; was countless. Many of them weren't even connected to the roads, their bystanders preferring a quiet life away from the main civilization; or even have a name for their home. The exception to that rule was, of course; Carhaiz.

Carhaiz had been the next step in the nobility's plans for the recovery of the peaceful, and (despite Phobos) functional kingdom that Meridian was before the war. The middle ring of the realm was at that time peaceful, and thus the nobility had decided to start to spread their influence towards the outer ring. It was Servantis the one that, like always, suggested caution and patience; since the outer ring was completely under the control of the smallfolk, and they were almost entirely sympathizers of the Rebellion and still hated the nobles' guts for the whole ordeal with the late Queen Weira. On top of that their life conditions had considerably worsened since the start of the war, especially at north and south. The snowy and harsh climate conditions of the north where snow fell almost the entire year, made the gathering of food for the smallfolk incredibly difficult, and since trade had become almost impossible under the tyranny, many died of starvation. In the south the problem came from other source. Phobos had struck a deal with some of the Lurden tribes, promising them lands inside the southern part of the Kingdom, near the Tower of Grendal. Four Towers named after the Four Knights, each marking the boundaries of Meridian in each Cardinal point. The tribes that the Usurper had struck the deal with crossed to Meridian from the Outer Lands to where the Escanor bloodline had banished them long ago, and travelled all the way to the Capital, mixing with the Prince's army and serving him. However, other tribes crossed the boundaries of the kingdom too, and settled down in the area around the Tower of Grendal, killing anyone that dared to be in their way. Thus, it was normal for the smallfolk of those zones to not trust the nobles, who aside their good intentions still were on the tyrant's side.

Things needed to be done with wariness, and so the idea of Carhaiz started to take shape in some nobles' minds. As time passed the idea grew more thought was put into it, and the village that Carhaiz would become was started to be built at the east. The village was supplied by the nobility until it could start producing food for itself, and citizens were started to be translated from poorer, less known villages around to there. In the end, Carhaiz started to become not only a functional town, but s symbol that things could go better for the population of Meridian even with someone like Phobos on the throne.

Then… then, one night like any other, came the fire. And with the fire, the screams of pain and terror of the individuals that were fast enough to run out of their houses in order to evade the flames. The ones that were left inside the burning and crumbling buildings didn't scream at all. But the people that evaded the flames had to contend with what was waiting beyond those. Because beyond the flames were blades. Swords carried by men; men that looked like demons came from the depths of hell thanks to the fire around them and that was consuming the town.

Screams filled the air, and as bodies of men, women, and even children fell to the floor while the flames devoured Carhaiz, a middle aged, white haired man named Ban ran towards his burning house evading as many rebels as he could, and the ones he could not evade he disposed of with a blacksmith's hammer, entering in his home by kicking the burning and practically crumbled door.

"Tristan!" the man yelled. "Tristan!"

"F-Father!" came the response from the then ten year old boy, one of his legs trapped under a fallen piece of debris from the house's ceiling.

"Tristan!" Ban shouted again, running to his son's side and leaving the blacksmith's hammer at his side. He took the piece of debris with both hands, and using a great effort, he lifted it slightly from the floor for long enough for his son to free himself and rise to his feet again. Then the father kneeled in front of the boy. "Tristan, are you alright? Where is your mother?"

The boy whimpered, and pointed to another mass of burning debris. Only then Ban noticed that there was something in the boy's hand, something that the boy was clutching with all his strength. It was a silver necklace, or what remained of it, since half the thing had been eaten by heath and ashes, deformed and discolored. But... but it was her necklace! Ban's eyes fell over the larger piece of debris, and sorrow colored them. He could almost see the scene. The mother taking her son in her arms, running away from the flames. The ceiling cracking and the woman pushing the boy away and sending him flying. The boy would grab his mother's necklace and take it with him. Then the burning debris would fall over both of them, trapping him and crushing her. The boy would look powerless to the woman that gave life to him die, but would nonetheless continue to clutch the necklace between his fingers, even if it hurt due to the heat.

Ban dedicated one last look at the pile that had to serve as his wife's grave one last time, making a small prayer to the Light of Meridian in a whisper. Then he grabbed his son's arm with one hand and took the hammer again with the other, and both ran out of the burning house. Once both had crossed the doorframe, they almost bumped into a man that was screeching like a howling hound and that was enveloped on fire. He was running randomly until he clashed into a wall of a nearby building that was also burning. Both flaming masses melted together thanks to the flames, and the screams stopped. Grabbing his son's arm even strongly, ban started to run in the first direction his brain judged less dangerous.

What was happening here? How could this happen? Had Phobos decided that the nobles' little pet project wasn't worth the effort? Or maybe it was a Lurden attack? Or perhaps it was a mere group of thieves, attracted to the prosperous new town like flies to honey?

His answer came in the form of three men that appeared and surrounded him and his son with what clearly was the intention of killing them both. One was carrying a short spear, the other two each a rudimentary axe, more fitting to cut wood than flesh, but they seemed to be doing their work great, as their edges were colored in the red of blood. It was their attire; however, what tipped both Ban and Tristan into who they really were. Lurdens were clearly not the answer, as the trio of individuals were obviously human… well, maybe there was a bit of Galhot blood there, but now wasn't the moment to be prissy about those matters. They were wearing clothing befitting of smallfolk, and yet wore some pieces of armors here and there. Not guards or any other soldier related to the crown; that was for sure. Thieves then? But why would a thief destroy everything instead of thieving? Then the only answer left was…

"Are… Are you rebels?" Ban asked, hardly believing his own words. Why would the Rebellion do this? They were supposed to fight against the crown and leave them alone, out of the damned war! That was what the nobles had promised! Had they lied to them?

The trio didn't answer, instead preferring to ready their weapons and charge at them. Ban put his boy behind him and prepared his hammer. He was lucky enough to block the strikes of the two axe-wielding rebels, but the spear of the third one ended encrusted in his left shoulder, piercing his flesh and making him bleed. Tristan's shouted then, and the scream of the boy was enough for the man to force himself to ignore the pain and move the hammer in order to break his opponent's arm. Then he and Tristan ran to one of the stone alleys of the town, where Ban dropped his hammer and kneeled in front of his son again. Yells and cursing were heard out of the alley, and the white haired man was sure that the… the rebels he had luckily evaded were calling on for help. He grabbed his hammer once again, and looked at his son in the eyes.

"Tristan, Tristan listen to me now…" Ban began.

"Father, you're bleeding!" the boy cried out. "I don't like this! I want mother! Why did we leave her under …!"

"Tristan!" Ban yelled, and using his arm, he pulled his son near to him in a half-hug. "Tristan, now you need to be strong, alright? I need you to be strong."

"B-But mom…" the boy protested, face buried in the man's good shoulder, eyes closed in order to not let the tears fall.

"I know," Ban said, tightening his grip around his child. "I know how it hurts. But now I need you with me, alright?" Ban pulled Tristan out of the hug and looked at the boy's eyes, now full of tears, once again. "Listen, because we don't have much time. You… you are going to run down this alley, and then out of the town. Do you know where Old Mogg sells the potatoes?" The boy nodded quickly. "Good, when you find that, you go on ahead and out using the small road that drives into the forest, understood?"

"B-But what… what about you?" Tristan asked, making half a smile to appear in Ban's lips.

"I'm sorry," the man said sincerely. The words felt like ash in his throat and mouth. "But I'm not going with you. Now listen to me!" the man said before the boy could cry more. "We will always be with you, your mother and I. No matter where you go, no matter how far away you are, and no matter how much these village burns; we will always be with you. And as long as you live, as long as you breathe and remember us, we will live inside your heart. Don't forget about us, don't forget about Carhaiz. Don't let them forget about what they did here." The yells of the rebels were sounding nearer and nearer, and the man pushed the boy away from him. "Now run!"

"Father!" the boy cried, and five individuals appeared in the entrance to the alley. Before even he was able to notice it, Tristan's legs were running.

"Run!" Ban yelled as he raised his hammer towards the incoming foes. "Run and don't look back!"

Tristan cried, but he obeyed his father. And as he left the screams and yells behind, he started to stop crying, opening his eyes as he ran and letting his tears to dry. As he ran and finally found Mogg's establishment, his face started to show a much different emotion than sorrow or despair. It started to show anger, an anger fuelled by the unending and yet each time quieter and quieter screams of terror of the population of Carhaiz. The anger grew and grew, it became wrath, and it made Tristan to grid his teeth like a rabid animal, his eyes hardening as he gave step after step, impotent to do anything to stop the screams.

Who? Who had done this? Who had buried his mother under mere dirt? Who had let his father to die in that alley? Who? WHO?! SOMEONE HAD TO PAY!

Tristan bumped into someone, and the little collision was strong enough to send him to the floor. In front of him stood a man with brown hair and a little goatee of the same color adorning his chin. His dark brown eyes were looking at Tristan from above, and an unsheathed sword was in his hand. If it was red like the others, that the little one didn't see.

"Who are you?!" Tristan demanded to know.

"I'm Julian," the man answered, raising his blade a little and giving a couple of steps towards him. "And I am a rebel."

* * *

 ** _The Infinite City; now_**

"What is the meaning of this?!"

Caleb's angry growl took everyone in the room by surprise. In the small chamber dedicated to hold meetings of the Small council, the 'Mage' had called for the remaining members in order to know how to proceed now that they were back at the rebel base. Torus Filney was theirs, that was true, but they had lost two rebel commanders in the process, and not to the enemy but to their own allies, one of them being executed by the rebel leader no less. Rhouglar's men had followed him out of his promises of satisfaction for their lowly desires; desires that now couldn't be satisfied so easily since Rhouglar had been executed due to satisfying his. As for Tharquin, rumors of him being killed by exactly the same species he warned about being killing monsters had already spread around the main rebel force; which meant some of them were much more reluctant to fight alongside a Shapeshifter than before. Some small groups composed of ten or fifteen men had started to distance themselves from the main army, and if they weren't leaving that was because they didn't want to risk getting lost in the Infinite City or being captured by Phobos' forces. Yet the tension was clear, the rebellion was passing over a moment that would mark its future from now on. So there were the 'Mage', Aldarn, Drake and Sephiria, all of them sitting in their usual spots in the table (now with two seats empty), the blonde rebel already having drank his third glass of wine. They were waiting for Caleb, but they weren't expecting for him to show up with the Guardians and Vathek. The incredibly loud scream wasn't part of their expectations either.

"Young Caleb," the 'Mage' addressed the young rebel leader. "What is the meaning of that question?"

Caleb answered by throwing a scroll over the table. Sephiria extended her arm and took it, while Drake served himself another glass of wine and sipped from it, Aldarn listening and the 'Mage' not taking her eyes off from Caleb.

"Read it," Caleb ordered Sephiria, his eyes locked into the ones of the 'Mage'. "Read it! It's Carhaiz."

 _Ah, big brother's usual weapon_ , _knowledge_ ; Cyrus thought while drinking wine, this time almost gulping the entire glass. _Well, here we go. The breaking point_.

Sephiria read a bit for herself, her eyes widening as she did so. She looked at Caleb perplexed, and then she lowered her eyes to the scroll again and read aloud. "Carhaiz used to be a small town in the outer ring of Meridian," the green haired rebel read. "Then, around eleven years after Phobos' coup… the Rebellion delivered a merciless attack over it. According to the testimony of numerous guards that served under Captain Raythor that day, the…" Sephiria struggled to continue reading; "the massacre collected the lives of almost every citizen in the village; be it men, women… and children. The rebels were, however, detained afterwards, and witnesses testify that captain Raythor was the one to execute the former rebel leader, Julian during the…" Sephiria's voice trembled again. "The numbers of dead bodies amounted to 231 men, 218 women and 67…" Sephiria emitted a sound similar to the one someone emits while puking, but she didn't puke. "Light of Meridian…"

"That's enough," Taranee said, walking towards Sephiria and putting a hand over her back in order to help her calm herself. Then again, the Fire Guardian had almost puked too when learning what had happened in Carhaiz from Vathek's mouth.

"From where have you…?" the 'Mage', surprise showing in her otherwise stoic face, asked.

"From Ludmoore," Vathek told her. "I arranged for it long ago, just after Raythor's demise."

"And you believe it?" Aldarn, who hadn't even flinched during Sephiria's reading, asked then, arms crossed over his chest. "The King Smuggler would say anything to get a couple of gold coins."

"You do not understand," Caleb said bitterly. His eyes were still fixed onto the ones of the 'Mage', green against green. "You weren't there, listening to what Servantis told us. About Weira, about the rebellion, about the nobility's true intentions! You weren't there when I met Tristan, the hatred in his eyes because we burned his home. But you knew, didn't you?" Caleb asked the 'Mage', who kept herself silent. "Even since I had use of reason, I have been here, fighting for the ideals this Rebellion is supposed to represent. My father and you told me about our 'heroic quest', about how Meridian needed to be freed from Phobos. But the ones raping women were in our side, the ones torturing girls were on our side," he gave a couple of steps towards the table and grabbed the scroll, practically shoving it in the Mage's face. "And the ones burning children were on our side! And you knew this; I know you must have known this! You told me that my father perished destroying a weapon of the tyranny that was being built in Carhaiz. And the Light of Meridian knows I wanted to honor him, I took leadership in his absence and I wanted to avenge him! And the man I threw down the Abyss of Shadows was only following his duty when he killed him! I blamed a man for something he didn't do, in base of a filthy lie."

"Your father was an honorable and great man, Caleb. He fought for the right cause;" Aldarn told his commander. "You can't shame him just because of some lie of…!"

"It's not a lie;" Drake cut him. "Carhaiz was a village we destroyed, negating that reality now would be an idiocy; but I must admit there was really a weapon there."

"And what was that?" the attendants hear Irma's voice from behind the rebel leader, along the other Guardians. "'Cause from here it looks like you were just a bunch of assholes."

"Hope. The weapon was hope," Drake explained. "Hope that even under Phobos' rule, people could live happily, that they could live well under the nobility's care. That hope that you can survive during a tyranny if you only lower your head… that was what we intended to end."

"And for that, children had to die?!" Caleb asked, enraged to the extreme.

"That wasn't part of the plan;" the 'Mage' said, and for once, the truth came out of her lips. "The original idea was to turn them to our side, to make them join us. If even the ones they nurtured and guided like sheep were to join the Rebellion, perhaps the nobility would stop to try and further their influence in the outer ring, from where we have gathered our main forces. In the end, the nobles desisted, albeit for a different reason that what we intended."

"That's it?" Caleb asked his fellow rebel. "For years I was told that we gave people hope, when in reality we take as much from them as Phobos does, maybe even more! And that's the explanation, just a miscalculation?! That's what resulted in the loss of innocent lives?! Nothing but a side effect of a plan you had?!"

"Was in your plans for Rhouglar to rape that noblewoman and leave her in the state she is in now? Or perhaps it was in your plan that Tharquin kidnapped Jade and tortured her? As I told you before," Drake said; "a Rebellion made of thieves and killers, will thieve and kill. The majority of our forces are smallfolk, and most of them come from impoverished areas. It… must have hit them really hard that there was a village that had so much just by bowing to Phobos while they sacrificed so much in order to stand against him. Envy and bitterness can be… very strong fuels for violence. Your father decided to accompany the envoy force we sent to Carhaiz in order to guarantee its success via peaceful means, but it seems he wasn't enough. You can't control every aspect of a war so easily."

"And yet, I knew nothing of this. Why didn't you tell me this?!" Caleb shrieked.

"Because you weren't ready;" the 'Mage' intervened again. "You were just a _boy_. In many aspects, you still are. You weren't ready, at the time of taking leadership, to carry that burden over your shoulders." _I didn't want you broken so young_ , Nerissa thought. _And yet here you are now, knowing about your father's deeds, another tiny sacrifice I must do in order to achieve the greater good_.

"I wasn't ready?!" Caleb asked angrily. "Who made you the jury of that?! You, with your spells and your riddles! Telling us that we were saving this world! The man I put on a cell was doing a better job at saving anyone that you ever have!"

At that moment, something that no rebel had ever seen before happened. The 'Mage' slammed her palms furiously against the table she was sitting at, and looked at the young rebel leader with an anger matching his. "You dare to speak disrespectfully to me? You know who I am?" the glamoured Nerissa spoke in her disguised raspy and not-so-whispering-anymore voice. "I am the Mage. The Mage!" the table shook for a second under the power the Ancient One was radiating. Even Drake lost his composure, quickly grabbing the wine and putting it up in order to save it. No one had ever seen the Mage showing this kind of emotion before. "Who has the duty of protecting Meridian, but me? Who has been guiding the Queens of Escanor for generations? Servantis and the nobles may say that they look at Meridian's bigger picture, but I am the one with the burden or looking at the Known Worlds' bigger picture! What would happen if the nobles would have been left to their delusions of creating peace in Meridian while maintaining Phobos in power? Years would pass; maybe entire decades, but someday, Phobos would find his lost sister, and take the power of a Heart that resides within her! Then he would dedicate himself to conquer other worlds! How many would suffer then?

All the people in that room became frozen upon those words and over witnessing the Mage's rage. Caleb thought about her words for a second. Drake had said something similar to Taranee, hadn't he? That they must dirty their hands so others in the future had them clean?

"The Rebellion should know about Carhaiz," Vathek intervened after a while. "They should know what kind of…"

"No."

Every pair of eyes in the room turned towards Will. The redhead had remained silent the whole time, and now that she spoke she had shocked everyone.

"Don't get me wrong," Will said, her eyes falling over Taranee, knowing she would be the one with more problems with this. "What the Rebellion has done until now, with that Carhaiz, and Rhouglar and Tharquin; it's unforgivable. But I suppose Julian's image it's pretty important for the rebels, right?"

"Indeed," the 'Mage' answered after calming out. She really had a temper, didn't she? However, Will's words were enough to drag her out of it and focus on more important matters than justify her actions to her confused son. "Many of the men and women that join us everyday do it thanks to Julian's existence. They regard him as a hero, a symbol that even commoners can stand against the might of Phobos. If they knew his involvement at Carhaiz, then we would lose a lot of support."

"My father would revolve in his grave if he knew that;" Caleb said.

"I agree," Vathek said. "It's not honorable." _It's not something that Julian would allow_ , he wanted to say too. But was that true? Considering what he knew now, had he really known Julian? Had he really known the Rebellion?

"But it's true," the Keeper of the Heart keep saying. "I have been thinking a lot after our talk with Servantis. About what he said about Phobos' mom not being suited to be Queen, and what he tried to do after the coup. It's stupid to think that the nobles aren't doing their best to better the lives of the... the smallfolk;" it was clear that Will struggled with the word; "under their care. And even if you said that Torus Filney needed to be conquered for whatever strategic whatnot, what we did in there, all the people that died… what if there is another way?"

"If you are suggesting that we can win this war without killing those who fight against us," Drake cut her, "then I will told you the same I told Taranee here…"

"I'm not saying that," Will cut him in retaliation. She breathed deeply. "I've killed. Jade has killed. And it feels horrible. But I can understand it was necessary."

"Will!" Taranee, still at Sephiria's side, protested. "We aren't weapons, we aren't killers! I'm thirteen years old! I refuse to…"

"I'm not a killer, Taranee, I'm not a monster!" the redhead said, recalling the words of the angry men that had charged at her after she had killed that man. "I won't ask you to kill children. I won't ask you to kill anyone, I won't force you to go there, I don't want you to go there, I don't want anyone there;" Will said, and the Heart of Kandrakar beat strongly against her chest for a second. "But can you go back to Earth knowing what happens here? Knowing you could have done more to save innocents, even if it meant dirtying your hands? Can you?"

Taranee looked at her side briefly, and then she looked at Will again. She looked at her leader, at her friend. "No," she answered. "I'll stay here." _For you, and Jade, and the girls and Caleb_ ; she added in her thoughts. _And if any of you get too close to losing yourselves to this war's madness, I'll be the one pulling you out_.

"Keeper of the Heart," the 'Mage' called for the redhead. Nerissa was getting actually interested in the turn this whole mess was taking. Carhaiz had been a defeat for everyone, and here it was again, years later from that fiasco that had coasted every side in this war so much, showing its ugly head in order to trouble everyone once again Perhaps the reveal of the atrocities committed there and the loss of the man she loved could end in a profit now? "What is your proposal?"

"You saved Jade," Will said. "I'm grateful for that, and I won't try to understand how your work is supposed to function. But this Rebellion needs to change, because if it doesn't and you depose Phobos, then you will find another Rebellion made out of all the Carhaiz-s and Torus Filney-s out there."

"And how would you change it?" the 'Mage' asked once again.

"If the nobles do care about the smallfolk," Will explained; "why not bring them to our side?"

"What?!" Aldarn asked. "That's ridiculous! They are our enemy!"

"Aldarn makes a point," Drake stated. "We have been at war with them for far more than a decade, and they have as much reasons to hate us as we have to hate them, especially after Servantis' fall. Good luck with making them to join us."

"We don't need all of them, just enough to create a proper army." Will told them both. "With two or maybe three..."

"And pray the Light of Meridian;" Sephiria intervened, now that she had regained some of her composure. "How are we going to accomplish that?"

"Let her explain," the 'Mage' ordered. "With the desertions we will have from the forces of Rhouglar and Tharquin after their deaths, this can be a good form to gather allies." _And without Servantis around anymore to keep them together, some of the nobles will side with Phobos completely, but others won't_ ; Nerissa thought as she smiled behind her glamour. _A conclusion I already had reached to. And that now_ , she thought as she looked at Will; _you have reached too_.

"You worked at court," Will told the 'Mage'. "You know the nobles; you know how many of them think. I need to know that too;" Will sighed. "Then, if we understand them and give them what they want, we will be able to control them."

"Strike a deal with the nobles that are more sympathetic with our cause?" Drake pondered. "Clever," the blonde man said. _And it's nothing that could get in the plan's way, actually. In fact, it could help our little game, and raise enough conflict to speed things up for the first phase of the plan. Big brother is going to love it_. "But how are you going to approach them?"

"That's why I need the Mage's help, and everyone's here;" Will aid. "But before…" she turned towards her friends and fellow Guardians. "I need to know if everyone's okay with this. I know it's not how none of us thought this whole 'being a superhero' would be, but I feel like if we don't do this then… then more innocent people will get harmed, or killed."

Cornelia looked at the redhead in front of her. She wasn't just asking for permission, or their approval, wasn't she? No… she was asking for help. The same conclusion seemed to have been reached by the Guardians of Air, fire and Water. One by one, all of them agreed to Will's idea and asked for her to explain what she had planned. Not out of pragmatism, or a desire for victory; but out of a desire to protect their friend and walk beside her in the storm. Of course, not everyone in the room was the same as the girls.

Cyrus Ludmoore decided to play along as he had done until now; and as he served himself another glass of wine, he started to think about which wording he would use to inform Charles of all this. Sephiria decided that this course of action was the best one to accomplish her duties. Vathek was thinking about making a hard decision or not; and Aldarn had already made his decision. Caleb… Caleb was still clutching that damned scroll. The reveal about Carhaiz, that his father had been unable to stop those atrocities and that he had thought of him a saint while committing the same failures Julian had… it made him hate himself. As for Nerissa…

Nerissa was smirking behind her glamour, said smirk getting bigger and bigger as Will proposed her plan of action. _Well, well, well…_ the Fallen Guardian thought with pleasure. _I knew you had potential Will, but I didn't know you had so much. Fate must be conspiring in my favor, at this rate I will just have to sit back and let you all do all the work until the Heart of Meridian comes back home. I should start to prepare that siphoning spell on that jewel…_

* * *

 ** _Thirty five minutes later_**

It took them more than half an hour to get the plan designed and working. After the meeting everyone had left the room without too many words, everyone with too many things in their head to think about. Aldarn hadn't even directed a word to him, perhaps he was as troubled as his friend due to the revelations and what the plan entitled? Caleb had to admit it was a good plan, it was a good way of shortening the conflict even if it meant doing some dishonorable things... and it was something that he should have been able to figure out sooner. But no, the thought was at that time unthinkable. How could the Caleb of that time think about the nobles as potential allies? They were the enemy! And only now he thought about the dishonor implied in his actions, just because he had started to see them as people. He had nothing to call Will out on, after all she and the girls were just trying to fix a problem he had created. Like with Tharquin. And like with Rhouglar. He almost laughed darkly at that. Servantis' and Tristan's words came to haunt him once more, and Caleb found ironic that his Rebellion seemed to have done as much harm as good. He reclined his back against the wall and sighed.

He was in one of many small and lonely passageways of the Infinite City now, near enough to the Rebellion's camp to not get lost but far away enough to not get bothered by others. He liked this place, it provided solitude when needed. He had found it as a child, after one of his training sessions with his father. His father...

Julian had been the one to fill his head with stories about Ser Grendal, Ser Hoel, Ser Brandis and Ser Didier; about King Escanor, Queen Leryn and Meridian's age of heroes. But Drake had been right, heroes and villains were things of tales and songs for children, and he had thought himself in one. Look at what he had done to Raythor, and Raythor hadn't been at fault at all, just a man following his duty, even if serving under the wrong master. Like Lothar, and all those soldiers. Tristan's face came to his mind again. Had he looked at Raythor with those hateful eyes too? But there was a difference, since Tristan's hatred was, at least, justified. Why hadn't Raythor told him the truth? Would have that mattered at all? Probably not. ' _Lies of the tyrant and his minions_ ' he had called anything escaping their mouths, no matter how much sense it made. What a foolish boy he had been, for thinking himself an honorable man when not being one.

"Penny for your thoughts, pretty face;" he heard a voice then. Looking up his eyes fell over Cornelia, who waved at him awkwardly. How had she been able to find him? Oh right, Earth Guardian. From all of them she was the one that could easiest move in the Infinite City, sensing the people in the halls with her powers. She was still dressed in the same greenish jersey and lavender long skirt that she had brought from Earth. "Mind if I sit with you?"

Caleb shook his head and the blonde Guardian, or more accurately blonde girl since she still was in her human form; sat at his left. While Caleb sat with his legs stretched and opened, Cornelia sat down and put one leg gracefully over the other, crossing them.

The two of them didn't say anything for a while, Cornelia drumming her palms over her knees a bit before asking. "So? What's up in your head?"

"Too many things," Caleb answered. He really didn't want to do this right now. "What about the others?"

Cornelia shrugged. "Will's still with the Mage, Irma insists on seeing Jade, Hay Lin and Taranee are speaking with Yan Lin, Tohru and Uncle, I think. Jackie must still be at Jade's side. And Vathek..."

"Do you know my father and Vathek were the closest of friends?" Caleb said abruptly. He had thought of not talking, but the words were coming almost by themselves. "When I was a child they would spent a lot of time together, laughing and drinking. I think Vathek was the only man that was able to make jokes at my father's expense. All the others talked to him with either admiration or respect. They talked of him as if he was the hero of an old song come to life, and I think I saw him like that too. But Vathek... Vathek knew the man; in the same way Aldarn has known me. I think one of the reasons he volunteered so many years ago to become our infiltrate in the castle was because he thought of it as a favor to his friend. This whole revelation… I suppose it must be hitting him in the same intensity yet differently than it's hitting me." Caleb stopped and put his hands together, interlacing his fingers. "Meridian knows I tried to be like him, that I tried to carry on with his legacy once the Rebellion's leadership fell upon me."

"Maybe that's the problem, Caleb;" Cornelia said. "Who said that you should be like your father?"

"Everyone," Caleb continued. "Of course they didn't say it, but none wanted a boy leading them. However, they were pretty eager to be marching behind the 'Son of Julian'. It's exactly as Will said, my father's image does bring people to our side. And I tried to be at the level of that image, trying to prove myself worthy of my father's pride… even if he is dead, and what he did."

"You heard the Mage and Drake," Cornelia told him. "Your father was…"

"How do I know if that's true or it isn't?" Caleb cut her. "How do I know what is true or false anymore? Was my father a hero that fought against a tyranny? Then why did he permit for people like Rhouglar and Tharquin in? Drake said it was just pragmatism, but what if he was just pursuing his own plans like so many others? What if he was only a man trying to do as best as he could with what little he had?" Everything had been far easier before he had jumped into that Portal and he had met them all. The Guardians and the Chans had made his entire world to turn upside down. But he couldn't be angry at them for that, and he supposed he should be grateful. If they hadn't opened his eyes, then he would be celebrating their conquest of Torus Filney right now, singing. "It's all so…"

"Complicated?" Cornelia helped him to end the phrase. "You know what my plan for high school was? Go to school, win more ice skating matches, spend time with my friends, and maybe get a boyfriend or something. But no; Will appears one day at school, and next thing I know I'm in Hay Lin's family restaurant and her grandma just tells everyone magic's real and that we're some kind of mystic warriors, and then Jade pops up too, and Jackie's giving us Kung-Fu lessons… and now I'm fighting a war." Cornelia paused a moment, and stopped drumming her palms against her knees. "Maybe we should accept that the world… or rather worlds' in this case, are complicated, and that the people over them are complicated too. Doesn't that mean your father was complicated too?"

"You are speaking as if you know for what I'm passing;" Caleb told the blonde. She had all the reason in what she had said, but he wanted to know why.

"Maybe I do," Cornelia told him.

"How?" the young rebel leader asked.

"Taranee told us that you bought the guns from a man named Chang," the blonde said, and Caleb nodded slightly. "You know, in Earth selling guns it's illegal. It's a crime."

"It is?" Caleb asked in a sincerely confused manner. Why would it be a crime to sell weapons? Meridianites sold weapons all the time, be either the blacksmith that made them or another that just put them in sale, swords, axes, spears, bows and arrows, all of them and from the lowest to highest quality could be bought in Meridian. However, considering what those guns, as the earthlings called them, could do; he supposed that there was a reason behind that decision. Also, it meant that he had been cutting deals with another criminal. Fantastic…

"Yes, but that's not the matter," the blonde Guardian said. "That Chang guy… how did he look like?"

Caleb shrugged. "Not an elder, but yes older than many adult men I know;" the rebel leader explained. "Not very tall, slim… the trait that gathered the most attention was a…"

"A green hand instead of a normal one?" Cornelia asked.

"You know him?" Caleb answered with his own question.

Cornelia raised her legs and hugged them, putting her head over her now raised knees. It was if she was trying to hug her own self. "I think my dad works with him, or for him… or something. That Hak Foo guy, the one who stole the red Oni Mask, works with them too."

Caleb remained without saying a word. Instead, he kept listening to what Cornelia wanted and needed to say. She had listened to him, after all.

"It's not so easy being me, you know?" the Earth Guardian said, more for herself than anyone else. She looked sideways to Caleb, to the scar that adorned his pretty face. It didn't look bad on him, for that matter. When he had appeared tumbling out of that portal, she had thought of him as nothing but a pretty face. Now… he seemed as the only person who would understand. "And everyone thinks it is. That I'm just this hyper-competitive girl obsessed with clothes and boys, that I think myself perfect. But it's not so simple. Sometimes I feel as if I'm in some sort of shell that I've built around me. I mean, I do enjoy winning, I enjoy ice skating, I enjoy being pretty most of the time; I'll be a total liar if I said anything else."

"But?" Caleb asked.

"But sometimes I think that's everything people think there's to me;" Cornelia continued. "That everyone just sees that and claps now, but that they are waiting for me to fail and fall, and then just laugh. That's the reason I don't like losing, or failing. And the worst thing was that a tiny part of me felt like I was doing it for my dad. Everyone around me said how awesome he is, and I just felt that I shouldn't be less. And I was such a bitch to everyone in school that reminded me of how I really am… I mean, look at how I reacted to Will and Jade at first, and to all this Guardian things when it popped out, just because I was afraid it would ruin my perfect, little bubble. And now my dad turns out to be working with… I don't even know what they are."

Both of them remained silent for a long time afterwards. Then Caleb put his left arm over Cornelia and pulled her towards him. She ended resting her head over his shoulder, and the two kept staring ahead, silent.

"The world is complicated," Caleb said at last.

"World's complicated," Cornelia repeated. "People are too. That… should include our fathers, right?"

The rebel leader didn't answer, but he kept hugging her. No other word was said between the two until they left the hall that Caleb had been using as his secret fort of solitude since childhood. Not that any word was needed, anyway.

* * *

 ** _In another section of the Infinite City…_**

"Damn it!" Aldarn yelled, punching a wall in another section of the Infinite City. It as a chamber devoid of any other rebel aside from him, his only company his loyal Hoogong mount, one of the few the Rebellion had now, at least until they captured and trained more. The animal answered to his yell with a bit of agitation, even if it was accustomed to the chaos of battle already.

Aldarn retired his fist from the greenish wall, looking at how it had left a mark over his knuckles. Small drips of blood were starting to show in them, so he decided to stop. The nobles, they had decided to pact with some of the nobles! Manipulate them or not, this was basically the same as asking for their help! The help of the men that were leading the enemy armies in Phobos' stead, the same armies that had occasioned so much pain to them! And now they were willing to pact with them, just thanks to the words of someone like Servantis, who was a nobleman himself! How dared Caleb to say that he was right while shaming Queen Weira! This… this wasn't right! He had been listening to the Keeper's plan in silence, hoping that Caleb, the Mage or even Drake would protest to it. But they hadn't! They had all agree to it, even calling it the best course of action! Rhouglar raping that woman had been unforgivable, and what had happened in Carhaiz… Aldarn had admired Julian too, but even for him it was clear that the Rebellion had taken a bad turn in the past. However, in total opposition from Caleb, he was able to see that the Guardians weren't the solution; that they weren't the solution anymore, and that perhaps they hadn't been the solution to begin with. What the Rebellion needed now, after all the pillaging wasn't for a search of help between the enemy's lines. What it needed right now, in Aldarn's opinion, was a purge.

He approached the wall and retired a fake portion of it to reveal a little hiding spot. He reached inside the hole and took a wooden box out. Behind him, his Hoogong flinched and grew more agitated, especially after he opened the box and revealed what contained. ' _An old relic from our family, we who are direct descendants of Ser Hoel, of the Four Knights_ '; that was what his mother used to tell him while holding this… thing in her hands. She had never left him to play with it, and now he hoped his mother's concern hadn't been unfounded.

He approached the agitated Hoogong and patted the big animal in the neck in order to calm it. Then he made a fast movement and put the Mask over the animal's visage. Between screams of pain, the trinket ended wrapping itself around the cranium of the Hoogong, giving the animal blue scales instead of feathers. The animal calmed down afterwards, and looked at Aldarn with a tilted head and predatory eyes, even if the Hoogongs weren't known as carnivores.

 _So it is not a fake_ , Aldarn thought as he pulled a dagger out of his back. He approached the Hoogong and patted it again. "I'm sorry boy, but sacrifices need to be made;" the rebel muttered. Breathing a couple of times in order to gather courage, he passed his hand over his own bald head for a couple of seconds, feeling the scales that ran through his skin from in some spots. He sank the dagger in the Hoogong's neck afterwards, hugging the animal tightly while it bleed out and screamed in pain, fear, and confusion. A single tear fell from Aldarn's eyes as the blood from the animal dirtied his clothes, which he reminded he should change afterwards. The animal's strength seemed to had increased and for a moment the shadows of the room enlarged themselves as if they wanted to come to the rescue of their new master. However, after a couple of more seconds of struggle, the animal died and the Mask fell from its face by itself, the shadows returning to their previous shape. So a Mask was useless if worn by a dead body. That was important.

Aldarn sat in the ground and took the relic. _My weapon_ , he thought of it. _The Rebellion's weapon_. He kept staring at it, at how… monstrous it seemed. The blue scales gave it an eerie appearance, mouth opened as if screaming a war cry, fangs sharp and pointy, no trail of hair over it, in contrast with the one that Ludmoore had auctioned and Lothar had worn. He put it back in the box, but decided to keep it with him from now on. Such a powerful weapon shouldn't be left out there for anyone to find and use recklessly.

Dedicating one last glance to the fallen Hoogong, Aldarn got out of the room; leaving the corpse behind. He would change his clothes and dispose of them, blame the killing of the Hoogong to one of the men loyal to Tharquin or Rhouglar and that seemed to be leaving the rebel base. He would wait for the ideal moment to strike, and then he would don the Mask and he would have the Rebellion he had dreamt of. Meridian needed the rebellion, and he had come to the conclusion Caleb wasn't able to lead anymore. Now it was his time. And as he left the chamber behind, the shadows seemed to whisper in his absence, leaving a name echoing though the walls.

 _Killer of a Hundred Men Ikazuki…_

* * *

 ** _Irma Lair; near Jade's room_**

Irma Lair wasn't a girl for meticulous plans. She had jumped into being a Guardian because it sounded awesome; it had been awesome to fly and shot water to giant, talking snakes; evil wizards, and shadow ninjas, and she liked it. Right now, it seemed that it meant a lot more responsibility than before. That was the reason she had agreed with Will's planning, not only because she liked to leave the thinking to others while she just punched (or in this case, shot water at) things or people, but because she thought that the redhead was the best suited for this situation. Speaking of said redhead, Irma had to admit she had come really far in a very short time. Months ago, when she had arrived in Heatherfield, she could barely stand to Corny's bravado. And now here she was, she had kissed a guy, she had lead the team in fights, and now, even in human form, she had been able to come up with a plan that, regardless of needing elaboration alongside the Mage, was pretty astonishing. Was it the result of killing a man and not wanting for any other of the girls to pass and suffer such a situation? Probably. But with that matter taken care of, Irma had time to do something she had wanted to do since they had come back to this creepy underground city, or whatever it was. That was, of course, seeing Jade.

Jade… Jade had come really far in a short time too, but in it had resulted in something bad. Irma had to admit both of them were pretty similar, with all the wanting to live adventures, and be strong and awesome… who wouldn't want that? But while Irma had gathered admiration while becoming stronger, Jade had become the target of a monster. God, she had wanted to kill him. She was sure that, had Tohru not stopped her she would have killed him. Pour water in his mouth until he couldn't breathe. But in the end it had been Jade who had delivered the finishing blow, in a very frightening way, to be sincere. Then again, was it reprehensible? No one would miss someone like Tharquin, not her at least. Not after what he had done to her friend. But it was the fact of how Jade had done it, of how wrong it had looked to her, what was troubling Irma. That was the reason she was here now.

She had stopped right into the door to the room the Mage had left Jade in, alive yet still sleeping, recovering from the wounds that bastard Tharquin had inflicted on her. What should she say, what could she say? She extended her arm slightly towards the door, which was opened just a crack. Before she could reach it, however, she heard voices inside the room. Agitated voices. Even if it could be considered insensitive, she decided to peek inside. What she found herself looking at were Jade, still conscious and lying semi-incorporated over the bed, clothed in nothing but her underwear; and Jackie sitting in a chair in front of his niece and giving his back to the door. They seemed in the middle of an argument.

"You can't be serious, uncle Jackie!" Jade yelled. "I just… woke up and you come here with all this, and…"

"Jade," Irma heard the man. He sounded tired, very much so. "Jade, I know this isn't something you want to talk about, but I want you to understand…"

"What's there to understand?" Jade asked. "Look at this!"

She turned slightly around, so Jackie could see her back. Irma was able to see it too. Scars, a dozen of them for that matter, all over the girl's back. It seemed that the Mage had been able to save her life, but not leave her body without marks. Her heart skipped a beat upon seeing them, and her contempt for the deceased Tharquin grew.

"Look at what he did to me," Jade said bitterly. "He deserved to die!"

"Nobody deserves to die," Jackie said, and Irma could feel the anger mixed into his voice. "He deserved to spend the rest of his days in a cell, day and night dedicated to think about the horrible things he had done to you!"

"Oh, oh, oh! I get it now!" Jade said, smirking a bit. "So uncle Jackie wants to talk to me about ethics, and honor, and that the best fight is the one not fought. Tch! Do you wanna talk about integrity? Fine! You do it after you've told Cornelia that you and her dad work for the mafia!"

 _Cony's dad works for what now?_ Irma thought in shock. The conversation between uncle and niece seemed to have died there, as the Water Guardian saw Jackie rising from his seat, clearly with the intention of leaving the room. She was quick to leave her spot in the door and hide behind a corner, waiting for a too lost in his thoughts Jackie to notice her to pass by. Then she walked towards the door again, this time opening it completely. She entered and her eyes met with Jade's.

"Irma?" the girl in the bed asked upon seeing her friend, dressed in an orange t-shirt covered by a bluish vest over it and a pair of jeans of the same color.

The Water Guardian closed the door behind her and gave a few steps ahead in order to get close to Jade. The fact that the wolf-girl was practically naked didn't help to the lower her tension. "Hi," she said awkwardly. "I… saw Jackie in the way here. He seemed angry."

"We were speaking about Tharquin," Jade said. "I don't want to talk about that anymore, sincerely. How're the others doi-?"

Before Jade could finish the sentence, Irma did what she knew best; giving in to her emotions. Next thing Jade Chan knew was that her face was buried in Irma's chest and that the Water Guardian was hugging her strongly. Jade would have found the situation pleasant in any other moment, but now it had surprised her too much.

"Irma, what the heck?!" the Ben-Shui reincarnation asked.

"You idiot!" the brunette said as she hugged her tighter. "Do you know how scared we all were? You almost… almost…" Irma ran her hand over Jade's back. The complete different sensation that the skin and the scars produced under her touch was too weird. Scars that would always be there, that would always accompany Jade to wherever she went. "You…" Irma muttered, but she wasn't able to finish her own sentences. Instead, she let her body speak for her and kept hugging Jade.

As for the Chan girl, after the initial surprise had disappeared, she closed her eyes and gave into the hug, enveloping Irma with her own arms. She could feel Irma touching her scars, scars like the ones Tharquin had, like the ones he inflicted upon himself. It felt like a bad joke; even with the man dead she would always bear a reminder of what her pigheadedness had cost her. Lady Báthory had been right; she had been acting like a fool. This wasn't like those adventures with Jackie; this was something far more serious. She had killed a man. She… hadn't even thought about what repercussion that would have; she had done it even if he couldn't defend himself. And she didn't feel guilty over it. It had felt so… easy. But she had yelled to Jackie just for pointing out how dangerous that mentality was, for Christ's sake! She should apologize… later. Right now, it felt good to be where she was.

* * *

 ** _Jackie Chan_**

 _You are a failure. You know that, don't you? What are you going to tell to your cousin when he wants to see his daughter again? Are you really going to deliver a killer to him? Are you? You are pathetic_ ; a voice inside Jackie's head told him in a mocking tone, a product of his own guilt. Who had been the one letting Jade to fight a war? Who had been the one agreeing to let teenage girls to throw themselves into this nightmare? He! He had been the one! And the worst part was that he had had the nerve to talk to Jade like that, about codes and integrity... and it made him feel like a hypocrite. He had been the one telling Will that she couldn't run from this situation; he had been the one letting Jade to go with the girls into their missions. He hadn't voiced any objection to those missions in the first place! The archeologist knew that anything related to magic would always be extremely dangerous. If Will and Jade had just been hurt; he could handle it even if he felt guilty over it. But this, this was a complete different story.

They had killed; they had taken lives. This scenario… he didn't know how to handle it. And he had had the nerve to lecture Jade around the whole thing. He felt as if the code he had followed his whole life had become suddenly outdated, and that he was the child now.

"Uncle knows that face. It's the face nephew does when doesn't know if he has done something stupid or not. Probably he has, but Uncle always needs to tell him!"

Jackie had started to hear the sound of footsteps following him from five minutes ago, but he hadn't noticed that the person following him was his elder. The archeologist didn't even turn his head around, instead slowing his pace in order to let the old man to walk at his side.

The two men walked side by side for a while, without uttering a word. They had lived too many years together, they knew each other too well. Words weren't needed between these two men, yet sometimes they were welcomed. This was one of those situations.

"So? Does Uncle need to sit you down like when you were a child?" the old Chi Wizard asked. "If nephew does not talk, Uncle can't help him."

"What kind of people throws teenagers into a war?" Jackie asked. He was both talking about Kandrakar and about himself. "Without consideration, without any warring or second thought or without worrying at all."

"Nephew did worry," the elder remarked.

"And what use did it have?" Jackie retorted. "Both Jade and Will have killed people. I understand that they didn't do it in cold blood... but it goes against everything I believe. Worse, the way Jade talked to me... it feels as if what I believe in it's not relevant anymore."

"Maybe," Uncle said as he put his hands at his back.

"Maybe?" Jackie asked. That wasn't the type of answer he was expecting.

Uncle breathed deeply. "Remember how Uncle used to drink only coffee before? Uncle reaaaally disliked tea. Then Tohru came along, and Uncle discovered that his new apprentice could make really good tea. So now Uncle likes both tea and coffee. He drinks both of them often, sometimes between very small time lapses, in order to balance the effects they have upon Uncle's body! I think that right now nephew just became tea and niece became coffee;" the old man paused for a few seconds to catch his breath. "Meridian is at war, that and what repercussions it entitles, nephew must have known;" Uncle said. "It's normal for nephew to worry, it's normal for nephew to have doubts about his way of life. But that doesn't mean niece and the Guardians have to follow it, or that he should abandon it. Perhaps nephew should maintain his way while being enough open-minded to accept niece's way at the same time, and be at her side in order to balance her."

"Balance her?" Jackie asked.

"Be here for her," uncle told him. "And don't criticize her actions when not needed, try to value them for what they accomplish. If you try to pull her away from her trials now, then you will only push her away from you and further into the darkness."

"But she… Auch!"

"Killed a man?" Uncle said after dope slapping Jackie. "Yes, she did, and using Blood Chi Magic no less! Uncle will investigate how she figured to do that so fast, and of course nephew should make clear that there was a problem with that. But Alistair Tharquin was an evil man, one that really hurt niece, and nephew didn't have any problems when niece blew Shendu up!"

Well, that was true. He hadn't criticized her in the slightest when she had destroyed the Fire Demon's statue form, even when that resulted in another seven demons trying to run free from the Netherworld.

Jackie felt how Uncle's hand landed over his shoulder, and looked at the elder's face. The old man was looking at him with a very serious pair of eyes behind his glasses. "People that walk the path of the Ben-Shui and the Guardians are prone to a lot of situations that test their souls and minds' endurance. If you are not here for them, then no one will. Because both Uncle and nephew know that this is not something they can walk out from now. So if you don't want them to fall into the dark, then the best you can do is stay at their side."

"I just want to protect them, to do the right thing;" Jackie told his elder. "It shouldn't be so complicated."

"Then nephew should try to counsel them," Uncle said, "guiding them into the right direction, not overprotect them. Uncle has more probabilities of dying in this war than them, and he's not even fighting it!" the old man joked, albeit he regained his serious demeanor shortly after. "The problem with cousin Yan's generation was that no one was there to serve as their guide. And cousin won't admit it, she is more stubborn than you think, but that was one of the reasons she called us here."

Jackie let out a long sight, and the both continued walking. What Jade had done… while understandable, wasn't justifiable. The same thing could be said about the Rebellion, the same could be said about people like Raythor, or like Harold. ' _Because you can only think in black and white_ ', the words of the banker sounded inside his head yet again. Perhaps it was time to try a different approach.

* * *

 ** _Jade Chan_**

Irma had left around fifteen minutes ago, and she had been considerate enough to bring Jade's clothes with her and leave them at her bed's side. She had closed her eyes again when Irma had exited the room, trying to find her past lives; but they hadn't come. Maybe they didn't want to talk? Or perhaps they were discussing with each other? Irrelevant, perhaps it wasn't even one of those options. Perhaps it was just her head playing tricks on her, because every time she closed her eyes she saw him. Tharquin haunted her dreams now, sometimes as the old, bitter man he was, still carrying that damn whip of his. Other times, and worryingly more often each time she dreamed, he came to her very differently. In those nightmares, the Old Worm would appear before her as a pale skinned wraith, with empty eye sockets and the mouth open in a snarl, showing a blue tongue. Blood poured from both his mouth and empty eye sockets, and he would stretch his arm towards her, not in a malicious manner, but as if pleading for her compassion, which she would deny.

She had taken more time than usual to dress in her earthling clothes, feeling the scars in her back and how weird her clothes, her second skin, felt over her. Scars like the ones that scumbag had in his back.

God, she had killed him! Killed him! Killed him! Killed him! Killed him! And she had enjoyed it, hadn't she? No matter how much she tried, she couldn't deny that she had enjoyed killing that man.

 _He had it coming!_ she thought. _He tortured me! He was a..._

A what? A criminal? A is A, and scum is scum. That was what Quentin Ross had said. A criminal would be a criminal, irredeemable and immutable. That was so... simple. Nothing but an easy answer; that was everything that Ross' creed was. She had seen a boy, a scared boy, in those scars. And what about Cornelia's dad? Was he nothing but scum too? Wouldn't that make her the same? Irma and her had talked for long, the brunette sharing Will's plan with her. A good plan, intelligent one at that; but it was clear that Will had designed it in based on the soldier she had killed and the innocent people the rebels had killed at Carhaiz. Because Will had killed a man and the Rebellion had killed innocents, apparently. Wouldn't that make them scum too? And speaking of Will...

"Door's opened," Jade said aloud. "You can come in."

The door did open then, revealing Will Vandom behind. "How did you know?" the redhead asked as she crossed the doorframe and closed the door.

"Wolf's nose," Jade told the redhead, touching the part of her body in question.

"Ah," Will said plainly as she walked towards the other girl. While Jade sat in the bed's edge again, Will sat in the same chair Jackie had been using before. "Irma told me that you were awake. How're you feeling?"

"Better now," Jade said. _At least physically_ , she thought. "And you?"

Will shrugged, letting her gaze descend to the ground, where the redhead was making the tip of her feet to hit each other.

"Irma and I talked," Jade said. "She told me everything. About Torus Filney, Rhouglar, Carhaiz... and that you killed a man."

"So have you," Will told her.

The two girls stared at each other for several seconds. Then Jade smirked and Will chuckled dryly. The two of them let out a pair of not-very-enthusiastic laughs, bordering in being plain sarcastic, or even sad.

"This wasn't what this whole thing looked like months ago, right?" Will muttered after the laugh. "Do you know... that I find hard to remember his face? Of the man I killed, I mean. I still feel like I took something irreplaceable from him, and from that man that called him brother. And then, you and Tharquin..."

"Tharquin was a monster," Jade said then. "But, you know? After all that talk we got with Caleb after Raythor, I feel like a real hypocrite now; because no matter how much I think about it, I can't feel anything for him, not because he was evil or something like that... but because I hated him;" Jade took a deep breath. "I wish I could forget about him. I dream about him sometimes, and no matter what happens, I always kill him. I sink my claws in him and I make him explode, or choke in his own blood. Tch;" the Chinese girl looked up and half-closed her eyes. "It's not how I imagined how all this would develop. That's the reason you're here, right?"

Will was the one to breathe deeply now. "Irma told you about my idea."

"Yeah, she told me about your plan," Jade said, using the word she thought better described what Will was doing. "You want to manipulate the nobles."

"Control them, yes;" Will told her. "Bring them to our side, some of them at least. I was discussing it with the Mage, gathering information about some nobles that we can bargain with. Some want more authority, some others are less comfortable than others with Phobos... then, there are others that..."

"Have families?" Jade asked, forcing Will to look directly at the eyes of the dark haired girl, who just tilted her head at the growing discomfort showing in her friend's face. However, she didn't speak in a harsh tone, actually sounding quite understandable. "That's the reason you're here. 'Cause I've got a reputation, right? I heard those soldiers in Torus Filney, screaming. ' _The Black Wolf! The Black Wolf!_ ' They were scared. And I'm the only one, besides you, that knows what's to kill."

Will didn't say a word, instead keeping her reddish eyes fixed in the almost golden, amber eyes of her friend. "No matter how much I think about the matter, I always get to the same point."

"The fear factor," Jade said, recalling the words from Tepes. ' _My friends and I don't kill!_ ' she had told Dracul back then. What an idiot she had been.

Will nodded. "Apparently, Rhouglar provided that, but now he's dead, and he was a rapist, a murderer. I think everyone did well calling him Mad Dog;" Will's hands gripped her pants. "Do you think I'm a horrible person?" she asked. "For asking this of you, after all you've passed. I can understand if you don't want to roll with it, but it's just…"

"No," Jade told the redhead, cutting her sentence. "No Will, you aren't a horrible person. In fact, I think it's a good point;" she said, and then raised a hand in front of Will. Jade closed her fingers and palm and made a fist, enveloping it in a chi as red as the one she had been coated while killing Tharquin. She had called for her magic many times since she had awakened, but it always came to her as red chi now. She suspected it wouldn't turn white anymore. "If you've power, what's wrong with using it to protect people? I always wanted to protect people, even since I met Jackie. Adventures, magic… all of them don't mean anything if you can't safe those that you care about; but it's clear Meridian's not a place for heroes," she said as her eyes hardened. "If you have power, you can make a difference, right? Even if you have to dirty your hands. I did make a difference back there, when I killed Tharquin;" Jade let a few seconds before continuing. "And I think that it was for the better, no matter how much I think about it. But why was Tharquin how he was? What makes a monster like him? So go ahead, tell me whatever you thought about, Will. 'Cause if you think I can use this power to change this rebellion to something better then I'll do it; because that's what I want to use my power for. If we don't so something now, then more Tharquin-s will be born. So go ahead, if you're determined to take matters in your hands and do it, even if it means dirtying them, then I'll follow you and I'll walk by your side. I'm your friend, after all."

* * *

 ** _Wilhelmina Vandom; forty seven minutes later_**

It had all gone better than she had thought. Jade had agreed to her decision, even encouraging the redhead to be brave about her decision. This was a war, and torus Filney had proved her that harsh decisions needed to be made in order to win. But she won't be as stupid as Caleb had been. She won't burn cities to ashes; she won't rape women, or kill children… because that was nauseating and proper of animals. So she would try to minimize the losses; even if she knew that she couldn't save everyone. The Heart of Kandrakar beat slowly over her torso, always reminding her of who she was. Keeper of the Heart and the leader of WITCH. Whose idea had been to give her the jewel, and why? How was she special?

She had killed a man.

But it was her responsibility, right? Yes, for someone like Will Vandom, the fact that someone had been willing to put so much responsibility over her shoulders felt not only stressing but also… good. It meant someone was confident in her abilities, whichever they were.

She had killed a man. that she didn't want to kill. Why? Because she wasn't in control. And she wouldn't let it happen again. And for that… for that she needed to be in control of the situation, know every detail, and manipulate them in her favor. That was something that she had accepted. It still didn't ring well inside her head, but she had accepted it needed to be done. The Mage had told her that it was her duty, as chosen bearer of the Heart of Kandrakar; to make decision others couldn't, even if it meant to lie or manipulate them. That was the reason she was here now.

Finding Vera and her girls hadn't been extremely hard, since the former residents of the Red House were in the rebel base, yet maintained themselves a bit distanced from the main mass of people. Drake had been kinder enough to accommodate them in a small side-chamber to the main, enormous one that served as the rebels' camp (the redhead wondered how big this underground city really was. Did it travel under the whole planet, like a blood system?); and assign a group of five of the men that were under his direct command to guard the entrance. Considering that some of Rhouglar's followers were still around and that they surely took after their deceased commander, then the Keeper of the Heart understood the decision perfectly. However, they let her in after giving a look at the pendant hanging from her neck. A useful device the Heart of Kandrakar even in what entitled non-magical matters; opening almost every door to the redhead just by showing it around. When Will entered the room, she spotted the former mistress of the Red House sitting at a table. Unfortunately, she wasn't alone.

"Say 'Ah…'," Gentle Vera instructed the woman in front of her while preparing a spoon full of some kind of bluish liquid. Was it soup? Will hoped it was soup.

"Ah…" Ishol Servantis said, opening her mouth. The elegant clothes she wore as a noblewoman had been ditched in favor of a commoner's attire that didn't suit her too well; her hair badly tied into a ponytail that let the scar resulted from a healed wound in the side of her head to be seen. Another product of Rhouglar's abuse, surely. The former noblewoman closed her mouth over the spoon, swallowing the food in it happily.

"Now that's a good girl!" Vera complimented her in the same exact manner Will suspected her mother congratulated her when she was a baby and she ate her food properly. "Here, let me…" Vera said, cleaning one the sides of the noblewoman's mouth with her own sleeve. "That's better."

"Vera?" Will asked softly, not wanting to upset the woman. The mistress loked at her for several seconds for then rose from her seat, snapping her fingers so one of the whores would came and take lady Ishol with her, promising her to play. The fallen noblewoman giggled like a child would do, and followed the other woman happily.

"Well, well; if it isn't the dominating one;" the woman told the teenager. "If you want me to help you with your clothes again, then I cannot. And you really need help, you dress incredibly strange;" she said, referring of course to Will's earthling attire. "What do you want?"

"How's she?" Will asked, nodding slightly in Lady Ishol's direction. The noblewoman was now sitting on the floor, playing with a bunch of wooden figures under the care of one of Vera's girls.

"The woman is gone," the mistress told Will. "The only thing left is someone akin to a child. She cannot even talk properly."

Will shivered. What the hell had Rhouglar done to… no; she knew exactly what Rhouglar had done to her, just not with how much intensity. "Can we… talk for a second?"

"Of course," Vera answered as the two of them distanced themselves from the other girls. "What is it?"

"Are you familiar with other Red Houses across Meridian's medium ring?" Will asked her. "The ones in great cities like Lannion or Fallbottom?"

Vera thought for a few moments before answering. "I think so. Last time I was in Lannion I talked a bit with the woman in charge of the Red House there. She was pretty funny. Why?"

"Could you get some of your girls, or you; inside them?" Will asked. "Or maybe arrange a meeting between those women and me and the other Guardians?"

"If given enough time and resources, yes;" Vera answered, and Will knew that resources meant money. "Is this some other favor for the Rebellion?"

"No," Will said seriously. "It's a favor for me."

Vera shrugged. "Alright. It's not that I'm not accustomed to serve women either. I will talk with some of my girls, and if you can provide them with escorts until Lannion and Fallbottom, then you will have your meeting. I will talk with you later."

"Thank you," Will told her, turned around and started to leave.

"Now where is that damn knife?" Will heard Vera asking. "I swear I left it here! I need it to cut the meat!""

Unknown to any of them, Ishol clutched her sleeve when no one was looking at her.

* * *

 ** _Gareth Mountainson; a couple of hours later_**

Gareth was, in all meaning of the word, an opportunist. When he had first joined the Rebellion, he had looked for the role in which he could take more from. He had ended under Rhouglar's orders because men like Rhouglar let you to do as you pleased as long as you killed when he told you to kill, drank when he told you to drink, and looked in another direction when he abused some woman, if you weren't eager to join him, that's it. Gareth had joined the rebels because he thought he could make a better living (ergo, gain more gold) there than lost in some mountain taking care of some sheep. So far, he had been proven right, since Rhouglar let them to take the belongings of the people they killed, and Gareth sold them to the ones that better paid. Heck, he had been able to make deal with the King Smuggler himself! And he had to admit Ludmoore was the better payer of the bunch of rascals he had stroke deals with.

But now Rhouglar was dead. Meh, no one would miss him. But that meant Gareth had lost his main source of income. He hardly believed that any other rebel commander would let him to take 'spoils of war', as Rhouglar usually called their pillaging. He had even thought of joining Tharquin's parole of devote idiots, but they were too obsessed with the worshipping, the purity and the Light of Meridian and whatnots. And Tharquin had, apparently, ended dead too, sending said parole of devote idiots to escape in a hurry. Rhouglar's former men were in the verge of doing the same, wishing to return to their former lives of thieves in the outer ring rather than serve under more strict commanders, and for a second Gareth had been tempted to follow the new and self-appointed leader of the pack, Darry; a man almost as huge as Rhouglar and (if that was even possible) with less brain inside his skull. However, luck seemed to be on Gareth's side, since something unexpected had happened before they could leave.

A dark haired girl dressed in strange clothing had appeared and talked to them. Gareth knew her from seeing her at the Guardians' side, the Good Wolf, or at least the girl the wolf was while not being a wolf. Darry had been stupid enough to dismiss her, and even insult her. The girl, presenting herself as Jade Chan, (that was the name! He was horrible for names) had told him to shut up, and that she had an offer to make to them. Darry had reaffirmed himself to be more idiotic than Rhouglar when he had told her that he was in charge and that she didn't had a word with them. Then the girl's hands had coated themselves in red energy, and she had blasted Darry across the room. Magic, uh. Once in the floor, she had hit him with a kick in the ribs that had surely broken something. Oh right, Shapeshifters had quite the strength, even in human form.

"Anyone else wants to say something to me?!" Jade asked, adjusting her new orange hoodie after kicking that idiot's butt. "Yippie. Now, about that offer I talked about. Look at you, the Mad Dog's former pack. Not so strong anymore now without a leader, right? Man, it surely sucks to be you right now. If you stay here and mix with the others, you can't continue doing the same things than you did under Rhouglar. If you go out, you can get caught by the Princey's forces, and the rebels won't get easy on you if they catch you either, right?"

While some of his companions made distressed faces upon finally realizing how desperate their situation was, Gareth let one of his eyebrows to rise in curiosity. This girl seemed intelligent, vastly so. And she wouldn't be talking if she didn't want them to listen, or agree to her terms.

"But… today seems to be your lucky day;" the girl said as her lips formed a grin. "Because you all can get another shot at being rebels. Of course, there're going to be some changes," the girl in orange said, and as more words left her mouth, more grew Gareth's interest. "First," Jade continued; "you're going to answer to me from now on, except when I'm not here, when you'll answer to someone I left in charge. Second, that whole thing about raping women ends _now_. And if someone thinks he can do it again," Jade's right hand shifted into a black furred claw and enveloped itself in red chi, which she quickly pointed towards the fallen Darry's groin; "then that someone won't be losing his head but something way more precious to him."

Gareth heard how some of the others gulped; clearly the threat had been real and they knew it just by looking at her. He, instead; chuckled.

"Third, don't try running away from me;" Jade threatened again; "because I'll find you. I've already memorized each of your smells."

While the others were struggling with the decision, Gareth was quick to raise his hand and make the question that was most important. "Do we still get gold for this?"

Jade's smirk widened, and Gareth knew that she knew she had him. "Of course," the girl said. Damn, how old was she? He had only seen the Guardians in their magic forms and the wolf from afar, so he didn't know. Fourteen, thirteen? He was twenty six! But he wasn't so stupid to let this to pass over him just for something as trivial as age. If an opportunist couldn't take an opportunity…

Gareth gave a couple of steps and without doubt or saying any word positioned himself at Jade's side. Slowly, and one by one; the other seventeen men that were still alive from the group that had composed Rhouglar's personal band and inner circle did the same. But he had been the one to do it first, and Darry had been shamed, for not saying injured. Both Gareth and Jade smiled upon this. She had gotten her second in command, and he got to be second in command. And she knew that he knew that only she and her authority within the group guaranteed that. The hounds under Rhouglar were gone, no one would miss them. This was now a pack of wolves. And both Gareth and Jade loved it.

* * *

 ** _Hours later; the Small Council's room; Hay Lin_**

"So everyone has it clear?" Will asked aloud while sitting in one of the chairs at the table that one of the two deceased commanders had left free. Jade was sitting in the other one, and which one belonged to Rhouglar and which one to Tharquin while they were alive, that Hay Lin didn't know. It didn't matter.

The room was even more full of people than ever before, since not only were the Rebellion's commanders, the Mage and the Guardians here; but also Jade (who had, upon her arrival; received a storm of questions about her wellbeing that she had answered quite civilly) Jackie, Tohru, Mr. Uncle, and even her grandma. It was clear to Hay Lin that Jackie and Jade had things to talk between them thanks to the awkward glances they had shared, but the Air Guardian had been smart enough to realize that this was neither the place nor the moment for that.

"Clear as water," Caleb said in a serious tone, a sentiment that the 'Mage', Aldarn, Drake and Sephiria shared. Will's plan would last, according to the redhead, a month in order to get in action. Until then, the Rebellion would resume their guerrilla tactics, calling for them if the mission was incredibly important, or if they were going to deal with opponents that had access to magic abilities or weapons. Will had insisted, in spite of Taranee's loud protests, to keep the guns the Rebellion still had, arguing that they gave them a tactical advantage over Phobos' forces and bringing up the possibility that now all guards and Lurdens, for not speaking of the likes of Wong and Cedric; already knew of the guns and would be expecting them. Jade had, apparently, taken command over Rhouglar's remaining men, leaving a man named Gareth in command while she wasn't here; and the ones that had followed Tharquin like thoughtless robots had already left the rebel base, albeit not the Infinite City. And Jade's new… unit's, there was no other way to define it, first task was to find and capture them.

Will had judged it as a good idea. Why leave the Rebellion's most troublesome members under the care of people that cared first for them, and second for the Rebellion? Why not put them under the command of people that would put them in their place and control them effectively? And aside from all that, there was another, important matter to discuss…

"You want to find the true heir?" Aldarn inquired. "The lost Princess?"

"Why not?" Will asked. "She's the real heir to the throne, right? If she was in Meridian, then Phobos would've no right to sit on that throne. Plus she's supposed to be incredibly powerful, being the Heart of Meridian and all, right?"

"Indeed," the 'Mage' answered. "But finding her will be troublesome. Earth is a massive world, no doubt that was the primary reason that whoever took the Princess brought her there." _Even if I already know her name, and that she is in Heatherfield_ , Nerissa thought. _It would be so much easier to let Phobos gain Meridian's heart and then take it from him_ … That had been the original plan, actually, thirteen years ago. But no! Someone had to snatch the baby Princess away, and with her the power Nerissa had planned to steal. That and the rising of a Veil around this world, making the access to any other world that wasn't Earth impossible, had forced her to form the Rebellion around her beloved and her two years old son. _It's irrelevant, however, who gains the Princess first, and who ends bearing her power_ ; Nerissa thought. _In the end, the Heart of Meridian will be mine, no matter which side of this war wins. Either Phobos or that Elyon will wear the siphoning jewel, and making them to surrender it to me will be easy_.

"But perhaps the Keeper of the Heart of Kandrakar is onto something?" Sephiria intervened in her usual meek and polite tone. "The lost Princess is the Light of Meridian incarnate. That enormous power… shouldn't there be a way to detect it?"

"Perhaps," the 'Mage' said. _Of course there is, you fool_ ; Nerissa thought. "I shall investigate it and device a mean to which locate that power, but it will take some time."

"Then we'll be returning to Earth now;" Will said as she rose from her seat, since there was nothing else to discuss. She wasn't asking permission, she was clearly giving a command, a thing that obviously was perceived by the rest of the people sitting at that table.

 _You aren't even the one giving orders anymore_ , Aldarn thought as he saw how the Guardians, Yan Lin and the Chans left the place. His eyes were fixed in Caleb.

As for the girls and the rest of earthlings, they left the place in silence. Hay Lin made a quick nod to her grandmother, and Yan Lin replied with the same gesture. Of course the Air Guardian had told her what Will's plan was, and of course her grandmother had been worried. Hay Lin was worried too, these were his friends! Heck, Jade was her family! Her grandma would talk with her. Yes, she always was able to fix things when they turned in the wrong direction.

* * *

 ** _Later_**

"Will, a moment of your time; please?" Yan Lin asked to the redhead while the whole group walked through the halls of the Infinite City towards an exit from the underground labyrinth and into Meridian's wild. There they would use the Hearth to find a Portal and use it to cross back to Earth. However, now the party had halted, stopped by Yan Lin's question, many eyes fixed now in the Chinese granny. "Alone," she elaborated.

Everyone looked at Will then, expecting an answer; or perhaps a command? Sighing, the redhead nodded. "Sure," she then looked at both Cornelia and Jade for a brief moment. "Go ahead; we'll be there in a second."

The blonde and dark haired girl put themselves in the head of the group, leading the way and making the party to disappear after a few minutes. That left Will alone with Yan Lin, something that the redhead was clearly not enjoying, judging by her expression, her crossed arms, and the tension her body was showing. Will recognized when an adult wanted to give her a talk… and this looked exactly like that.

"Yes?" the redhead asked, leaning against a wall, one foot against it and the other against the ground.

"My granddaughter told me about," Yan Lin began, "what your plan for bringing some of the nobles to the Rebellion's side is."

 _Yes, of course she did_ ; Will thought. She had no problem with Hay Lin, the girl was a sweetheart and she could practically transform a stormy day into a sunny one with her smile, but she tended to think that every person had another's best interests at heart, and that left her to think that sharing everything was good. That combined with the fact that the Air Guardian thought that her grandma was an infinite source of wisdom that could cast light over every doubt in order to solve it… it rubbed Will in a wrong way. "What about it?"

"While your plan can be considered brilliant," Yan Lin told the young Keeper of the Heart; "you ignored Taranee's warnings about using those guns."

"The guns are useful," Will said, putting a lot of strength in every word. "I don't like them, and I don't like what they do, but they're useful in a war."

"I'm not talking about that, Will;" Yan Lin said. "Ignoring a companion's plea it's not befitting of a Keeper of the Heart."

"And then what am I supposed to do?!" Will asked, rising her voice. It was clear that the redhead wasn't comfortable with this situation, or with the choices she had made, but no matter how much she thought about it… she found no other options. It was her responsibility, her _duty_.

"Will, I'm just trying to help…"

Oh, that had been the last straw. Will uncrossed her arms and stopped leaning against the wall, approaching the old Chinese lady. "You want to help me?! You want to help us?!" the girl yelled. From Yan Lin's point of view, the redhead teenager seemed in the verge of a breakdown, tears forming in her eyes due to the huge amount of rage she was showing. "It's too late! You were the one that gave me this jewel, and told me I was supposed to lead! And now that I'm doing it you back off? Don't joke with me! And the worst part of it, it's that you knew! You were a Guardian before us! You knew what kind of things we'll have to do, you knew the only reason we're here it's because Phobos attacked Zamballa! What if he hadn't?! Would we just be ignoring this world's suffering?!"

"Will, that's not…"

"Well, I can't!" the redhead continued with her yells, ignoring Yan Lin's words completely. "I can't ignore it, I can't just go back home knowing what's happening here, knowing how many are bleeding and dying here, and that I can make it stop, even if I have to make… incredibly hard decisions;" Will let out a bitter, sad laugh. "I need to save as many as I can… we need to do it. What kind of person would I be, what kind of Guardians would we be, if we couldn't?"

"And for that, you have to manipulate and use innocents in a scheme?" Yan Lin asked.

Will looked directly at the Chinese elder's eyes. For a second, Yan Lin wasn't looking at the redhead's reddish eyes, but to Nerissa's green ones. For a second, for old Yan Lin, it was impossible to tell the current Keeper apart from the previous one.

"If I can save them with that, yes. What else I'm supposed to do?" Will said. "In order to save as many as I can, yes, Yan Lin. I will manipulate them. I will control them. And they will obey."

With that last sentence, Will turned around and walked away from the owner of the Silver Dragon, stomping her feet on the ground. Yan Lin, meanwhile, put her hand against the wall, supporting her now tired body. The years always weighted more in these situations. She let out a tired sigh out of her mouth and looked ahead. The tensions within the current generation were escalating, and that brought sadness to Yan Lin's old heart. She started to walk, knowing that the others were currently waiting for them. The last words she said in the Infinite City were ones dripping with sorrow, a sentence that she had wanted to tell Will from the first moment she had worn the Heart of Kandrakar.

"You were supposed to be better…"

* * *

 _What Meridian's war was forcing Jade and Will to become scared me. It was as if Nerissa had split herself in half and each one had reincarnated as them. Jade was the part of my friend obsessed with magic, adventures and being a heroine, the part of her that ended obsessing over power and that wanted the entire universe bowing to her, loving her. Will was the other part, the Nerissa that had lead us in battle with more efficiency than a seasoned general, and that ended becoming a schemer, manipulator and liar. It scared me so much, the fact of how similar to my friend they both were, and also the possibilities that fact brought up. Would this generation end like the previous one? Or worse… was my friend right in some of the things we accused and condemned her for?_ Yan Lin

* * *

 **Long Author Notes: Greetings, everyone. I hope you enjoyed reading this one as much as I enjoyed writing it. We have, basically, reached the first half of this fic's cover of the first season, and everything that has been happening thus far, aside from presenting other secondary plots, has been building this up. The Rebellion, already damaged, has touched rock bottom, which means it can now only go upwards. The girls adapt to the truths and lessons they receive, and each does in a way. Each is right, but also wrong. The same can be said about Jackie and Yan Lin, for that matter. You know, when I started the drafts for this story and to create the overall plot line, I decided to turn each of the girls' greatest strengths in their greatest weaknesses too. Hay Lin is cheerful and idealistic, but that also means she's kind of unrealistic about the bad things around her, and that she tends to see the good side of everything when maybe she shouldn't. Cornelia is strong and you can always count in that she will do her best when given a task, but that gives her a big ego that it's just a shield to cover how insecure she feels over the possibility of failing said task. Irma is headstrong and diligent, but that means that sometimes she just rolls with things she shouldn't roll with. Taranee is the most rational of the girls and the voice of reason within the group, and I decided to turn her into the one with the strongest moral code, but this also means she can't be as pragmatic as Will or Jade. Jade, for that matter, was given what she always wanted in the first chapters of this story, magic powers and the opportunity to be part of the action with her new friends; but that resulted into the whole Tharquin ordeal and her almost becoming a Blood Knight and accepting the counsel of some of her previous incarnations that aren't precisely the most heroic people through history. Will is probably my favorite one, basically because how I have twisted her character development from canon. From insecure girl to chessmaster in the two seasons of the TV series, here that happens in a much darker setting, which means she uses her new role as Keeper of the Heart as a boost of confidence… that leads her to think she needs to take control of things because else others will die; even if this means manipulating or even harming some of said innocents to save the majority. And all this is fueled by her trauma of killing a soldier. Which leads to the comparisons Yan Lin notes between Jade, Will and Nerissa; and her understandable preoccupation. However, both Yan Lin and Kandrakar are so ashamed of Nerissa, that they don't like bringing her up, which means problems. Jackie receives the same treatment, understanding that his code can be a limitation in some cases, and that this one is one of them. You know, I think the most functional characters here are actually Uncle and Tohru. So who's right and who's wrong? No one. And all of them. That is what having flawed characters entitle, and that's what I wanted to do with this fic. As for Carhaiz and the whole business with Julian, I had planned to solve it in this chapter, but I decided not to, mainly because it would have make it too overloaded. However, I suppose you all would be able to put some pieces together at this point.**

 **So, why the long text? You see, this story won't be updating in a long time, give it a couple of months. However, I'm not going to abandon it, and chapter 15 should be some kind of Christmas present… maybe. Anyway, hope that you enjoyed it once again, please leave a review, and have a happy life. Good bye.**


	15. The Players steer their Forces

**Disclaimer: I own neither the WITCH cartoon-show nor Jackie Chan Adventures; they are the property of their respective creators, writers, and producers.**

 **Author Notes: Hello! Long time no see, everyone! Sorry for the little wait in this one, but it needed to be put aside for a while in order to do things; which didn't turn out to last as long as I thought they would, but whatever. This chapter (and what a loooong chapter it is) is nothing but a readjust of the status quo after the last chapter, and then we go onboard for the four chapters dedicated to deal with Chang's Dark Hand… which will be the ones that won't be appearing until long after this one. Many thanks to all readers and reviewers of the last chapter, and I hope you all enjoy this one.**

* * *

Guardians, Wizards and Kung-Fu Fighters

Episode Fifteen

The Players steer their Forces

* * *

 ** _Dreaming…_**

Will was running. She didn't know why, but she was running as fast as she could. She was running away from… something? Yes, that was it! What other reason would be for running like a maniac? So Wilhelmina ran, ran and ran… until she tumbled and fell to the ground. Only then she heard the screams behind her, and she remembered she was running away from them. She got to her feet as quick as she could and ran again. But then the ground melted, and she found herself falling deep below, sinking in what seemed to be a sea of dark, dense waters; almost as if she was in a sea of fuel. She tried to scream, but only bubbles of air escaped her mouth. And she felt heavy, so heavy under those waters… she was drowning, wasn't she?

 _Pathetic, useless! Didn't you take pride in swimming? And now here you are, sinking like a rock! Useless! Useless!_

"I'm not… useless…" Will mastered to whimper. Why was everyone calling her useless? Perhaps… perhaps she was?

"No!" she screamed, and moments after the redhead was swimming up, and in no time she was able to get her head out of the water and take a long, deep breath. The waters practically spited her upwards then, and when she fell down again her back it against cold, wet ground. She was on land once again, which was good news. Bad news? The screams had returned too. However, this time the redhead didn't run. She turned around and decided to face the screams. Then the screams came.

They came… in the form of an enormous, four legged behemoth composed of rotting corpses. Each of the corpses' faces was screaming in agony, almost as if they were in complete pain.

 _Useless!_ the creature yelled. _Why didn't you save all of us?! Why did you kill that man?! Why didn't you let him live!_

"I couldn't!" Will retorted, and not feeling useless at all, she jumped towards the behemoth. In midair, she took the shape of her Guardian form and slammed against the creature's chest, piercing through it and leaving a hole in its body. The creature crumbled then, leaving behind nothing but rotting corpses that, somehow, moved on their own.

 _You couldn't?_ the corpses' mouths moved in unison. They sounded, more than in pain, disappointed. _Isn't that your duty? Isn't that why that jewel was given to you?_

"I can't save everyone!" Will yelled, descending to the ground. "Don't you get it?! I can't! And when I try to find a way to save the most of you, you just criticize me! I don't want to hear it!" Will shouted, stomping the head of one of the corpses. "I don't want to hear it!" she stomped another head. And another, and another… "Shut up!"

 _Please… please… mercy…_ the last of the corpses begged her.

"And who has mercy for me?!" Will yelled as she dig her purple boot in the being's cranium. "I'm just trying to help! Why can't you all understand?!"

But she didn't receive any answer. The place was empty, except for her.

* * *

"AH!"

Will Vandom woke up bathed in cold sweat. The blankets of her bed had ended in the ground due to the intensity of her nightmare, and thus she was lying over her bed, clad in nothing but her pajamas. She looked over at the frog shaped alarm clock resting over her bedside table. It was just four in the morning. She sighed, rolled a bit over herself and stretched her arm to take the blankets from the floor and put them over her body. It had been just hours since they had returned from Meridian and she had got to her home, where she had been forced to practically sneak in and find her double without her mother noticing. Making the Astral Drop disappear by just saying its name (namely the term 'Astral drop'), she had taken her place in her civilian life back in just the time to have dinner with her mother. Her mother, who had made her favorite dishes because apparently her Astral Drop, not very brilliant she, had enthusiastically agreed with Susan's idea of having a date with Dean Collins. Not wanting to really argue about that, because frankly Will found it a bit trivial considering the current situation she was in, but mostly because she was tired, the redhead had headed directly to bed once dinner had ended. But now it turned out that not even in her sleep could she find the rest she needed.

Sighing, she rolled in the opposite direction she had done before and closed her eyes. If she was lucky, her share of bad dreams had ended for tonight. She needed to relax now… tomorrow was a school day.

* * *

 ** _Jade's inner world_**

Elizabeth Báthory chuckled at the sight she was contemplating while covering her mouth with her left hand. Gone was her Red Room, gone were the red walls, red floors, ceilings and carpets. Gone was her throne, and anything that resembled a building, for that matter. She found herself floating in the dreamlike space that was the inside of the Ben-Shui Chosen One's soul, the core of the reincarnation circle. And she wasn't alone, but surrounded by many of her previous lives, who usually refused to be in her company just because she had dared to use her newfound Chi Magic back in her day in ways that they hadn't judged appropriate. So many spells in the arts of Chi Magic that were even today considered forbidden, not only because they were destructive, but also because of how complicated and intricate they were; and she had designed them all! However, she had been judged as a shameful Ben-Shui incarnation due to that, even more than a man like Tepes, who even if he had used his powers just to make himself stronger and augment his combat prowess, had been a warmonger. It seemed like her more… traditional predecessors hadn't forgiven her yet, if the piercing glances from Murasaki were any indication. Old Ben-Shui was there too, in his usual meditational stance. So were Vladimir and Grigori, the so-called Mad Monk with his legs crossed one over the other and the Dracul with a happy grin in his face and his arms crossed over his chest. Murasaki maintained her hands at her back and continued to scold at her and Norton… Norton had his hands behind his head, not even bothering to make the effort of maintaining a position, his body floating away from time to time, carried by the force of the strange energies that this place contained.

As Báthory chuckled once again, Murasaki's scowl hardened, and the Japanese woman narrowed her eyes at her. "What is so funny?"

"Your face, actually;" Báthory told the other woman in her soft voice. "It's clear that you think of this whole ordeal as my fault."

"It is your fault!" Murasaki yelled. "You corrupted her!"

Báthory stopped chuckling and returned the scowl to the other woman. "I saved her life," the red woman said in a bitter tone. "Where were you, when that befell? If I hadn't intervened, the only thing left of that girl would be a corpse. I rescued her."

"By teaching her your spells!" Murasaki repeated, rising her arms up. "Your Blood Magic, that reeks of Dark Chi!"

"Dark Chi is just the words with which you refer to the most aggressive forms of spellcasting in Chi Magic," Rasputin broke into the conversation, earning himself a glare from the Japanese woman too.

"Which are forbidden for a reason," Ben-Shui spoke this time. "The dangers for the user are too high, even if what now is called 'Dark Arts' are considerably more potent than regular Chi Magic. That's the reason the old magic courts of China labeled them as such. Blood Magic, especially, considering what kind of material you always need to cast a spell."

Tepes snorted. "As if she couldn't get others' blood as easily as she gets her own," the Impaler declared. "Each of you saw the images! That girl can kill! That girl discovered the thrill of battle!"

"Something I have already corrected too," Báthory cut the black haired and black bearded man. "If she has to kill, let her kill in an intelligent manner, not just heading into battle so recklessly. You all can thank me latter."

"You harlot!" Murasaki yelled, her insult earning a half smirk from the soft spoken Countess instead of any aggressive reaction. "Is that what you refer to as saving her?!"

"I do," Báthory said. The woman raised a hand to her head and tapped its side with the tip of her index finger. "A person's greatest weapon resides here, not in mere power."

"I wasn't talking about that," Murasaki said between grinded teeth. "You…"

"Forced her to kill?" Rasputin ended her sentence for her. "Actually, Lady Báthory just provided her with the means of killing."

"Teachings don't contain information alone, Grigori Yefímovich;" Murasaki addressed the Mad Monk in a much more serious tone. "Teachings hold a little bit of the spirit, the ideology and the will of the one that created them and transmits them."

"And yet, it was her decision;" Rasputin retorted. "And what do you see wrong about killing? All of us, aside from Norton, have killed. You killed many back in the day."

"Those were just Oni;" Murasaki told him.

"And you are just a woman, and I am just a man."

Every pair of eyes in the place turned towards Ben-Shui, the first soul of the cycle having spoken those words surprising each of them. Had he just… spoke against Murasaki? Murasaki that he considered his truly appropriate heir? Unbelievable.

"It is irrelevant now, as many of you have realized," the old, white bearded man said. "The soul of the Chosen one has ceased to move unpredictably, the girl has chosen a path to follow. Even if it's one that pleases Rasputin more than me, we should respect it. And now the soul of the Chosen One is closed to us, if she doesn't come asking for help, we won't be able to contact her."

Rasputin smiled. He had won, even if it was a small victory in comparison with the ones of his past, he had been able to triumph in court once again. The girl would come to him sooner or later, from that he was sure; the reality of the universe she lived in would force her to search his counsel. Then…

"The girl is what the world needs her to be," Norton declared, almost in a singing tone, repeating his theory. "We are but what we must be… for the sake of fate…"

Tepes let out a hearty laugh at his fellow incarnation's improvised song, and joined him in the tune. Lady Báthory dedicated one last chuckle to her fellow incarnations before disappearing, something Murasaki didn't bother to do. Rasputin and Ben-Shui were left alone in the dreamscape that this pace was, no dedicating any word to the other for more than five minutes.

"Why did you decide to put yourself at the service of others?" Rasputin asked finally. "What you were, and by extension we were and that girl is… we could have been giants amongst men."

"Giants became extinct even before the Age of Dark, when the Eight Demon Sorcerers terrorized the land;" Ben-Shui declared. "As for your question… who knows? Maybe I wanted to help, maybe I was bored, or maybe I'm just of the opinion that no man should be higher than other. If I had to pick one, it would be the last one."

"Each one of us, your successors, in one way or another;" Rasputin told him; "have been higher than the common man."

"And I have the feeling that girl is going to be the highest of them all."

* * *

 ** _Chan flat_**

No more than a day. Nothing more than a day had passed since the Guardians and the Chan Clan had returned from Meridian after everything that had happened in that world during less than four days. Caleb had told them that they would need five at most, and in the end that hadn't been the case. Could what had happened in Torus Filney be considered a success or a failure? Or maybe both of them? Jade was not sure, not with everything that had happened to the girls and her. The scars on her back had stopped itching, but she still took what she thought was too much time looking at them in her mirror each time she changed clothes. ' _I'm not like you_ ,' she would say as she looked at the scars that the crystal mirrored, thinking about Tharquin. She had thought of scarred heroes as cool and tough in the past, their scars a testament of how they had conquered hard trials before. The protagonist and the one eyed chick of Kill Bill always stood up as the better examples. Jackie had once caught her while watching the movie (for the fifth time) and had sent her to her room with no videogames or TV for a week. He had said that she wasn't old enough for those movies, or that those weren't good role models… or something. But right now, she understood that he had been partially right on saying that. Her scars weren't a proof of how strong she had been while fighting some cool monster from another dimension, no. They were proof (a proof she couldn't take from her skin for that matter) that she had been tortured, that she had been helpless against a man that in her mind looked now way more terrible and cruel than the likes of Shendu and his siblings. Shendu was a demon, and demons were supposed to be wicked, and cruel, all with wanting to burn Asia with an army of dragons or wanting to destroy Earth with the moon. But people… what reason was for people to turn into that? The Rebellion had turned out to have their share of skeletons in the closet too, and that had hit them all really hard; even if the rebels had reasons for doing what they did. But that meant that all the people fighting for Phobos had reasons too. Servantis had reasons, Raythor had reasons, Lothar had reasons, and the nobles had reasons… and surprise, surprise! They were as good as theirs! Will and she had decided to try and change things for the better, and it entitled dirtying their hands a little… but they had reasons for it too. And she knew that whole 'little' part of 'dirtying their hands a little' was just for now. Who knew what would happen when they entered battle again? What would happen then? She had killed Tharquin and Will had killed a man, even if by accident. If confronted with a soldier that came at them with a sword in hand and wanting to kill them Jade was sure that this time they would kill him. She had promised Will to be strong for her, and in return the redhead had decided to be such for the Chinese girl too. None would force the other four girls to do what they didn't want to do, but Will and Jade had decided that they had had enough of playing to others' tune. Now they would be the ones calling the shots. What created men like Tharquin? Jade had bowed, alongside Will, to not let men like those to be forged again, and that entitled ending this war. And for that they _had to win_.

The girls were clearly shaken by this, all of them; even if they had agreed to the redhead's planning. The tension that could be felt between them all the way out of the Infinite City and back to Earth… they hadn't even spoke while coming back here. Not even Hay Lin had tried to heighten the mood, and considering how good she was at doing so, her silence meant that something was really wrong this time. And it wasn't just between the girls; it was between Jackie and her too. Jackie; who wasn't at home at the time; because he had gone to 'work'. And with work, she was talking about his infiltration in the Dark Hand, where Corny's dad worked too. Jade wondered if Jackie could really tell Cornelia about her father.

Anyway, those weren't thoughts to have now, since she needed her mind focused on the current task. While the girls had access to those Astral Drops and thus they could live their civilian lives for them, she didn't, and thus Jackie had lied about her been sick in order to get her a week out of Sheffield; which meant that, while the five girls had to go to class today, she didn't have to. But that also meant that she had to spend almost the whole morning with Uncle, who was quite determined to unveil how Jade had been able to learn to use Blood Magic out of the blue.

And so there they were, each sitting at each side of the kitchen's table, Jade taking a small needle from the group of paraphernalia that Uncle had put over the piece of furniture and using it to pierce her finger a little, drawing a little amount of blood out. It was nothing but a drop, really; but before it could fall from her finger, Jade charged it into her now red chi, and the drop rose in the air, floating with the help of the chi it had been imbued with. Jade licked her finer in order to make the little wound to stop bleeding, and she made the drop of blood to float towards Uncle while she did so. The drop fell in front of him, dirtying one of the pieces of toilet paper that the old man had covered the table with.

"Fascinating…" Uncle whispered. He took a needle of his own too, piercing his own, wrinkled finger. Three drops of blood dripped from his little wound, impacting over the toilet paper. "Can niece do it with Uncle's blood too?"

Jade reached for the three drops in the toilet paper and she touched them, the tips of her fingers enveloping into red chi and imbuing the elder's blood with her power. Slowly, the trio of drops rose in the air. Jade moved her fingers and the three merged into a bigger drop, then separated into five smaller ones before merging all of them into one again. Then she snapped her fingers and the blood practically froze, falling on top of the table in the form of a small, scarlet and hard ball.

 _So it doesn't need to necessarily be her blood…_ Uncle thought. "Can niece evaporate it too?"

"Duh," Jade answered. "Of course I can."

Uncle nodded a couple of times. "Is niece aware that Blood Chi Magic is a veeeery rare discipline? Very dangerous, much forgotten! One more thing! It's tied to a branch of Dark Chi Magic!"

Jade shook her head in negation. But Uncle knew that she knew. She had always had a great affinity for Chi Magic, being able to feel it and even employ it without formal training; something only increased by her new Shapeshifter senses and her new status as an awakened Ben-Shui reincarnation. She knew with what kind of magic she was getting involved here; which lead him to his next question.

"Who taught niece to use it?" Uncle asked in the gentlest tone he could use, which surprised Jade.

While Jackie was always the one to reprimand her for something she had done wrong in a moral area, Uncle was the one to reprimand her for doing something wrong involving magic. She had expected this to be the case, but it wasn't. And that left her a bit confused. So she didn't answer right away, just looking at her side and letting out one of her usual "Tch."

The Chinese elder let out a long sigh. It was almost as if not being rude was tiring him. He took his glasses off and cleaned them with the edges of his yellowish wool vest. When he put his glasses back, he looked at Jade again. "If niece doesn't talk to Uncle, Uncle can't help her. Niece should be careful about what kind of magic she uses. Blood Chi Magic..."

"Why do you call it Dark Magic?" Jade asked him. "It's not like Wong's..."

"Dark Chi Magic is called that," Uncle interrupted her; "mainly for how destructive it is. There are some disciplines based in demonic magic, or directly tied to demons, like Daolon Wong's most powerful spells or the tattoo that niece got and that let her control Shadowkhan."

"But?" Jade asked.

"But other disciplines aren't based in demonic magic," the elder continued; "they are just highly destructive and powerful; and clearly not designed for just knocking out your opponent."

"They're designed for killing," Jade said. _Appropriate_ , she added in her thoughts, thinking about what she had first used Báthory's lessons for.

"Killing and destroying, yes; among other, more sinister purposes. Some would say that Dark Chi Magic is a pathway to many abilities considered to be... unnatural." Uncle said, rubbing his forehead. Wong's Dark Chi Warriors, pitiful people he had twisted with his power into his slaves and were now not even able to speak by their own will; or the Dark Wizard's unnaturally extended lifespan were proof of that. "Blood Magic, no matter if belonging to Raw or Chi Magic, is a... what is that expression people use? Like the Joker card?"

"Wild card?" Jade helped him.

"Yes, that;" Uncle said gratefully. "It's extremely dangerous, both for user and the ones around; but not necessarily corruptive. Then again, that can be said about some variants of Raw Magic too;" Uncle commented, thinking of the effect the use of their powers had over former Guardians while not hooked up to an energy source like a Heart; like it had had over Yan Lin with that teleportation. Who knew what effects putting so much of one's life-force into spells could have over one's body? "Who taught niece it?" the elder asked again, and this time Jade knew she couldn't avoid the question.

Well, at least now she knew that she wouldn't turn into a female version of Wong using her new type of magic; that was calming. Then again, Lady Báthory wasn't precisely hurtful to the eye. But she was still a bit reluctant to just tell them all who her previous incarnations had been in life. Jade Chan wasn't an idiot, she could read a history book, or at least search their names on the Internet. She knew some of them (actually half of them) had been not very good people. Then again, she doubted she could call herself good after what she had done and what she had bowed to do. At this point, what kind of harm could speak do?

"I learned it from one of my past lives," Jade finally said.

"Which one?" Uncle inquired.

"Elizabeth Báthory," Jade answered. "People call her 'Bloody Countess' in the Internet, something about rumors of her being a vampire. Others say she was a lesbian, and that was the reason her peers looked her down. Or..."

"Or it could have been the Blood Chi Magic," Uncle ended the phrase for her yet again. _Or a combination of the three_ ; he added in his thoughts. So she had been in contact with her past lives, eh? The monks had told him that any Chosen One could contact his or her past lives, after all. However, he hadn't had in account the possibility that they could pass spells onto her, much less such rare techniques. "Did Báthory woman teach niece just basics or..."

"No," Jade answered plainly. "I know spells. The one I used to... kill Tharquin was one of them."

"Uhm..." the old wizard muttered. He didn't say anything for several minutes, thinking around the information he had just been given. "Then we should make sure niece has time to practice them. We will prepare for..."

"Wait, what?" Jade asked in confusion. "You... you aren't going to yell at me? You know, something like 'Niece mustn't play with powers of darkness!' or... OUCH!"

Uncle rose from the chair he was sitting at after dope slapping Jade. He adjusted his glasses and looked at the black haired girl. "Uncle won't yell at niece, because that is _not_ ;" he remarked strongly; "Uncle's duty. Uncle will hit niece in her head if she does a bad impression of him, however. But who must yell at niece if she does something stupid, which is not the case now; is Jackie; in the same way Uncle yelled at him when he did something stupid."

"I don't think that's how parenting works…" Jade muttered.

"Anyway," Uncle continued, paying her comment no attention; "Uncle understands the kind of situation niece is passing for right now, and what the situation in Meridian in which she and her friends are involved entitles. He won't be yelling at her, and he won't punish her just for using a type of magic Uncle is… uncomfortable with. He understands the burden niece has taken upon her shoulders, and Uncle won't try to criticize her when she tries to lighten it. Now that Uncle knows from whom did niece learn Blood Magic, then niece can practice with it so next time she has to use it, she doesn't end with such a huge blood loss or doesn't lose control of it." The Chinese elder started to walk out of the kitchen then, but as soon as he reached the doorframe, Jade's voice stopped him.

"I thought you'd be angry at me," the girl said slowly. Jackie had been angry at her; and she had been angry at him in return. _What does Jackie understand?_ a part of Jade asked within her own mind. _He's not the one fighting Phobos and his armies! He's not the one that got tortured!_ But then a much calmer voice said: _Jackie just cares about me. He's probably as freaked out by this as I am_.

"And would that solve anything?" Uncle said from the doorframe, looking ahead with the head slightly risen up, a serious tone coloring his words. His voice sounded quite tired in those moments in which he decided to talk like that. It clearly highlighted how old he really was. He shook his head. "No. Being angry when people do things that upset you can be considered right, but if you just yell at them each time they fail instead of actually helping them, then you will lost them forever. Uncle learned that the hard way;" he said, thinking briefly about Nerissa; about how idealistic she had seemed at first, during that first summer he had passed in Heatherfield with Yan Lin and when he had met with all of his cousin's friends. She had been the most enthusiastic one about being a Guardian; she had been the one who literally took spellbooks from Kandrakar's library in order to study them on Earth, spending whole nights awake, marveled at the secrets they told her about magic. Looking back at how that girl had been, it was easy for him to draw a parallelism between her and Jade. And considering how Nerissa had ended, Uncle was determined to not let it happen again. "So Uncle won't yell at you. He will help niece to be responsible, and learn to control her new magic, alright?"

"Alright," Jade answered; now her mood clearly better.

"Then clean this whole mess, Uncle is tired and needs to sit down in a couch instead of these chairs!" the man said, regaining his usual demeanor and rubbing his back. "And one more thing! Niece should prepare some coffee for Uncle! His old bones need something to wake them up!"

"Sure, sure…" Jade said with a small chuckle, starting to clear the table of the paraphernalia and the toilet paper. "And… Uncle?"

"Yes?" the old man asked, turning around and looking at the girl. She was smiling at him.

"Thank you," Jade said, her smile widening a bit; "for having faith in me."

* * *

 ** _Sheffield Institute; after class_**

"Hey Will!"

Class had been quite the easy part of getting back in track with being a normal girl. Not even Uriah's usual idiocies had been able to disturb her, actually. It was clear to the redhead that her four friends had as much of a hard time as her trying to readjust to the peaceful atmosphere that Sheffield was in comparison with Meridian and the Infinite City. At least Jade was lucky enough to don't have to do it until Monday, and Will was sure the Shapeshifter girl could perfectly handle it then. However, while the mechanical working of one of Mrs. Rudolph's math classes had been easy to handle (even if it was cursed mathematics), now Will saw someone coming towards her down the hall and through the masses of students that meant a much less easier facet of readjusting to her normal live.

Matt.

"Will… we'll be waiting for you outside;" she heard Taranee's voice at her back, and glancing over her shoulder she saw the other four girls strolling away. Taranee… the redhead wondered if she was still mad at her, or if she had really been mad at all. Will had insisted the Rebellion to keep the guns they had bought for this Chang (who Will was pretty sure wasn't much a noble man) even after the Fire Guardian's protests. But Will thought that Taranee had to understand. They were fighting a war, and they had treated it like a superheroine adventure out of a Disney comic book for too much time; which meant that they needed to take things seriously and realistically. And that meant keeping the weapons that could give them an edge in battle; not mentioning that they were an important detail in one of her plan's parts. At least Taranee was kind enough to not criticize her at every turn and give her as much support as any of the other girls. The redhead knew Taranee wasn't comfortable with all this, but she also knew someone as smart as the Fire Guardian had to be conscious of the reality Meridian was immersed in. Besides, it was not as if Will was thinking about organizing shooting squadrons in order to execute prisoners.

"Hi Will," Matt, having reached her while she was lost in her thought, and effectively pulling her out of them with his comment, greeted her.

"H-Hi Matt," Will greeted him too, voice trembling a little. She hadn't thought too much about this, right? When she had last seen him, she had kissed him. Did that make them a couple? Then she had gone to Meridian, and she had killed a man. What did that make her? What did that mean for Matt… and what she felt for him?

"So, ready for our date this afternoon?" the boy asked as the two of them started walking.

Wait, what had he just said? "Date?" the redhead asked.

Matt looked at her with a quirked eyebrow; and with a bit of insecurity in his face. "Yeah… remember yesterday? When I asked you to come with me to my grandfather's shop so I can show you a surprise? You told me there wasn't any problem."

 _Damn it, Astral Drop_ ; Will thought. "Eh… can we postpone it? Not that I don't want to, but it's just something's happened and the girls and I need to look into it…" Will said in the most apologetic tone she could use. Technically, she wasn't lying at all, since Hay Lin had told the other four girls that Yan Lin wanted to talk with the whole group in the basement of the Silver Dragon that afternoon. The Keeper of the Heart hoped it wasn't a reprimand of some kind, otherwise she would yell at the old lady again.

"S-Sure," Matt answered, even if Will saw his eyes showing a bit of disappointing. Ah, damn it all. "I mean, give me a call when you're free, okay?"

"Okay," Will said, and, almost in pure reflex she landed a kiss over Matt's lips. Turning around with her cheeks slightly red, she headed in the same direction her friends had headed before. "Bye!"

"Bye…" Matt said awkwardly and with a silly smile adorning his face, his cheeks slightly red too.

Were… were they really a couple? Will wondered this while approaching Sheffield's gates. Perhaps they could be considered one, but she doubted just a bit of kissing meant they were really a couple. One of her first memories entitled Tony and Susan kissing… a lot; and look at how that ended. So she supposed she couldn't refer to him as 'boyfriend' yet… right? Did she need a boyfriend, anyways? Were Guardians able to have boyfriends with what their live entitled? She supposed they could, since Hay Lin's dad had to come from somewhere. Too much thinking for the morning, especially because of how tired the night before had left her. And speaking of Hay Lin's family, she would need a lot of energy if she was going to talk with Yan Lin in the afternoon.

* * *

 ** _Outside of Sheffield_**

"Elyon!" Cornelia called for her best friend, who was quietly walking away from Sheffield's front gate, schoolbag at her back and around three books with different colored covers clutched against her chest with both arms. The cold of winter had started to fade with the last day of February (not that Heatherfield had very cold winters by virtue of being near the sea, it snowed mostly only in December and January, if it snowed at all), and now March and warmer temperatures were the ones starting to dominate. "Hey Elyon, wait up!"

Elyon stopped and turned around to look at Cornelia, her braids of a platinum shade of blond dancing in the wind for a bit as she did so. Cornelia was surprised to not see the kind smile that she had come to associate to Elyon whenever she saw her, instead seeing a small scowl in its place. Elyon's face turned into a calm yet cold one shortly after, and she waited for Cornelia to catch up with her.

"What do you want?" Elyon asked into a maybe too much harsh tone.

"Whoa, rude much?" Cornelia asked upon meeting with her friend. Normally, this kind of comment would earn her an explanation, an apology or a witty retort from Elyon; but this time neither of those happened. Elyon kept staring at her, her face showing nothing but cold emotion. She was… upset with her? Great, just what she needed. Cornelia was hoping that coming back to Sheffield, seeing Elyon and talking with her would help her feel at home again… because it was difficult to feel at home in her home. Her dad was there… or he was when she had arrived back on Heatherfield and had made her Astral Drop disappear. Now he was at work. In what exactly was he working? She had thought about talking with her mother, but Cornelia supposed Elizabeth knew as much about the truth of Harold's relations with Chang as she did before she was able to have enough information to put the pieces together. That was the reason she needed Elyon, even if it was just for a little bit. Elyon felt like an anchor to her old life, before magic, and wars and Caleb. "Anyway, why don't you come with us?"

"I need to pass by the bookstore before going home, I borrowed these books from Rick yesterday and I have to return them;" Elyon coldly explained.

"Alright…" Cornelia said in a surprised tone. Alright, ditch the possibility, Elyon was upset. "Hey, maybe we can go out one of these days? Just the two of us, like in the old days, and watch a movie or something?"

"Okay," Elyon said, still in the cold tone. "Why not today? This afternoon, you get to the bookstore when my turn ends, and we go out."

"Eh…" Cornelia said, glancing back at the other girls for a moment. Will had already joined with the other three. "Does it have to be this afternoon? Because, today…"

"No, stop there, no need for excuses, really;" Elyon said, anger getting between the cracks in the coldness of her voice. She turned around and left Cornelia behind. "Have a nice day, Cornelia."

"Elyon…" Cornelia whispered as the petite girl clad in a pair of jeans and a purple sweater turned around a corner and got lost to the Earth Guardian's sight.

"She's been like that lately," the familiar voice of Alchemy Ethel said behind Cornelia, and seconds after the girl appeared at her left, looking at the spot Elyon had been moments before with concerned eyes. "I don't know if things are going bad at her home or something like that; but even before we went on that trip to the mountains she had been acting weirdly."

"And what do we do?" Cornelia asked her other friend, who just shrugged.

"You were a bit cold to her these last days too;" Alchemy told the blonde, but there was no anger in her voice. "And you've been spending a lot of times with the others lately. Maybe you just need to remind her that you're still her best friend."

 _It's not so simple, Alchemy_ ; Cornelia had wanted to tell her, but she couldn't. The last thing she wanted was for Alchemy or Elyon to discover this whole mess involving Meridian and become the target of the enemy, or wanting to be part of it. It was true she hadn't been able to spend as much time with Elyon as she did before she became a Guardian, but that was because she was busy precisely being a Guardian! Today was just an example, of course she couldn't be with Elyon this afternoon! Yan Lin wanted to talk with them, probably about something related to Meridian or the Guardians! "I am her best friend;" Cornelia remarked. "It's just… things haven't been easy for me lately neither."

While the two friends talked a bit, a figure had watched the little scene between the two blond girls develop. A chubby, white and middle aged woman sporting glasses, with blond hair over her head and clad in clothes that clearly denoted her age, watched carefully from one of Sheffield's windows.

Mrs. Rudolf, one of Sheffield's math teachers, or as she was known in Meridian, Galgheita; sighed tiredly. She had always been grateful of how well Elyon had adjusted to the life on Earth, and how well Alborn and Miriael had raised her in this strange world… but now something felt different about the young Princess. Had her powers awakened? The fact that she was friends with a Guardian of the Veil didn't ease the matter of hiding her from her brother. Why had Alborn and Miriael declined the idea of telling her about who she really was? Galgheita had the feeling it had been a bad idea.

* * *

 ** _Ye Olde Book Shop_**

"I told you that you could keep these ones for a little longer if you wanted to," Cedric, under his disguise of Rick Hoffman, told Elyon once she appeared in his bookshop carrying the bunch of literary works she had borrowed from him. "I doubt you have already read them."

"I… haven't read them. Not yet. It's just…" Elyon looked down while still holding the books, answering sincerely to the man in front of her, who adjusted his glasses and was quick to put a hand over her shoulder after noticing her mood.

"It's alright Elyon," Cedric told her. "You don't have to tell me," the Shapeshifter told her, waiting a bit for his words to take effect.

"No, I do want to!" Elyon protested. "You see, it's just… I have problems with my friends… or with a friend of mine in particular, actually."

"One of the girls that came here with you for the first time?" Cedric inquired. _One of the Guardians? Oh, how interesting_. "How come?"

"It's just... Cornelia, who's supposed to be my best friend;" Elyon said, and with each word a little bit more of anger slipped into her voice; "is now hanging just around Will, Jade and the others! I know it sounds egoistic, but I feel like, like, like…!"

 _Careful there, princess_ ; Cedric thought. _You seem in the verge of throwing a tantrum, and I wouldn't like my shop suffering an Escanor's tantrum_.

"I feel like Will and Jade are replacing Alchemy and I!" she finally said. "But I know Jade and Will are very good gals, so it's just feels as if…"

"As if your friend has forgotten about you?" Cedric said then, earning a sad glare from Elyon. He walked towards a table in the shop and made a gesture so Elyon followed him. He took one of the books she had brought back, and put it back gently with others. Then both approached a bookshelf and as he continued to put Elyon's books back in their places, he spoke. "Now that this… Cornelia, was it? Now that Cornelia spends less time with you, you feel as if she didn't want to be with you since the beginning, you feel as if you were just one more, exchangeable friend, when she has been much more for you."

"Exactly!" Elyon said energetically, while handing him the last book. As Cedric took it, he maneuvered in a way in which one of the book's pages' edges stroke Elyon's palm fast and made a cut in it, drawing out blood that dirtied the book's edges. However, Elyon was so distracted by the Shapeshifter's words that she just ignored the cut. It was a small, insignificant one anyway. "How do you always know what to say, Rick?"

 _Decades of practice_ ; Cedric thought. "I'm good at reading people," the man joked. "But listen to me, Elyon. If that girl doesn't feel for you the same you feel for her, then she doesn't deserve you feeling it for her."

Elyon lowered her head again. "But Cornelia is my friend… I've known her since we went to kindergarten."

"Then perhaps you should talk with her about this," Cedric told the petite girl. "But remember that, if you ever have a problem," Cedric kneeled and locked eyes with the girl. God, they really were similar, Phobos and her; albeit if it was just in the surface; "I will always be here for you. Now I think it's time for you to go home, else your parents will worry."

"Oh, that's right!" Elyon said, realizing that time wasn't precisely her ally at this time of the day. "And thank you very much, Rick! You really know how to cheer a girl up!"

Elyon exited the bookshop shortly after, Cedric watching her go. Once she disappeared out of sight, he turned the little sign on the shop's door to 'CLOSED', closed the door and head to where he had left the book that had been dirtied by Elyon's blood.

"This is going to hurt me more than it's going to hurt you," Cedric told the piece of literature as she ripped the parts of the pages that contained Elyon's blood. He headed to the part of his bookstore that held the book that magically connected this bookstore to the palace's library. "But what can be a better symbol of the Princess body than her own blood?" he asked to nobody but himself, and in the blink of an eye and a flash of light, he was gone to Meridian.

* * *

 ** _Hale residence; after lunch_**

Harold wasn't at home to eat with the three women of his life today. So Elizabeth, Cornelia and Lillian had eaten just the three of them. The Earth Guardian had asked where her father was, and Elizabeth had answered that, sadly, today was an important day at work and that he had to attend several meetings along the day.

Cornelia had never thought about Harold as an absent father figure; neither as some kind of inconsiderate man, or as a husband that treated his wife poorly. In fact, he was a very lovable man. He and Elizabeth loved each other, he encouraged Cornelia with every decision she decided to make and treated Lillian with infinite patience. Considering all this now and reflecting upon it, Cornelia understood how she had turned into a 'daddy's princess', as Harold usually called her. He had tried calling Lillian that too, but Lillian preferred to be called a witch over being called a princess, arguing that princesses couldn't fly in brooms and so they were more boring than witches. Now that image of her father clashed with what she had discovered about his ties to Chang and that Hak Foo guy from the mountains, and so she was able to look into details she hadn't looked into before. Every time that Harold had one of those 'important meetings', where exactly was he? Was each of those 'meetings' an excuse to do… whatever that Chang guy did? And if that was the case, was Harold doing that each of the times that he said he was in an important meeting of the bank he worked for? And considering that Chang hadn't been presented to her family as a 'business partner' until a month ago, had he been in cahoots with them before that or just since they arrived? Either way, her father, of whom she had thought as the best dad in the world once, was now working for criminals. The fact didn't make her outright hate him, but it was as if a bucket of cold water had been dropped over her head, making her realize that 'the best dad in the world' was just an illusion, and that behind that was just a kind yet normal man; with his virtues and flaws. She supposed this was the same kind of feeling Caleb had felt over… Julian, was it?

"This one, Cornelia! Pleeeeeease!" Lillian irrupted into the Hales' living room, carrying a storybook in her arms. Quite a big storybook in fact. Cornelia sighed as her annoyingly hyperactive little sister jumped and sat in the couch at her side. Apparently, her mother had convinced Cornelia to read a bit with Lillian each afternoon and night. Except the person she had convinced wasn't Cornelia at all.

 _Damn it, Astral Drop_ ; Cornelia cursed, taking the book from her sister. "Alright pipsqueak; but just for a bit. I've to meet my friends later."

"Yes, yes! But now read!" the little girl said giggling, happy that she got her older sister to (more or less) obey her demand and read a story.

"Alright, let's see…" Cornelia said, opening the storybook while Lillian rested her little head over her arm. She wondered where Elizabeth was for a second, before remembering she had seen the oldest Hale woman to head to her room after lunch, which probably meant that she was taking this opportunity to sleep. Well, Cornelia knew how tiresome Lillian could be. "What's up with the big book, anyway?"

"I took it because Momo likes it!" Lillian cheered. "She told me to pick this one."

"Momo?" a confused Cornelia asked the little one.

"Yes, Momo," Lillian said as if it was the most normal thing in the world. "She's my friend, she's funny and pretty… and she tells me that she's a witch!"

"And where's this… Momo?" Cornelia asked with a quirked eyebrow.

"Right here," Lillian said. "There," the little blond girl said pointing to a spot in the room where, of course; there wasn't anyone.

 _Oh, she's got an imaginary friend_ ; Cornelia thought. She supposed it was normal, she herself had had an imaginary friend at Lillian's age; a pink talking elephant named Roger. It was a thing of children, she supposed.

"Okay, okay…" Cornelia said then; "let's read what Momo choose."

Cornelia started to read the big book. It contained stories about magic, which wasn't so much of a surprise considering Lillian's preferences. It told stories about knights in shining armor, and princesses… which were stories that Lillian didn't like to hear, practically ordering her older sister to jump to the parts in which the cool ladies that could do magic transformed people into frogs and commanded dragons to do their bidding. Sometimes Cornelia could do little more than laugh at how different Lillian and her were in that regard. Her little sister was probably the only little girl that was on Maleficent's side while watching Sleeping Beauty. But of course, Aurora couldn't transform into a dragon, and that was essential to be liked by Lillian if you were in a fantasy setting. As she read, the Earth Guardian wondered if these stories had had a negative effect over her. Lillian wanted to be a witch and bend reality to her will while Cornelia wanted to be the princess that got rescued from peril by the brave knight. Was this why… she had developed a crush on Caleb back when he had literally jumped into their lives? He was pretty, he was brave, he was a rebel, and he was the hero! A part of Cornelia felt bad that she had once thought about him as her 'promised prince'. She hadn't been in need of any rescue, either. In fact she had been the one saving him from the oubliette in the palace. And now that time had passed, her crush had developed, but she didn't see the meridianite, green eyed boy as her knight in shining armor anymore. He was… a kind yet normal boy, with his virtues, and flaws. He had been even scarred across the face, something that Cornelia had thought would make a boy ugly… but the scar looked good on him.

"Cornelia?" Lillian asked then, getting Cornelia out of her thoughts and making her to stop reading. "Momo says you're a good older sister."

Cornelia couldn't retain a little smile. "Well… tell Momo that you're not such a pain in the ass, either."

"She can hear you, she's here;" Lillian remarked. "She says you smell to wet earth and flowers…" the girl whispered as Cornelia continued to read.

* * *

 ** _Chang's building; parking lot_**

"What exactly is in this box?" Jackie Chan asked as a small car driven by Phillip Crane and in which copilot seat the archeologist was sitting entered the parking lot that the basement of Chang's building was. The car was parked and shortly after the engine stopped, and from it dismounted both martial artist and the white glove thief, Jackie carrying a wooden box in his arms while Crane, clad in his usual black business suit, closed the car and headed to the elevator alongside Jackie.

They had been in the airport almost the entire morning, waiting for a man to deliver the thing to them. However, once the box had been acquired, Crane hadn't opened his mouth to talk about the thing, not even once. Not that Jackie had asked, actually. But now that he had, Crane had just tilted his head with that half smile of his. The handsome thief did that a lot; didn't he?

"A secret," Crane said, putting one of his fingers over his cat-like grin. This could mean two things. Either Crane didn't know about what the box contained, or Chang didn't want him knowing what was inside. Crane then pointed to a spot in the parking lot. "You can give it to those guys;" the man said.

Jackie's eyes followed the thief's hand, seeing how two Mantis Khan materialized from the shadows, waiting for him. Jackie walked towards the duo of Hak Foo's minions and gave them the box; both Shadowkhan disappearing through the shadows afterwards, leaving him empty-handed. Under Chang's orders, Hak Foo had around twenty of the Mantis Khan patrolling the whole building in their shadow forms, and the Black Tiger had ordered them to accept the instructions of Crane, Chang and Harold when he wasn't around. Harold... sometimes he wondered if the blond man had seen the photographs concerning his daughter. Maybe? Did it matter? It would be just another reason for Harold to be loyal to Chang.

 _Perhaps_ , Jackie thought; I should listen to Jade and talk with Cornelia. _Maybe she could appeal to her father's..._

"Come on, Chan!" Crane called from the elevator's entrance. "Get moving!"

Jackie approached the elevator after dedicating one last glance at the spot the pair of Shadowkhan had been before, and he stopped at Crane's side. He had thought about saying something to the thief, but then the doors of the elevator opened, revealing a sight the archeologist wasn't expecting at all. In the elevator, guarded by a pair of men instead of a pair of Mantis Khan was a man dressed in a trashed suit, hands at his back, probably tied, and a bag over his head; concealing his appearance. The two men dragged him out of the elevator, and when Jackie was in the verge of turning around and knock them out in order to save the man, whoever he may be, Crane was quick to drag him into the elevator.

"What are you doing?!" Jackie asked as the doors closed, impending anything he could have done for the man.

"Stopping you before you can do something stupid," Crane told him. "I think the boss let it clear to you, this is no place for your heroics. That man was probably a gang leader that didn't get his pay in time, and one of the capos that answer to Chang probably got him here for a… lesson. The boss has a very strict politic with infighting and insubordination, Chan; and you know it. If you break those rules, things will get ugly."

Jackie clenched his fists and narrowed his eyes at the thief. The way Crane was saying what he was saying made it sound like the thief had done him some kind of favor. However, Jackie could tell that the man felt a bit uncomfortable too, either because Crane took a lot of pride in his title of never dirtying his hands while robbing something, or because the scene was as unnerving for him as it had been for Jackie. Or perhaps… who was to say that Crane hadn't been in the receiving end of those 'lessons' too? No matter which of the two, Jackie's determination to see Chang between bars only grew after that moment. Anyway, little could he done for now. Better get back to his office and try to find something of… wait, where was his keycard?

* * *

 ** _Jackie's office_**

"C'mon, stupid computer! Work faster!"

A girl with purple hair sat in Jackie's chair; her feet clad in a pair of black combat boots resting one over the other and both over Jackie's table; the only thing putting a bit of light in the room the one of the computer screen, to which she was angrily looking as it downloaded data in a pen drive. She played with the keycard she had stolen from Jackie meanwhile, making it move between her fingers as if it were a coin, puffing her cheeks from time to time as the loading bar in the damn computer screen had lowered its speed when reaching the final stages of the downloading.

The girl, called Nyx (which of course wasn't her real name, just something that she called herself), stopped to play with the keycard and put her feet off the table, putting her arms over the piece of office furniture and resting her head in them. Her bright green eyes looked at the screen with hope as the green part of the loading bar was approaching its end.

"C'mon… just the last effort…"

"What do you mean you don't find your keycard?" she heard a voice behind the office's closed door. Oh, crap. "I mean, it's not that is so important, just tell us and we will deactivate it and give you a new one."

"No, no; it should be around here…" she heard another voice, one she recognized as the one belonging to that jackass' from the other day. Great, she finally finds the only member of the Dark Hand willing to travel by feet and without an escort, and it turns that he is the only punctual one.

"Here, let me use mine;" she heard the first voice again.

"Shit," she cursed between her teeth. "C'mon…" she told the computer, only mere seconds left for the download to be complete. Would it go faster if she zapped it? Nah, her powers didn't work well with technology…

The bar went full green then, the words 'Download Complete' appearing in the screen. "Yes!" the girl said in triumph, taking the pen drive and then zapping both computer screen and CPU with purplish sparks from her fingers; effectively making both of them to lose power and turn off while making a bit of smoke to rise from them. The girl smirked; her magic didn't really do good to technology, eh?

The door opened then, Jackie and Crane entering the room and turning on the lights. It took several seconds to both of them to realize that there was a purple-haired girl there too. Both men looked at her for several seconds without saying a word, and she did the same. After the awkward, wordless time that proceeded to the arrival of the two adults, Jackie finally said something.

"Is that my keycard?" the archeologist asked, looking at the little object over the table, which the girl quickly took.

"COMPUTER SCREEN MANEUVER!" the girl suddenly yelled, taking the computer screen from the table, pulling from it so the cables that connected it to the CPU disconnected from it, and tossing it towards Crane. The thief caught it in his hands, just for it to give him a shock of electricity that appeared as purple sparkles that extended across his body. When Crane tossed the screen to one side and continued his attack, he heard a strong 'CRACK!' sound under him, just for a small part of the floor to break, his left leg getting trapped in the hole that had just appeared, making him trip and smash his face against the floor. Nyx jumped from the chair and deliberately landed into Crane's back with all the strength she could gather. Then she ran towards Jackie, tossing his keycard at him, only charged in the same purple sparks as before.

"Here, have it back jackass!" the girl said with a happy grin, Jackie easily taking the card in his hand, just for it to give him the same shock it had given Crane.

"Wait, who…?" before Jackie could finish the sentence, he heard a similar sound as crane had, just over his head. He looked up just in time for a piece of the ceiling to crack and detach from it, falling directly over his head before her could do anything. It hurt, but it hadn't been such a strong blow as to leave him unconscious. However, Nyx had taken advantage of the situation to close distances with Jackie, and without any word or waste of time, she was quick to put her leg between Jackie's two, raise it and deliver a kick to the poor archeologist groin. Wincing in pain, Jackie went to his knees, hands clutched to the in-between of his legs, the most hurtful of expressions on his face.

"B-Bad day…" he was able to whisper as the purple haired girl jumped over him.

"Lucky!" the girl said triumphantly as she clutched her pen drive. "Sorry but not sorry, suckers! Gotta go!"

And with that last sentence the girl shot towards the elevator.

* * *

 ** _Chang's office_**

"You are telling me," Chang said as he sat behind his desk, rubbing the spot in which his arm was connected to his jade hand; "that a man that fought against demons and one of the best thieves in the world have been humiliated by a…"

"Purple haired teenage girl, yes;" Crane said, standing in front of him, rubbing his now red and inflamed nose. Jackie was at the handsome thief's side, albeit he was sitting in a chair with one ice bag over his head and another between his legs, both provided kindly by Harold. Speaking of the blonde banker, he was standing next to Chang, dressed in a suit of a light shade of brown, while at the Taiwanese crime lord's other side stood Hak Foo in his dark pants and vest, sporting a grin that looked quite demonic thanks to the Oni Mask he was wearing, clearly amused by the situation.

"How?" Chang asked. "And how did she get inside? How has no camera caught her? How did she get a keycard? And how did she use the elevator without one?!"

"That may be my fault," Jackie said then his groin hurting a bit as he moved. That girl, no matter how young, had kicked him _hard_. "I think she stole my keycard."

"She had some kind of magic trick, boss;" crane said then. "Purple or pinkish sparkles, I think it was some kind of bad luck charm or…"

"Excuses!" Hak Foo broke into the conversation. "If I had been there I would have reduced that intruder to shreds!"

"But you weren't there;" Harold remarked. "Not even your supposedly unstoppable Shadowkhan army was there, and you have twenty of them patrolling this building in case something like this happens."

"I was in my dojo at the time," Hak Foo retorted.

"Did you say purple sparkles?" Chang asked of Crane, who nodded.

"I still say it was bad luck magic," Crane said with conviction. "Heck, she even said 'Lucky!' when she escaped from us."

Chang continued to rub his wrist while he pondered this. He then searched in his desk's drawers and pulled a small bottle full of white pills. He took three and tossed them in his mouth, swallowing them in one gulp. He stopped to rub his wrist shortly afterwards.

 _Painkillers?_ Jackie thought.

"Boss?" Crane said. "Are you… alright?"

"Out," Chang said then. "All of you," he remarked, looking at Harold for a second.

The banker nodded and walked towards the door, something that the others imitated; even if Jackie found walking troublesome. Once all of them were outside, Harold closed the door, and Chang picked his phone up. He dialed a number and waited for the other side to pick it up.

"Vanessa?" he asked. "Bartholomew Chang… yes, _that_ Bartholomew Chang… No, I don't need you here or to… No, not the other… just… no, I don't want to… listen!" the man yelled, exasperated with the behavior of the leader of the European branch of the Dark Hand. "Listen for a damn second."

"That brat is bothering us again…"

* * *

 ** _Heatherfield's outskirts; a couple of hours later_**

Diary of Quentin Ross. Entry 154

 _Chan called before. Told me about a girl with purple kicking him in the balls. Apparently she stole some info from his computer in Chang's building. They don't know what, since she fried the thing. Smart girl. Does she hate the scumbags too? Is she worked against them like I did against the scum of New York? Or does she just belong to a rival criminal organization? Probably. Anyway, not my mission._

Quentin Ross stopped writing in his diary to look up at the pair of men he had tied with chains and ropes to a pair of chairs in what he supposed was a warehouse back in the day, considering the bad condition the building was in, the graffiti adorning every wall and the empty bottles of beer around. Both men had their eyes and ears covered, and Ross had been careful enough to feed them a sleeping drug so they won't be protesting or speaking with each other. The redhead man searched in his pockets, pulling the Snake and Rooster Talismans out he put the Snake Talisman over one of the men and activated it, the Talisman making the body invisible. Ross then approached the other man and uncovered his eyes and ears. He then searched for a little metallic case in the insides of his trench coat and from said case he pulled one syringe out of four. He pierced the man's immobilized arm with the syringe, and he woke up slowly. As the man took conscience of his surroundings and current condition, he ought to scream. But when he tried, he felt a strong pressure against his throat, product of the shinning Rooster Talisman in his hand.

"Hello, scumbag;" Quentin said in a deadpan tone. "You may have noticed the magic rock I'm holding and with which I'm almost choking you. You can scream, but I'd prefer not. I like silence. And there's no one here to hear you."

As Ross released the man's throat, the scumbag seemed to had understood… "You son of a bitch! Do you've any idea who am I?! I'll have you killed for this!" just to do exactly what Ross had told him not to do. Sighing, the violent agent pointed the Rooster Talisman towards him once again. The man screamed for a moment, and then something shot out from his mouth, leaving a trail of blood behind.

"Here, look;" Ross said as he picked what had gotten out of the man's mouth between his fingers. It was small and white, albeit dirtied by blood. It was a molar. "I took one of your teeth telekinetically. Want to see what else I can pick out of you?"

The man shut his mouth and Ross smiled. "See? Everything is easier if you cooperate."

* * *

 ** _An hour and a half later_**

Diary of Quentin Ross. Entry 155

 _Got my hands into a pair of scumbags. Still can't kill them, need to write a note for the police to find them. One was just a small fish, left him for the end. Other was a big shot, though. Contact of Chang's scumbags within the government. Is the government involved in this? How? This scumbag was pulling info out of some politicians whose families he had threatened and giving it to Chang. He told me that a train uses that abandoned subway line Chang built a dry cleaning over for something, and that Chang wanted to know when. Around a month and a few weeks from today, apparently. Why does Chang want to know this? What's in that train that he wants? Scumbag said Chang already knows. I should call Captain Black and have him make a few calls and pull some strings. What's inside that train? Why is the Dark Hand so interested in it? And who is powerful enough to make sure that Section 13 doesn't know about it and to force Chang to take the risk of threatening so many politicians' families instead of going for the usual bribe? Only thing I've got out of all this are a pair of full sets of teeth… I hope the Captain's not too busy._

* * *

 ** _One of Heatherfield's grocery stores_**

"You had no problems with this one, Captain Black?" Tohru asked of the Captain of Section 13 as he carefully held a mobile phone in one of his incredibly big hands, while he used his other hand to hold a plastic bag full of ingredients for a new potion. He still had other things to buy today, but he had took a moment to call the Captain of Section 13 in order to make sure everything regarding the Oni Mask the Hana Fuda had pointed them to this time had gone smoothly.

"It all went fine, big guy;" the voice of Augustus Black came from the other side of the line. "You won't believe where we found this one. It was stuck in a totem pole, of all things."

"At least it wasn't in a museum," Tohru said, reminiscent of the last Mask the Hana Fuda had revealed. How had the Oni Masks ended in such… strange places? No wonder how Ludmoore had gotten his hands so easily into one. One would expect that they would be in shrines, protected by wardens and magical defenses… but then again, it was not in Earth where the Oni Generals had been defeated and sealed, but on Meridian. There was a big possibility of the meridianites just tossing the Masks across Earth when they had won. "So now Section 13 has three of them, right?"

"Yes, the Ninja one, the yellow one and this new, green one;" Captain Black said across the line. "I'm getting more problems with actually finding a prison that wants to hold Finn, Ratso and Chow than with these things, Tohru."

"Those three are giving you problems?" Tohru asked.

"No, it's just that after what they pulled with the Wind Demon no prison wants them or Valmont in;" Black explained. "Not that I'm going to give Valmont to anyone either, I prefer having him here in my own cells, where I can monitor each of his movements."

Tohru wasn't so sure anymore about his former boss' ability to mastermind crimes, however. True, he still hated the man, but the fact he had sent Finn, Ratso and Chow to steal the Talismans without any weapon or advantage spoke volumes about how far Valmont had fallen down the food chain of the underworld. Now without the resources of the Dark Hand backing him up, Valmont didn't seem much of a treat. However, Tohru understood Black's desire to be cautious. Speaking of cautious, the Captain had told him that he had already used the onion-based elixir the sumo had sent him in order to maintain Tarakudo out of the vault. Tarakudo… aside from that little skirmish they had back in Japan, the King of all Oni hadn't show his enormous, floating face around. Why wasn't he picking up the Masks if they held his Generals imprisoned? Why hadn't he tried another attack? Where was he?

* * *

 ** _Japan; Mariko Takeda's apartment_**

"Ohooooom, Ohoooooom…" Nimue said strongly, her voice echoing with power, eyes closed and legs crossed in a meditational lotus position, floating a few inches over the floor of Mariko and Liam's apartment's living room. Her purple butterflies flying around her in a circle, strange runes written and changing over her skin; she seemed to be in deep concentration. And also… kind of frustrated?

"Must she do that sound?" Liam asked of Mariko, both of them in the kitchen, the dark skinned blonde man dressed in a pair of short trousers and an half opened shirt that left part of his chest to be seen, while Mariko was dressed in a pair of old jeans and a pinkish shirt with the drawing of a bunny in its center that some would judge inappropriate for a woman in her late twenties, but what did they know? Mariko loved her bunny shirt!

"Shut it, you will disrupt teacher," the black haired, half-human Japanese woman told her boyfriend and bodyguard. This earned her a surprised look from the man of the fast World.

"Wait, _I_ will disrupt _her_?" Liam asked. "How? It's surprising that the neighbors haven't already come here."

"That's because I put a small glamour around the flat that blocks most of the sounds that we make," the woman told him.

"Wait, you can use glamour spells for that?" Liam asked.

Mariko rolled her eyes. "Of course I can," she said. "And before you ask, yes, I cast it when we are about to have sex, and I wouldn't have to if someone wasn't such a loud screamer."

Liam blushed slightly, his lips forming a smile little by little. "I'm just… passionate."

"I know," the Princess of the Fast World said with her own smirk.

Before the conversation could escalate in something else, they both heard a frustrated shout coming from the living room, and moments later Nimue stomped into the kitchen with a look in her face that was a mixture of anger, frustration and tiredness.

"I get there wasn't any luck this time either?" Mariko asked.

"Agh!" the purple eyed, pale skinned and black haired witch said, exasperated. "I don't understand! I should be able to locate any Oni Mask in this world, but every time I come near to finding one, something breaks my locator spells!"

"Is there any possibility that the Masks are protected by their own spells?" Liam guessed.

"No," Nimue said. "If that was the case, Ludmoore wouldn't have such an easy time finding the two he sold and used as bait," Nimue stated, referring to the Ninja and the Mantis Khan Masks. Of course, little knew the witch know about the fact that Ludmoore had another pair of Masks in storage.

 _Well, there is always the possibility of that man knowing things you don't, but Mariko already told me you would ignore that possibility_ ; Liam thought to himself. Lady Nimue was probably the most talented sorceress that the universe had ever seen due to her sheer power and versatility. Even if she wasn't a Heart wielder, (who were probably the only beings in the universe that surpassed her in sheer power) she could do things that almost no one else could, just like use Raw and Chi Magic at the same time, something deemed impossible by many others. Her repertory of spells was big enough to fill a room with books if they were written, and she had experience provided by her long life. However, all these facts made her, in Liam's opinion, prideful, maybe even arrogant. Nimue had dedicated her endless life to the hunting of demons of all variety, but she usually looked down at the threat non-demonic beings (especially humans) could prove, even when she was a human herself. She judged those as problems she should not take care of, since they were insignificant in comparison with the problems demon-kind could generate; thus she left them to be attended by lesser magic users, or by Kandrakar. Mariko had once told him that she thought of it as a weakness in the long lived witch's reasoning; but that she wouldn't say anything due to the respect she professed for Lady Nimue.

"Oh! Of course!" Nimue interrupted the man's thought process. She laughed at herself. "How could I be such an idiot, I have been doing it all wrong!"

"What do you mean with…?" Mariko started to ask, but Nimue had called for her butterflies, which were already surrounding her and teleporting her away.

"Put on the armor and met me in the rooftop. I will be in need of some assistance;" Nimue's voice echoed through the apartment before the shape of the woman banished completely and the butterflies exited the apartment through one of the windows, flying upwards.

"You are her apprentice. Can you explain to me what's going on?" Liam asked of his beloved.

"I don't know, but if I have to don the armor, it can only mean one thing;" Mariko said grimly. "Battle."

* * *

 ** _On the rooftop_**

While America had just ended its lunch, Japan had yet to begin its day. As such, when Nimue and her butterflies got to the rooftop, it was a black sky that met her. She assumed a similar position than the one she was in back in the apartment, using a similar spell than before. Similar, yet not the same. While at first look it seemed and sounded like an incantation for a locator spell, Nimue had changed tactics and was now making sure that the spell she was casting _just_ seemed and sounded like her usual locator spell, when in reality it was going to do much more than just track something… or someone.

As the soft wind of Japan's night moved the edges of her gauzy white dress, Nimue continued to cast the spell as if she was just searching for an Oni Mask, yet when she bumped into the same energy that had hindered her search previously, she couldn't avoid feeling victorious. She dropped all pretenses and changed the casting of the spell, revealing its true nature. The energy, or as she was now able to perceive it as what it truly was, the individual; tried to counterattack once again, but instead of finding a spell to struggle with, he found one that stopped, grabbed him and pulled from him. It was a trap! It wasn't a locator spell... it was a summoning one!

"You fell for the oldest trick in the book..." Nimue stated proudly, then she clasped her hands and put all her concentration in the summoning spell. Space started to distort in front of her, and a shape started to take form; "so-called King of Oni!"

The distortion intensified, and when it calmed and disappeared, the shape had ended taking form. Tarakudo's gigantic, astral and floating head appeared out of the distortion, cursing in old Japanese all the way. Eyes narrowed at the sorceress, Tarakudo growled a bit as he shook his enormous head in the air in order to shake off the stupor of the forced summoning.

"You tricked me..." the King muttered with a gruff voice. He shook his head again, finally shaking off the feeling out of his astral form. "Clever."

"No need for false flattery, demon;" Nimue said as she passed her fingers through her jet-black long hair. The way she said the word 'demon' was full of contempt. "You have been blocking my search for your little Masks too." _With quite the efficiency, even if it hurts to admit it_ ; the witch thought. Nimue took a hand to her smirking lips and giggled quite sinisterly. "My, my... why do that? I thought you didn't mind people playing along with your followers. Oh! Maybe they won't be comfortable in a woman's body? Or perhaps you are worried they will find it too comfortable?"

Tarakudo laughed at the witch's joke, something that surprised her a bit. A demon with good humor? Now that was something you didn't see every day.

"Bwahahaha! Oh, believe me;" Tarakudo answered after a booming, hearty laugh; "some of my companions would actually be thrilled at the idea." The King of all Oni thought briefly of how Ikki or Shiryū would behave while in possession of a woman's body, especially of one with a bust as generous as this one's. Seriously, that dress didn't leave a lot to imagination, not with all the cleavage it let to be seen. Not that Tarakudo complained about precisely that part of the situation he was currently in. "However, I would prefer if none of them crossed paths with you, Demon Huntress. I believe it couldn't end well for them."

"Ah... I see my reputation precedes me," Nimue said after another sinister giggle. The beautiful sorceress tilted her head at the Oni's words, readying her magic for when the attack came.

"Indeed," Tarakudo answered. "The Lady of the Lake, Bane of the Nihil, Destroyer of the Asmodei… Nimue of Britannia. If I may ask… why so many titles?"

"Titles serve a purpose; as you may know, Tarakudo, King of all Oni, Shogun of Shadows, and Master of the Shadowkhan. They instill fear and respect in the ones that hear them. But actually, the Lady of the Lake was another, people just started to confuse both of us after she perished;" Nimue clarified. "And I'm pretty sure there are still some Asmodei out there." _Which is something that I shall correct once you and your fellow monsters are all dead_ ; she thought while she narrowed her eyes at Tarakudo and her hands enveloped in a dense, purplish aura so dark it looked black.

Noticing this, Tarakudo put on a small grin. "So this is how is going to be? Fine!" The King of all Oni generated a potent telekinetic wave towards Nimue, who raised both palms and made a dark purplish shield the Oni's telekinesis clashed with.

Nimue's feet sank slightly in the ground as she blocked the intense telekinetic wave, her body even being pushed back a few inches. Even she had to admit the Oni King's telekinetic powers were impressive, to say the least, but she had quite a few tricks up her sleeve… including one the Oni King couldn't possibly be expecting.

Making a fist of her left hand, the witch punched her barrier, of which a piece was pulled apart from the rest and shot towards the Oni, impacting over his head and actually inflicting damage over him, his eyes fuming with a bit of dark purple smoke and coughing a bit. His telekinetic wave vanished due to his lost of concentration, giving Nimue the opportunity to close distances with him.

"Onion based trick…" the King cursed between grinded teeth. When he regained his full vision and turned towards the witch once again, Nimue had already come face to face with him (even if his face clearly outgrowth hers) and had jumped towards him with her arms opened wide, her palms surrounded by her magic. For the King of all Oni, it was clear she was casting a spell of some kind. As she continued with the casting, Tarakudo was quick to unleash another wave of telekinetic power; this time directed at the sorceress' neck; the Oni grabbing her by it as if using an invisible hand. He started to infringe pressure over it with his power, holding the witch high and starting to choke her. Putting as much strength as he could on his telekinesis, Tarakudo made his power to pierce through flesh and bone, thus effectively beheading Nimue. The head was the only part of the witch that remained in the air, her jet-black hair covering her eyes.

In any other circumstance that resembled this one, Tarakudo would have let out a cry of triumph. However, this didn't seem like the case. For starters, the witch hadn't put up anything that resembled a fight, which was strange considering her reputation. The other thing bothering the King was that… there was not blood, and Tarakudo had beheaded enough adversaries in single combat to know that when you cut a head there is always blood. Slowly he approached Nimue's levitating head, using his telekinesis in order to remove the hair covering her face. Tarakudo looked into the lifeless expression of the woman… which suddenly changed into one that was very much alive.

"HELLO HANDSOME!" Nimue's head said in a yell.

"What in the name of-?!" Tarakudo shouted, releasing Nimue's top due to the shock of the detached body part talking back. The cranium fell to the ground near the rest of the witch's headless body, which had come to her feet with a pirouette. "Impossible!"

"Why so surprised?!" Nimue's head asked from the ground. "You are a floating head too!" the witch proclaimed, letting out a full on sinister laugh afterwards, making her head to surround itself with her dark purplish magic and float to put itself where it was before; the wound that had severed it in the first place closing and healing almost instantaneously.

 _High speed regeneration?!_ Tarakudo thought in shock. He had suspected the witch to have some sort of agelessness, but not to be able to have such a strong regenerative ability. As he tried to launch a counterattack, the Oni King found himself unable to move. _What the-?!_

"You know, you should put more attention to what your enemy does in battle," Nimue said arrogantly as she moved her neck in circles in order to check if it was moving normally again. "That spell I casted back there wasn't meant to hurt you, but to immobilize you!" Nimue moved her hands and casted a circle of Celtic runes around Tarakudo, who looked confused at them.

 _Raw Magic too?_ Tarakudo thought as his confusion grew, especially considering that the woman had used nothing but Chi Magic during the fight. _Someone forgot to mention this…_

"Even if you are in your astral form or not," Nimue said as her eyes lighted in purple magic, and she added Chi Magic at her runes, crossing her arms over her head, palms extended and making a cross; "this should be enough to obliterate you!"

 _Chi and Raw at the same time?!_ Tarakudo thought enraged. _Can't a man even trust a fellow King lately?!_

"Babel!" Nimue yelled, lowering her crossed arms.

What followed Nimue's scream of her spell's name was a pillar of black light rising where the circle of runes had been. As Nimue put her hands in her hips and made her magic aura to vanish, she contemplated her work. Nothing but an enormous cloud of smoke remained, and Tarakudo was gone, his astral form hopefully broken and scattered between the physical and astral planes.

"That is what you get," Nimue proclaimed while panting slightly; "for underestimating humanity."

"Teacher!"

Mariko and Liam had finally arrived in the rooftop, the man of the Fast Realm still dressed in the clothes he was wearing before; but Mariko was now clad in her full-body black armor, the stick she always carried while using the armor and she used as her weapon in battle already charged with energy.

"Are you alright, Lady Nimue?" Liam inquired, to which Nimue answered by shaking her head and shrugging her shoulders.

"Of course I am," the witch answered. "He wasn't much of a fight in the end."

"What... what exactly happened here?" Mariko asked, eyes falling over the cloud of smoke that seemed determined to not let the soft wind to disperse it. "And who was 'He'?"

"Oh, remember the interferences?" Nimue said casually. "It was Tarakudo; he was the one blocking my locator spell."

"You... you destroyed him?" Liam asked, surprise in his voice. He had been monitoring the fight between the King of all Oni and Uncle and Tohru; and he had to admit he had thought impossible for Tarakudo to be destroyed so easily, especially considering he was in a form that couldn't be harmed. "Are you sure he is dead?"

Nimue giggled. "No, he is not exactly dead; not in the usual sense of that word. You can't kill astral forms, just imprison them, or weaken them enough that they lose anything resembling a thought process, or an identity. I did the latter by breaking him and scattering the remains. If he ever reforms, it will take him centuries; and when he does, all his Generals will be dead, and he will hardly remember who he is. One could say that it's a punishment worse than death;" she said alongside another sinister giggle.

 _I don't know if I should feel grateful for the fact that you don't use that in humans or be afraid that you can use it anytime_ , Liam thought.

"Wait a second. If you took him out… then you are saying I put on this thing," Mariko said in an irritated tone, pointing to her armor; "for nothing? Again? Come on, teacher, getting this thing out is incredibly…"

"I am feeling offended, Nimue of Britannia."

The sentence, declared by none of the three of them, forced Mariko to stop talking abruptly as she, Liam and Nimue looked at the now finally disappearing cloud of smoke. The couple looked at Nimue in confusion, expecting an explanation. However, for the first time since she had known her mentor, Mariko saw how Nimue's own face was full of surprise, confusion and even… fear? Her teacher, afraid? Was there something out there able to frighten the Bane of the Nihil? The thought made Mariko's own eyes to widen in fear behind the optics of her armor's mask.

"Impossible…" Nimue whispered. "You should have been… obliterated… My spell was weak?" the woman asked to herself, looking at her hands for the briefest of moments.

"Oh no, your spell was incredible, that I assure you;" Tarakudo's voice came from the cloud, albeit it sounded a bit less booming than before, less… astral. "It would have certainly destroyed me…" the King of all Oni said, as he stepped out of the smoke, the cloud finally vanishing completely. However, the King did not appear as an enormous, floating head anymore. Standing now in front of the trio was a seven foot tall, imposing, muscular orange skinned Oni; dressed in black clothes with red garment. Tarakudo raised his arms and moved them a bit, cracked his neck afterwards and swung each of his legs to end stretching his muscles; "if I was in my astral form."

"You… you can switch between astral and physical form?" Nimue asked. Not even she could do that!

"It's pretty tiresome and complicated, actually;" Tarakudo explained as he gave a couple of steps, accustoming himself to having legs once again. He had spent a lot of time gathering energy in the Shadow Realm in order to assume this form, and he doubted he could maintain it for long before his Generals were released from their prisons. "But let me return to my previous point. You offended me."

"Oh, did I?" Nimue asked, returning to her usual demeanor. "Why? Because I thought that I had destroyed the mighty King of the Oni with a single blast? Oh poor little, innocent me…"

"You said," Tarakudo, ignoring the witch's antics, continued to say; "that I underestimate humanity."

"And that's not the case?" Nimue continued to argue with the Oni, making a couple of movements with her head for Liam and Mariko to get in position. The couple positioned each at one of Nimue's flanks, waiting for the signal. "Don't joke with me; you are nothing but a demon. Your kind doesn't know anything about humanity."

"I disagree," Tarakudo said firmly. "Of all the species I have met across the stars, I can find only humans as relatable to us Oni. The way they struggle, the way they ambition, the way they don't let anything to stop them towards their goal…" Tarakudo grinned from ear to ear. "And war, Lady of the Lake, humans are geniuses for war!" Tarakudo clenched a fist in front of him, and proclaimed loudly; "For us Oni, who can only find who we really are through conflict and battle, humanity is the most precious thing. A worthy opponent! An archenemy! They as a whole are the perfect species against which to wage war!" Tarakudo flexed his muscles, and the part of his clothing covering the upper part of his body was torn to shreds, revealing an orange torso with defined and strong muscles product of decades dedicated to training and fighting, his navel covered in white bandages. However, from the right shoulder to the left part of his wrist traveled an enormous scar that had once been produced by a strong blow from an enchanted great sword; the only wound that had left a mark in the King's body. "Now come to me! Let me experience in my own flesh if your reputation holds true or not!"

"If you insist…" Nimue said, and afterwards she casted another spell, this one designed to harm flesh instead of whatever energy astral forms were made of. She put her hands together, pointing them towards the half naked Tarakudo, and started to chant in a strange language, streams of both Raw and Chi Magic swirling around her arms nd hands, forming a shape reminiscent of a cannon. Nimue's eyes and mouth flashed with energy, and she unleashed one of her most powerful spells.

"Longinus!" the woman yelled as she shot her magic towards the demon. Tarakudo, however, stood his ground and waited for the attack, which doubled his size and he was sure that, if impacting against one of the tall buildings of this new and modern Japan, would leave a hole in it, or perhaps just break it down to small pieces.

However, the King of all Oni awaited patiently, raising an orange hand at the incoming attack, which's skin became as black as charcoal as the King imbued it with his Shadow Magic. The enormous and potent magic blast impacted against the palm of Tarakudo, breaking in two, and shattering once the King closed his hand. Fume raised from the King's clenched fist, but that was the only harm that the witch's attack had inflected upon his body.

 _What?!_ Nimue thought. _Alright, this is not normal. I have fought demons before, and none of them could do that, not even the few Oni I killed_.

"Now, now is when you are starting to disappoint me, Nimue of Britannia;" Tarakudo taunted her while caressing his beard. "Then again, few have fared well against me when I am in this form."

"I bet none of them were like us!" Mariko proclaimed then, as both her and Liam dashed towards the Oni, the half-human's staff charged to the limit with magic and the dark skinned blonde's hands having materialized a bunch of golden cards he had started to throw at the King of all Oni. However, before Tarakudo could retaliate, the couple became blurs in the air, and Tarakudo found himself trapped in a storm of blows that were impacting over every part of his body.

 _Super speed now? These two… are they children of the Fast Realm? Fantastic! This is what I call a challenge!_ Tarakudo thought gleefully, putting a lot of effort and power into hardening his body so the blows wouldn't harm him. Even if his powers gave him a clear advantage against magic blasts, his body was still susceptible to blows, no matter if inflicted by a fist, or a sword. And hadn't Escanor known that well… But the Tarakudo was far from defeated. The title of King of the Oni wasn't for show alone; he had earned it by virtue of being the strongest Oni to walk the Earth. Not even Ikazuki, who could open the Earth wide with his sword, could compare to Tarakudo; not only due to sheer power, but due to skill. As Mariko and Liam continued to hit him with everything they had, Tarakudo accustomed his eyes at their fast movements. Then, once he had deduced where they were going to be, the Oni moved his arms and grabbed each of them by their throats.

"No bad at all!" Tarakudo complimented them as he held them over the ground. "But you two are still green. You need more practice, and you basically telegraph your patron of attacks to your opponent. I give you two extra points for the effort, though." After that sentence, Tarakudo slammed their heads against each other's, and then threw Liam against the ground (which cracked due to the sheer force of the impact), where he kicked him in the ribs, sending him to the edge of the roof top. Afterwards Tarakudo punched Mariko in the stomach, cracking her armor and leaving a fist-shaped mark on it, sending the Princess of the Fast World in the opposite direction to the one her boyfriend had been thrown. Mariko landed without grace, taking off her helmet and vomiting blood over the ground. While Liam's body had started to heal itself due to being a child of the Fast World (which, on top of super speed granted its inhabitants fast healing) Mariko's hadn't. Even if she was the daughter of the White Queen Arkaam, and thus supposed to inherit the Heart of the Fast Realm one day, she was half-human by virtue of being the daughter of Foreman Takeda, and thus lacked some of the aspects that characterized the physiognomy of the rest of children of the Fast World.

Nimue, meanwhile, unleashed around fifty balls of purplish explosive magic and launched them towards Tarakudo. The Oni, smiling like a happy child, jumped in the air and started to strike the balls of energy down with his bare fists and legs, using precise and strong movements of jujutsu. When Tarakudo touched ground again, the balls (which should have at least blown up some of his limbs) were gone, and the King of all Oni remained unscratched.

"How are you this strong?!" Nimue asked, losing her usual cool upon witnessing the feats of the Shogun of Shadows. Her eyes fluctuated between the defeated Liam and Mariko, both of them skilled enough to hold their own against sorcerers of Daolon Wong's caliber and yet unable to inflict a mere wound upon the Oni's body. Something was incredibly wrong here. No demon was this strong. Not even tales of the strongest Demon Sorcerers, like Shendu or Tso Lan, talked about this kind of power.

"You know my titles," Tarakudo said as he slowly approached her. "Have you not heard of the meridianite tales speaking of my war against Escanor and the Four Knights?"

"Of course I have," Nimue answered bitterly. Maybe if she attacked from a flank or if Mariko acted as a distraction… no, what was she thinking? Mariko would die if she got struck by another of those punches.

"And have you heard that my last battle before being sealed was against both Escanor and Queen Leryn, at the time first human bearer of the Heart of Meridian?" Tarakudo asked again, having stopped a few meters away from the witch, crossing his arms over his torso.

"Yes, I have;" Nimue answered again. Only then realization hit her, understanding what that entitled. "Wait… you can't mean…"

"Indeed," Tarakudo said proudly. He tapped his chest with both his hands. "As long as I am in this form… I have the exact same amount of base power as the Heart of any world!"

Silence took hold of the rooftop after Tarakudo's sentence, Nimue looking at the King with eyes wide open. Her hand shot instinctively towards the tattoo of the butterfly that was in her left breast. Should she… should she use its power now? She directed a few glances at Mariko and Liam, both of them still badly injured, albeit she knew Liam would move if it was to take Mariko away from danger. There was no other option.

"Liam!" Nimue yelled. "Take Mariko and leave!"

"Teacher! You can't fight him alone!" Mariko protested.

"Do what I say!" Nimue yelled at her, but before she could say something else, she heard a loud cracking sound, and Nimue found herself without arms, both limbs flying away.

"Do you think I'm a fool?" Tarakudo asked behind her, his back against hers. How?! When had he moved there?! "I'm quite the expert in what entitles tattoos that give the one wearing them magic abilities, and I know to exactly _what_ that one connects you. Another thing I noticed…" Tarakudo said calmly, and then Nimue felt how something pierced through her stomach. Looking down she saw that it had been the King's fist; "is that while you can use the most basic spells, like telekinesis; the casting of the really complicated ones and regeneration cannot occur at the same time."

Tarakudo lifted Nimue and smashed her against the ground. Her arms had started to put themselves together against, small pieces of them flying to Nimue's main body again, and the hole in her stomach had started to close. "I do wonder… could you still heal yourself if I break your head in a million pieces? I know from my own experience that there is nothing as truly immortal in this universe!"

"Teacher!" Nimue heard Mariko's cry as she saw Tarakudo's foot to rise over her head and start plummeting down. Damn it, if she could just use the spell that was in her tattoo… then this demon would stand no chance! However, that proved to be unnecessary, as Tarakudo's foot halted before impacting, and not because he had so willed it.

Unknown to all four people gathered there, the King's shadow had elongated until becoming an enormous puddle of darkness. From that puddle appeared tentacles and claws reminiscent of the ones of some predatory bird, and they grabbed Tarakudo, immobilizing him and dragging him towards the shadows. The tentacles and claws were accompanied by an eerie sound, similar to the giggling of a cruel child.

"What?!" the King of all Oni yelled in anger. "What is the meaning of this?! How dare you interrupt my battle?!"

 _The abominations…_ Nimue thought as she saw how the King was mercilessly dragged into the puddle of darkness, sinking in it even when if possessing a power equivalent of the one of a Heart.

"This is not the end!" Tarakudo proclaimed. "You won't be able to trick me again, Nimue of Britannia! You won't be able to locate any more of my Generals!"

With that last sentence, Tarakudo disappeared through his own shadow, leaving Nimue, Mariko and Liam alone. Once Tarakudo was gone, Nimue forced her limbs to come towards her and she rose to her feet, quickly approaching Mariko and healing her.

"Teacher… what happened?" Mariko asked.

"Don't talk, that punch surely damaged some internal organs;" Nimue told her apprentice as she poured every inch of magic she had left into healing her. Only in these situations, when Mariko was hurt, Nimue dropped the sinister giggles and the arrogance, showing only care.

Liam, standing over his feet against all odds, approached the two women while limping. "I think he broke most of my ribs and my arm with that kick," Liam said in pain. Due to his fast healing, however, he was out of danger. He glanced worrisomely to his injured love. "If we are going to face that thing again," Liam said referring to Tarakudo; "may I suggest that we improve the armor?"

"Yes," Nimue answered, glancing back to the spot where Tarakudo was moments before. Even someone as prideful as her could admit when she miscalculated. She should be more careful, she was immortal, but these two were not.

* * *

 ** _Shadow Realm_**

"Cavalcade! Cavalcade of Horrors!"

Tarakudo's angry yell was met by the most horrid of sounds, and the worst part was that sound's resemblance to laughter. The Shogun of Shadows, now back in his astral form, flew across the bizarre landscape (if it could be called landscape at all) that the Shadow realm was. He flew down, down, down… into one of the deepest parts of the Shadow realm, near its core; where not even the bravest of maddest had dared to venture. There, the King halted, and waited for the horde to answer his summoning.

They appeared shortly after, laughing like maniacs all at once; each of them dwarfing Tarakudo, circling him as if they were fishes cornering a prey. They had some kind of resemblance to animals, but it was very hard to tell to which ones they held the most. Each had claws, and wings, and tentacles all over them; scales that seemed to change into feathers and then into fur and finally into scales again endlessly. They had too many mouths, too many teeth, too many tongues; too many eyes… so many, many eyes; and each of them shinning in pure madness. And they were laughing, always laughing, and what a laugh it was, one that could deafen the sound of a falling meteorite. These were the original inhabitants of the Shadow Realm, beings born from the union of other beings that other universes had discarded and banished here long ago for being too terrible or simple failures, and that had bonded and mated with each other, producing the horrible spawn that was now in front of the King of all Oni. However, Tarakudo didn't show fear, but anger. While the Cavalcade of Horrors was strong, Tarakudo was a master of the Shadow, and if these things wanted to kill him, he would bring some of them down with him. However, first they would answer his questions.

"Why?!" Tarakudo demanded to know. "Why did you stop me?!"

" _Hihihihihihihihi! The little King, the little King… He's angry at us!_ " the monsters laughed in unison. " _Oh, how worrisome! Is the King angry, because we interrupted his fight? No, no! The King should laugh! Fights won't give him back Japan, neither the lands humans took from him! Doesn't that make his efforts a joke?_ "

"Silence!" Tarakudo yelled in pure anger. "Silence, you beasts! You dared to interrupt my battle, because of a joke?!"

" _No joke, no joke!_ " the Cavalcade said. " _An order, an order!_ "

"Order?" Tarakudo inquired, a bit more calmed and… wary. "Order from whom?"

The Cavalcade let out a deafening, terrible laughter. " _It came from deep below! It came from the one that gives us purpose, from the one that was before anything else was_!"

Bump-bump... bump-bump... bump-bump... echoed a heartbeat across the whole Shadow Realm.

 **IT CAME FROM ME**

The new voice made Tarakudo to feel fear, and even pain. He looked down; pass the Cavalcade, towards the core of the Shadow Realm surrounded by the thickest of darkness, from where the heartbeat had come. The Cavalcade laughed pleased upon the newly arrived presence.

"Y-You?" Tarakudo asked, submissive and diplomatic now. This wasn't a being to which you could yell without getting punished.

 **GREETINGS TARAKUDO, TWO TIMES MET, TWO TIMES AIDED**

"You… you of all beings ordered the Cavalcade to assist Nimue? Why?"

 **IT WAS MY WILL. SHE IS NECESSARY**

"Necessary?" the King asked in confusion and tiredness. Just talking with the presence was exhausting him. "Necessary for what exactly?"

 **DO NOT TRY TO UNDERSTAND WHAT YOU WEREN'T MEANT TO UNDERSTAND, TARAKUDO, TWO TIMES MET, TWO TIMES AIDED. THE FLOW OF CAUSALITY SHALL NOT BE DISRUPTED BY THOSE UNNABLE AND UNWHORTY OF UNDERSTANDING IT. YOU ARE, AFTER ALL, A MERE MORTAL. BE CONTENT THAT I LET YOU AND YOUR BRETHREN USE MY SHADOW. BE GONE NOW.**

"But…" Tarakudo wanted to protest, but he didn't push the matters anymore. He had his plans, and getting on the bad side of this being wouldn't help him to attain his goals. He would pour his anger into another task, like modifying and improving the spell he had been using to block Nimue's own tracking spell. So the King fled from the scene, after a respectful bow. A strange sight to behold, since Kings aren't supposed to bow to anyone. Then again…

What is a mere king to a God?

* * *

 ** _Heatherfield; Silver Dragon's basement; afternoon_**

Tension was palpable in the air. Waiting for Yan Lin to meet with them, the current generation of Guardians of Kandrakar was in the basement of the Lin's restaurant, a place they had started to affiliate with their adventures and friendship. Irma had even made a joke of it once, as usual for her, calling the place their 'Fortress of Solitude'. Now, as Will, Cornelia and Irma sat in a couch and Taranee and Hay Lin sat in a couple of armchairs; it didn't seem such a funny place anymore. Normally they would all be speaking over some triviality, but not this time; this time a serious matter was supposed to be discussed, or at least that was the impression all five of them had.

None of them spoke until Yan Lin arrived, the old Chinese woman carrying a plate with five glasses of fresh orange juice on it. So typical of a Lin, to think that a calmer stomach equals a calmer mind; but anyways each girl took one of the glasses and thanked the elder for the detail. Then Yan Lin took an old banquette that was lying around the basement and sat in it, in front of the quintet of girls. Silence took hold of the place for another few moments, before the Water Guardian broke it.

"Shouldn't Jade be here?" Irma asked, her glass of juice already emptied. "I mean, she's as involved as us in his whole mess."

"She is," Yan Lin told the Water Guardian. "And she is your friend and part of my family; but…" the former Air Guardian remarked; "she is not a Guardian. And albeit her powers were given to her forcedly, she decided to partake in Meridian's conflict in order to help you out of her own will. You five, however; didn't have an option in that… and for that I apologize."

"You… apologize?" Will asked from the couch. Her glass had still half of its original contains in it. She had sounded a bit puzzled by the old woman's declaration, indicating Yan Lin that the redhead wasn't expecting for that.

"I do," Yan Lin said from the banquette, resting her arms over her knees. Ah, perhaps it hadn't been such a good idea to sit in a chair without backrest considering her age. "I have been given many thoughts to what you told me back in the Infinite City, Will. And first of all, I designed this meeting so we all could have a real conversation. And I thought that I would start for apologizing for dragging you all into becoming Guardians without any warning of what you were to encounter in this journey. I was a fool, and you all should have had the option of choosing."

"Grandma…" Hay Lin whispered, saddened by her grandmother's own bad mood.

"Mrs. Lin;" Taranee said after the Air Guardian, adjusting her glasses as she eyeing the old woman. "If… if Phobos hadn't attacked Zamballa, like Servantis told us he did, would we be on Meridian at all?"

"In due time, I think yes;" Yan Lin answered. "But I suppose Kandrakar would have left the meridianites to fare by themselves a bit longer, giving you enough time to have a proper and complete training."

"And meanwhile," Will broke into the conversation; "how many innocent people would have suffered? If we hadn't been there, Caleb would probably be now dancing over Servantis' corpse. In fact, why didn't we know about the nobles' true colors before we supported the Rebellion?"

"Will's got a point," Irma was the next one to speak. "Are we supporting the rebels 'cause it's the good thing to do, or 'cause it's what Kandrakar says it's the good thing to do?"

"Doesn't sound too heroic to me," Hay Lin commented.

"See?" Will said again. "This is the same reason I planned what I planned back in Meridian. If we don't take the control of the situation, more people will die."

"Your plan revolves into killing more people!" Taranee accused her, making Will to grew angry.

"My plan revolves into killing as less people as possible!" the redhead yelled to her friend. "Don't you get it? Meridian's in a war! We can't save everyone!"

"Then what are we?" Taranee asked. "Kandrakar's Black Ops? The Rebellion's Death Squad?"

"Enough," Yan Lin cut the argument. "Taranee, you are a wonderful child, and one of the most intelligent girls that I have ever known. That head of yours is telling you that what your team must do is wrong… and it's probably right. But sometimes, rights can be achieved with wrongs. But Will," Yan Lin addressed the Keeper of the Heart; "albeit I can admit that what you are doing is due to the circumstances you found yourself in; you shouldn't ignore the criticism of your companions."

"I'm not doing that," Will said. "It's just that… look, when I killed that man, I felt horrible. But the more I think of it, the more I realize that it will come a moment in which I've to do it again. In which the rebels find themselves in another Torus Filney. That's the reason I said I will control and manipulate the nobles that _can_ become our allies into _being_ our allies no matter what. It's not that I ignore what Taranee and you say, but that… I'm just trying to minimize the losses."

 _Compassion_ , Yan Lin thought. _Something that Nerissa lost long ago_. _Then, it's maybe not too late…_ "Then you should be there for each other. Will, I do understand the choices you are making are necessary, but they will make you walk over a very thin and dangerous line. Something similar happened with my generation, when were sent in a mission by the Oracle to a world called Arkhanta, a swamp world populated by humans and banshee;" Yan Lin paused for a moment then, not very comfortable with remembering that incident. "Apparently, one of the banshees, a woman called Yua, who was the bearer of the Heart of Arkhanta at the time; had joined forces with a man called Ari, and both of them were contacting other worlds in order to join forces with them and take Kandrakar down. Of course, we were deployed, and we engaged the banshee in battle. It wasn't until the woman that preceded Will as Keeper of the Heart… Nerissa Crossnic," the name tasted like ashes in Yan Lin's mouth, "killed Yua that we understood what had motivated them to do what they were doing. An incredibly dangerous epidemic had hit Arkhanta, killed many banshees and even put Ari's son under the peril of death. Yua was able to save the boy, Maqi, but he was rendered mute. Many banshees died, and Kandrakar, who was the one that could have offered help; refused."

"Whoa…" Irma interrupted the old Chinese woman's tale. "You know? I don't know if we're going to meet any guy from Kandrakar anytime soon, but if we do, I call dibs in punching him first."

Yan Lin didn't reply to that comment. She had idolized Kandrakar once, and she knew Halinor still did. Not that there was something to not be proud of in that, Kandrakar _did_ protect and maintain order across the Known Worlds, and without them many would broke into wars with each other… but now Yan Lin started to see firsthand and with an outsider's eyes how their methods could do as much harm as good. It had been Kandrakar that had filled Nerissa's head with the promises of power, it had been Kandrakar that had taken the Heart from her in the hopes that somehow that could cure (or at least lessen) her growing madness… if what happened to Nerissa could be considered madness at all, of which Yan Lin wasn't so sure anymore. She decided that the best for now was to continue her tale. "We thought that our mission to Arkhanta would end with us victorious and Ari and Yua realizing their faults… but it ended with Yua dead, Ari swearing revenge at us and Maqi crying over her corpse. However, she _did_ try to kill us. Now Maqi has the Heart of Arkhanta, and he rules the world with justice from what I heard, even if he decreed that if a Kandrakar emissary sets foot in that world, he would kill it personally. Something changed in Nerissa after that mission, something in how she felt about herself. She became more and more pragmatic, more and more manipulative, and we… we weren't there for her; to help her out of the abyss she has digging herself into. By the time we tried to approach her and try to understand what she was feeling and trying to accomplish… we lost Nerissa _and_ Cassidy, the former Water Guardian. There is nothing wrong in doing what you think it's necessary to do the right thing Will, and there is nothing wrong into believing in what you believe, Taranee. But… try to not let that to create a barrier between you two." The basement fell silent again, the five girls looking astonished at how weak the old woman looked now, head lowered and shoulders sunken. She hadn't been able to tell them all the truth, that it wasn't just that Nerissa and Cassidy were gone, but that it had been Nerissa who had killed Cassidy, and that the former Keeper was now imprisoned in the highest peak of Mount Thanos, protected by a thousand wards that make sure no human could enter her prison without Kandrakar's blessing.

"Grandma… oh my god, I'm… sorry;" was the only thing Hay Lin was able to say.

"I think… that would be all, girls;" the elder said with a sad smile. "I know the situation you have found yourselves in is complicated and that it's not your fault it's that way; but I know you can solve it. I hoped that you all would be better than my generation, but perhaps you already are. Now, I think it would be good for you all to go out, I don't want to bore you all anymore with old stories of a bunch of idiots."

"Mrs… Yan Lin," the elder heard Will's voice. "Thank you."

 _Both of them so much alike you, and yet so different…_ Yan Lin thought about Will and Jade. _Perhaps you were like these two once, Nerissa; and I was just too scared to admit it. Manipulative, cunning, but first and foremost well-intentioned… Yes, that defines both of these girls and you so well, at least until we started to abandon you. Cassidy didn't abandon you, did she? How much must have hurt you, when you killed her, and I was too blinded by rage and youth to see it._

The five girls bid farewell to Yan Lin, who waved a tired hand at they all as they climbed the stairs that led out of the basement. She was left alone, thinking about past victories and losses, or past friends and lovers. Could there had been another approach to solve the whole ordeal with Nerissa? Himerish had denied it, saying that 'A mortal can't fight fate', yet she wasn't so sure anymore.

 _I'm still scared, about what these girls can become. But I have faith. And I lament not having faith in you. Perhaps if we all had faith in you back then… then you wouldn't have ended that way._

* * *

 ** _Hours later; Chan flat_**

"I'm home," Jackie said as he crossed the door of his apartment. Today had been such a tiring and incredibly weird day… Who was that girl? What did she want? Why did she sneak around Chang's building? And why had she kicked him so hard? "Is someone in there?"

"Just me," a voice said from the living room. Jade's voice.

Jackie sighed. Today had already been a complicated day. What could go wrong by complicating it a little more? He found Jade lying on the couch, dressed in her pajamas and reading a book. Well, that wasn't a sight that was seen every day. Then again, Jade hadn't brought any of her videogames with her from San Francisco, the only toy she had in Heatherfield from her old life was the Super Moose stuffed toy and he was currently in her room, over her bed.

"What are you reading?" Jackie asked. It was a pretty thick book, and he was more accustomed to see Jade reading comics.

"The Silmarillion," Jade answered, closing the book and incorporating, sitting in the couch.

"S-Silma-what?" Jackie asked, trying to not make his tongue to break upon pronouncing the name of the thing.

"Silmarillion," Jade said again. "It's like a prequel of the Lord of the Rings," the girl explained, getting a couple of her bangs from her face and leaving the book over the living room's table. "The elves are a bunch of jerks in this one, though."

"Oh, is it interesting?" Jackie asked as he sat at her side in the couch.

"Oh, it is;" Jade answered. "I think they're gonna make a movie or a series out of this one. I can't wait to see it. So, how was work?"

 _Of course you go directly into addressing the elephant in the room_ ; Jackie thought. "It was… fine;" _Aside from letting a poor, tortured man to get dragged wherever Chang sent him; and getting kicked in the groin…_ "Jade, how do you think Cornelia will take it if I talk with her about her father?"

"Dunno," Jade answered. "Corny's pretty proud of everything related to her, and I don't know how she'll handle her daddy being involved with the mafia. You… you're doing what I told you to do?"

"Ross told me that he is getting near to discover what the Dark Hand is planning to do," Jackie told his niece, "and rankly I am too. It seems to be a complicated heist in which Chang plans to use all the magic firepower he has gathered."

"Shame we don't have the Dragon Talisman anymore, eh?" Jade joked, making her uncle to chuckle.

"Yes," Jackie answered. _I wonder where that one is_ ; he thought. "But when we have enough clues and we stop the Dark Hand, Captain Black will intervene and put them under arrest."

"And you're worried of what will happen to Cornelia's family when that happens," Jade helped him to continue.

Jackie nodded. "I recognize a good man when I see one. At first I thought Harold would change sides once he realized that what he was doing was wrong, but he knows it and yet he continues to do so. I… understand why now. If I bring the Dark Hand down, what will happen with his family once the enemies Harold has made just by working for Chang discover they don't need to worry about the Dark Hand anymore?" Captain Black could arrange for them to enter the witness protection program, but Jackie didn't believe himself able to look how Cornelia was forced to live a life that wasn't hers because of his actions. And neither Cornelia, nor her little sister, nor their mother, were precisely witnesses; so he didn't know if this supposition could be applied to them. And it wasn't just Harold, but all the people that worked at the Dark Hand and that Ajckie had met. They weren't thieves or any other type of criminals, just people that had made a couple of wrong decisions and that men like Chang had taken advantage of by promising them another chance in life. "Perhaps if I talk with Cornelia she can make Harold to see reason, and with his help bring Chang down without losing as much lives as when Valmont fell."

"How the hell did we end into all this mess, Jackie?" Jade asked then, slowly putting her head over the adult's shoulder. "I mean, with you going all super-spy; and I'm fighting a war with my new friends… and I killed a man. I can't believe I'm saying this, but things seemed a lot easier when we were just fighting demons that could manipulate the elements."

"I don't know, Jade;" Jackie told her sincerely.

"Tch…" Jade protested. "I… didn't mean to yell at you back in the Infinite City, Jackie. I know you were just worried about me, but you've to understand…"

"I do understand. But you too have to understand that I don't want my niece to become a murderer," he said, putting one arm around her and keeping her near him. "But I never thought that we will find ourselves in the situation we are in."

"Do you… do you think, when the war's ended;" Jade told him. "That we could go back to how things were before?"

"I don't know, Jade;" Jackie told his niece. I don't know, I don't know… yes, he didn't know. He didn't know a thing about this, he didn't know a thing about war but what he had read in books, but he knew that, sadly, he couldn't pull Jade out of it now. It was too late. "Perhaps Uncle was right in the Infinite City, when he told me that the answer to all this wasn't just trying to prove others wrong, but actually working together for something better. Perhaps I should apply that to Harold too."

"Uncle told me something similar," Jade said, remembering their conversation from the morning. Both of them chuckled upon that, knowing that there was a high possibility that the Chinese old man had orchestrated all this situation so the two of them could

"By the way, where are Uncle and Tohru?" Jackie asked then.

"Oh, Uncle said something about 'Bingo Night!' and dragged Tohru along," the dark haired girl explained. "So it's just the two of us, tonight."

"Pizza and a movie?" Jackie asked, earning an approving nod from his niece.

"Oh yes, pizza and movie; great election," Jade told him, chuckling.

Things weren't going to be easy, Jackie knew as much, but complaining about them wouldn't solve anything; on that his Uncle had been right. It was time to swallow one's pride and weakness and continue forward.

* * *

 ** _Across the Veil; the palace_**

"Yes! The final step!" Phobos said gleefully, putting the scraps of book-pages dirtied with his sister's blood into the same crystal cauldron where the symbols of her Mind and Spirit (her stolen math test and breath) were floating alongside an enormous amount of energy that the Prince himself had put in there.

In the room dedicated to Phobos' own experiments and matters of war, the Prince, Cedric (now back into his greenish, meridianite robes), Wong and two servants that sometimes (and begrudgingly) helped the Dark Chi wizard, were giving the final touches to the Ritual of Amalgamation. Cedric stood patiently behind the two servants, while Phobos and Wong worked in the cauldron, the addition of the symbol of the Body of the Princess creating a strong reaction within the energy it contained.

From Cedric's perspective it was clear Wong was here just for show, even if Phobos insisted that the wizard was here to supervise the ritual. Or perhaps it was some kind of punishment, the old Archmage forced to drag his dark robes out of his own alchemical laboratory and into this chamber time after time; afar from his own, twisted projects.

The anger Wong showed towards Phobos and that only Cedric seemed to notice, added to the things that Miranda had been spying from the dark corners of the castle's ceiling and she had been telling him and his siblings; gave Cedric a wonderful idea regarding the Dark Chi wizard. But first things first, time to play the role of submissive second in command in this play that court was.

Cedric walked past the two servants, approaching Phobos as Wong asked if he was needed there anymore, and upon the Prince's negative, he left the room; the pair of commoners following in tow. The Snake of Cavigor seemed to be the only one catching up the hateful glare Wong shot towards Phobos when he wasn't looking. Things weren't only going as planned; they were playing out just in the family's advantage. How wonderful!

"My liege," Cedric addressed Phobos, who was now sinking his hands in the cauldron. "Has everything gone as you planned?"

"Indeed, Cedric. Behold!" Phobos said gleefully, taking his hands out of the cauldron. In them, the Shapeshifter said how Phobos carried a golden tiara with a reddish jewel on its center. A crown, it was a crown; a very especial one. "A crown made out of my sister's Spirit, Mind and Body. The Ritual of Amalgamation is complete, as long as this crown exists, and up until the moment I claim the Heart of Meridian out of her, her soul's defenses are down!" Phobos turned to Cedric and approached with the crown clutched between his hands. "You must return to Earth immediately and convince my sister to come here! Now!"

"My liege," Cedric answered the Prince's sentence with a soft voice; "please, calm down. While I have been able to grow closer and closer to your sister; it's still soon to bring her to Meridian, Ritual of Amalgamation or not. However, as I told you; your sister is quite closer with the Earth Guardian, a bond that has already been damaged. If we wait until the appropriate moment, I shall turn that damage in our advantage, break the bond and bring the Princess not only here so you can acquire the Heart of Meridian, but so she can serve as a weapon against the Guardians."

"Yes… Yes! Excellent idea, Cedric!" Phobos complimented his second in command.

 _You are such a fool_ , Cedric thought as he contemplated how the Prince inspected the tiara. _As long as the orders I give you are disguised as humble counsels, you obey them. Hell, I was able to convince you to attack Zamballa. Sometimes I wonder what could have happened if Raythor, Servantis or another noble were greedy or mad. They could have told you that burning children was the key to becoming a respected King, and you would have believed them. Speaking of the other members of this court; that reminds me I need to check…_ "My lord, excuse my impertinence, but… where are the guards? I have noticed that the castle is now only guarded by Lurdens."

"Uhm? The guards?" Phobos asked as his eyes went from the crown to Cedric. The Prince seemed to be thinking about what the Shapeshifter had said for a moment before answering. "I ordered Lothar to take them out to the city, in order to search for rebels within the Capital."

 _No… No you didn't_ ; Cedric thought. _Miranda told me that Lothar took the Guard out because you tortured him after the fiasco in Torus Filney. Then again, Miranda also told me that you had to ask her where Wong was when he had gone to Earth in the search of that wolf girl, when I informed you about it before going to Earth myself… How does your head function?_ "A clever idea, my liege. Now, if you can excuse this servant, I must return to my duties."

"Yes, yes… go now, Cedric, good job;" Phobos told the Shapeshifter, who left the room using the same door Wong had used. Before closing it, he directed one last glance to the Prince, who sinisterly caressed the crown destined to be worn by his sister, as if it were an animal of some kind. Whisperers, small, feminine creatures that took the form of flowers and that the Prince had created and that populated some zones of the castle; started to appear around him and whisper words of praise and success. As Cedric closed the door and left the Prince of Meridian to thrive in his own madness, the Shapeshifter thought that if Phobos had been born in Earth, instead of a palace, his home would have been an asylum.

* * *

 ** _The castle's halls_**

Daolon Wong walked slowly towards his laboratory when he perceived the sound of steps behind him, clearly approaching him. He didn't have time for this, tracker was probably waiting for him in the laboratory with more test subjects for his…

"Archmage Wong, it's good to see you," the soft, sweet and poisonous voice of the Snake of Cavigor entered Wong's ears; and in mere seconds Cedric was at the Dark Chi wizard's left, walking alongside him. Wong cursed his inability to walk at a faster pace due to his advanced age.

"Lord Cedric," Wong greeted him back, using a tone as polite as he could. Wong knew for a matter that Cedric was much more intelligent than the Prince, and albeit the wizard had been able to avoid any suspicion for the part of the current monarch, he doubted he could do the same with Cedric if the Shapeshifter spent too much time around him. "I congratulate you in your success in your mission."

"I thank you for your praise, Archmage Wong;" Cedric said softly. "May I discuss an important matter with you?"

"I must return to the Alchemical Laboratory now, Lord Cedric. We lost one of the Shapeshifters I created in Torus Filney, and that means I must produce more;" Wong said as an excuse. Well, it wasn't an excuse per se; he did have a lot of work to do and more Shapeshifters to create, except not for the Prince. Simon sacrifice wouldn't be in vain, however, since thanks to him Wong had been able to test the results of his enhancement drug and perfect it, resulting in a substance that would increase size, strength and durability of the Shapeshifters' Beast forms while not reducing their life-span like it had done with Simon. One step at a time, one step at a time…

"Oh, but it concerns a magic tool that was heavily guarded;" Cedric said as he stopped, letting Wong to walk a couple of steps ahead of him. Even without seeing the Snake, Wong could feel his smile. "The Horn of Hypnos, I believe it's called."

 _Curses!_ Wong thought with shock and anger. He turned around in order to eye Cedric, the Snake of Cavigor still dedicating him that smug smile of his. "What does that have to do with…?"

"Wong, I know you have been using it in some of the Lurdens;" Cedric said bluntly. "Not in all of them, just in a very small percentage. Also, from I have been told, Tracker has been providing you with more of your… test subjects; and that you have already created more successful artificial Shapeshifters."

"Miranda…" Wong said through grinded teeth as he realized how Cedric knew about all this.

"Miranda, yes, amongst others;" Cedric lied, letting his words to make Wong to grow more paranoid. "Now you may be thinking: ' _I should attack him_ ' or ' _I should flee_ ' or ' _I should destroy him with a blast to his head_ '… except that those are unnecessary, Archmage Wong."

Wong raised a confused eyebrow as Cedric approached him slowly. The back of his eyes burned with the power of the Pig as the Shapeshifter gave one step after another. "And why would those be unnecessary, Lord Cedric?"

"Because if I wanted Phobos to know about the fact you are plotting against him, he would already know, and you would be dead;" The Snake said seriously, smug smile disappearing from his lips; "which leads to the question of why I didn't do it."

"And the answer to that question would be?" Wong asked in a way calmer tone and actually liking to where this conversation was going.

"Well, isn't it obvious?" Cedric said along a chuckle. "You want to depose Phobos and take the throne; I want to remain where I am. I can bring the Princess to this world and maintain her away from the Capital enough time for you to dispose of Phobos and then claim the Heart of Meridian for yourself. The question here is not for me, but for you, Archmage Wong." Cedric's eyes shifted momentarily to the golden ones of his snake form, his tongue also becoming the one of a reptile. "Would you be interessssssted in a little alliance?"

* * *

 ** _Alchemical Laboratory_**

"You made a deal with the Snake?" Tracker asked in his raspy and growl-like voice as he stood in Wong's laboratory, Sniffer calmly chewing a piece of meat at his feet. "You believe he can be trusted?"

"I believe Cedric doesn't want to lose the power he has gained, my friend; and as long as I maintain him in his position once Phobos is gone, he will help me;" Wong answered while he injected a greenish serum in the arm of an earthling eleven-year-old chubby black girl with hair of a light shade of brown that was dressed in a pair of bad jeans and a dark blue hoodie with a white eighty-eight in the front. Behind her, another five figures of similar ages, maybe a bit older, awaited; all of them stiff and without light in their eyes, all of them under the spell of the Horn of Hypnos. Leaning against a table, Roberta was looking at how Wong conducted his experiment, hers the eyes of a girl that still retained her free will. "Did you have trouble in Earth, in order to bring these here?"

"I had more trouble finding a Portal back," Tracker answered, kneeling and patting Sniffer in the back. "Earth has evolved in many ways in the past centuries, but there are still children in the streets that no one desires to acknowledge, if one knows where he must look. That has not changed much since the Middle Ages, has it?"

"Indeed," Wong said as he gave the final touches to the girl Tracker had brought to Meridian. He had been able to reduce the death rate of his test subjects, yet he still feared of using his formula in adults. So he needed to compensate with his enhancement drug. Given enough time, he would have a small army of Shapeshifters that, albeit still young in their human forms, would be as big as adults in their Beast forms. That on top of his brainwashed Lurdens, his own magic, the power of the Pig Talisman, his Dark Chi Warriors, Roberta, and Tracker and Cedric's assistance… Wong smirked wickedly as he eyed the girl. "Tell me child; who is your master?"

The girl spoke two single words. "Daolon Wong."

* * *

 ** _Two weeks later, Heliosport_**

Heliosport was the most important port city in Meridian, and thus was the biggest port you could find in the realm; with strong and well built buildings, the tallest of them the central tower of the city, under the control of a small garrison of guards. Said to once had been controlled by the Nine Demon Generals of legend; tales told the story of how Knights Didier and Brandis freed the place from their influence. But those were just tales. What mattered really about Heliosport was that, as the only thing that could be called a proper city in Meridian's outer ring on top of being the Kingdom's most transited port city, Heliosport was incredibly prosper, and so many came to this place in search of jobs, trade or even to embark in the ships of merchants and the like, either in order to make money, escape from the war, or live an adventure. Due to how important it was for either side of the war, the place enjoyed the luxury of being an unofficial neutral territory, since no side could risk destroying it or putting it under the whole control of the other. That was the reason very few rebels entered the city, and the guards and soldiers around turned a blind eye to them. It was, on top of it all, the only city of Meridian that outright welcomed Passling-folk, since their obsession with trading only provided better opportunities for the merchants to grow richer and fatter. The days of Heliosport passed peacefully both for the rich merchant and the more humble worker of the docks… except for today. Today was an especial day, and as one of the guards in the tower looked at the sea with a bored expression and a spyglass, he noticed something in the horizon… something that made the lower part of his mouth to fell as down as it could.

"S-Sir!" the guard called for his superior, a Galhot with less scales that normal and a long, brown beard that he had let grow in order to compensate his bald head and that even had small braids over it. "You've to see this!"

"What's this time?" the man answered with a nasal voice as he approached his subordinate. "Got another bug in the optic, lad?"

"No sir! Ships, sir, around twenty, with black sails!" the man said. "One of them's enormous! Are they pirates, sir? We haven't been attacked by pirates in years!"

The guard in charge took the spyglass and looked at the approaching ships. His face became one of utter surprise when, upon laying eyes over the commanding ship's sails, he saw that they had been ornamented with the drawing of three golden waves, the central one bigger than the other two. "Those ain't any pirates…" he said in stupor; "That's the damn Blade of Meridian!" the man let the spyglass to fall to the ground, not bothering if it broke or not. "Messenger, I need a messenger!" he said, storming around the room he was in, and as soon as a man approached him in order to carry out his order, the commander took him by the shoulders. "Get a Hoogong, get to the fucking Capital as fast as you can and tell Captain Lothar that Archduchess Galiene Sebille and the forces of Blackrock Island have come."

* * *

 ** _Two weeks later; Fallbottom_**

No one knew exactly who had been in charge of designing and directing the construction of Fallbottom, one of the great cities of the middle ring of Meridian; but whoever it was the most common commentary was that that person hadn't been paid enough. Fallbottom was called that due to the fact that it had been built in an enormous crack in the land, a canyon that normally would have nothing but an abyss in which the most resilient members of the wild could have lived. But due to the genius of whoever had designed it, now a whole city occupied the crack, rudimentary elevators to reach the surface, buildings built in the walls and the bottom of it; hence the name Fallbottom, because you could fall in it… and the city was at its bottom. Well, genius architect or not, whoever built this place wasn't pretty good with names.

As the rest of great cities of the medium ring, Fallbottom was under the control of one of Meridian's noble families. To be precise, it was under the control of the Dereth family, and currently ruled by the older of two sisters, a middle aged and very thin woman with almost white hair and pale skin (many in Fallbottom had a look similar to this, due to the fact that the sun didn't reach to them as easy as it reached other cities. Their skin also burned easier due to this) that in conjunction with her angular and sharp face and the dark, long dress she was wearing and that covered every part of her body except hands and head, gave her a frail appearance. Baroness Mergo Dereth; that was her name. However, her rule seemed now to come to an end, as she directed herself to her subjects from the balcony of her mansion.

"Citizens of Fallbottom!" the woman called for the commoners. "News of the Rebellion's triumph in Torus Filney must have already reached your ears! What surely hasn't reached your ears is how Prince Phobos didn't move a single finger to aid Viscount Servantis, leaving that city to die! Is this the kind of monarch we deserve? The one who lets his loyalist die?! Do you want to die?!"

"No!" many smallfolk yelled.

"No, of course you don't want to die! That is the reason I have decided to abandon the Prince and aid the Rebellion! I know this decision may surprise many of you, but the Prince doesn't deserve our help! And…" the woman seemed to doubt herself for a moment before continuing her speech. "And I don't deserve to lead you!" whispers echoed through the multitude upon that sentence. "I don't know anything about how to lead you in times of war, and it was my fault that we passed so much time serving someone as unworthy as Phobos! that is the reason why… why I now abdicate my position of Baroness of Fallbottom to my younger sister, Miriam!"

Another woman stepped into the balcony, this one with the same white hair, albeit her skin had way more color, and her dress was considerably more elegant and revealing, which accentuated how better endowed she was in comparison with her sister. Her face was rounder and lovelier, and her body looked stronger than the one of the other noblewoman. She was also at least five years younger, which didn't pass unnoticed to the eye. Miriam Dereth, that's how this one was called, who due to not having as much responsibilities as her older sister, had traveled across Meridian in the pass, enjoying the sun and making friends everywhere. Some said that she could even make friends with the women of the brothels.

The commoners received her with an ovation; it was no secret that she was beloved by Fallbottom's populace, and that she loved them back. She waved at them with a kind smile. "Good speech, sister;" the younger sibling said. "I must admit you almost made me to believe it."

"Shut your damn mouth, Miriam;" Mergo whispered in a bitter tone. "Can we go now?"

"In a moment, let me enjoy this a bit more;" Miriam said as she blew a kiss towards the crown, and then waved goodbye to them. "I'm done, let's go. I entertained them enough, right?"

Mergo didn't utter a word to answer her younger sister. It had been Miriam's dream during her whole live to achieve the position of Baroness… and now it was hers. The sisters weren't particularly close, and some believed that if one of them died the other wouldn't cry a single tear. Both of them continued to walk around their mansion, which was considerably silent. No guards or servants were around today, the latter ones because Mergo had told them to take this day free, and the former ones because… because… because they were dead.

A few nights ago, when the service was gone to their houses, someone had sneaked in the mansion. They had took out the guards swift and silently, and then made noise so they Mergo would wake up. Some of the guards had been killed by daggers, some others had been killed by strange looking, scarlet spears. And when she had arrived at the mansion's main hall, she had found a bunch of people making her an offer she couldn't refuse.

"Mother!" she heard the happy shout of her daughter now, as Miriam and she walked towards the kid's chambers. The little girl, no older than a seven year old with a hair and a skin as white as her mother's, (albeit the hair was way shorter) ran towards her, dressed in a pinkish gown. "Look what she gave me!" the little girl said, showing her mother the reddest rose she had ever seen. "It was a normal flower, but she did something with it, and now is prettier!"

"Melody…" Mergo muttered, and hugged her daughter. Behind them, Miriam smirked.

"Hey there, Baroness;" Mergo heard a voice belonging to a teenage girl, and as she looked up her eyes met the honey-amber ones of Jade Chan, the wolf Shapeshifter standing in the doorframe of the little girl's dormitory, Gareth and another two men at her back. They had been more the night of the attack, the girl (apparently the human form of the Rebellion's Black Wolf) leading them and telling her that either she gave her support to the Rebellion and gave the position of Baroness to her sister, or she would never see her daughter again. "No, wait;" Jade said in a deadpan tone; "now she's the Baroness!" she said, pointing to Miriam. "Alright, alright…" Jade said after chuckling at her own joke, she and her men approaching Mergo, and the girl ruffling Melody's hair. "I need to speak with your mom now, kid. Why don't you go with your auntie a little bit?"

Miriam took Melody and left the scene, leaving Mergo alone with Jade, Gareth, and the others.

"You called her kid, how old are you?" Mergo asked of Jade, who shrugged.

"I'm turning thirteen next month;" Jade answered sincerely, making a part of Mergo to shiver at the thought of the Rebellion using such young people in their battles. "Anyway, you know how this plays out from now on, right?" Jade asked the noblewoman.

"Some rebels will take the positions of the guards that you killed, and they will inform my sister of what the Rebellion needs of her from time to time; be it supplies, information or the aid of Fallbottom's miliatia;" Mergo answered, repeating the same demands Jade had made of her the night she had appeared. "I can live with my daughter here as I have done until now, as long as I don't challenge my sister's rule."

"Awesome," Jade said as she walked past her with her men. "But I think I've got to insist there;" the Ben-Shui reincarnation said as she halted and looked at the noblewoman over her shoulder. "Don't try anything stupid. 'Cause I've got your smell, and it doesn't matter if you escape, or where you decide to go, or if you take your daughter with you or not. I _will_ find you, no matter what."

With a shiver of pure terror, Mergo let out a soft "Understood," and went to reunite with her daughter again. Jade, meanwhile, continued her walk towards an exit of this place.

"Did our guys get paid, Gareth?" the girl asked of her number two.

"Yes, and Lady Miriam was quite generous with that;" the man answered.

"Did some of them try something stupid again?"

"No. Not since you threatened them. And the fact that you hammered the threats continuously during those… lessons you gave us, helped with that."

"Perfect," Jade said with a happy grin, even if a part of her felt dirty. Those guards she and her guys had killed… Those had been no Tharquin, no evil and cruel men that deserved to be punished. They had been normal men doing their duty, but their duty would have consisted in fighting them to the death if they had been given an opportunity, and Jade didn't need that. Not that killing them had made her happy or thought of herself as a cool heroine. But… it had been inevitable; since if they had been alerted, then she would have killed them anyway. However, she had made sure that it was a quick, painless death. If there was a line she wasn't disposed to cross, that was torture. However, she knew that that fact didn't make her actions less forgivable than the ones of the soldiers that killed in the battlefield, or the commander that ordered captured rebels to be executed. As she, Gareth and the other two exited the mansion by using a secondary exit and stared to travel towards an entrance to the Infinite City, she thought about Will and how the redhead would be doing with her part of the mission.

* * *

 ** _Lannion; at the same time_**

In contrast with the ingenious designs of Fallbottom, Lannion, the great city of the medium ring that had been first built and that was nearer to the Capital, was pretty ordinary. It wasn't as fortified as Torus Filney, and it lacked the beauty of some other, more modern cities of Meridian. However, there had been a building in the past that made this city to stand out over the others; and that was the cathedral dedicated to worshipping the Light of Meridian. It hadn't been as enormous and ostentatious as the gothic or baroque cathedrals that the great artists of Earth had built once across Europe; but it had once been a building symbolizing light and oration that was only matched in size by the Capital's castle… until Phobos had completely destroyed it. Now, in the spot where the great cathedral had once arisen, only the ruins of the building remained as a reminder that Phobos wouldn't tolerate the worshipping of the Queens anymore. Old and sickly Countess Clarine and her son Cornelius, both of them members of the Bedver noble family, ruled this city; as their ancestors had done before them. Right now walking through the halls of the building that served as their home, both of them discussed matters concerning their great city.

Clarine had been in other times a woman of beauty, but that was before time and whatever sickness she had contracted had taken their toll on her. Some had said it had been a miracle that she had survived this long, up to turning ninety years old; and that it was even more astonishing that she was still able to speak and think without any stain of madness in her words and actions. Anyway, time and sickness had reduced her once soft and black skin to a wrinkled one with whitish spots all over it, that walked slow and bent over, coughing more and more every day, and that had to stop from time to time in order to catch her breath. Clad in black clothes that covered all her body at exception of her face, the old woman used to discuss administrative or bureaucratic matters with her son and left him to accomplish what the city needed, even if she was the one that still held all the authority and the one that had the last word in every matter.

Her son, Cornelius, a tall and imposing man with broad shoulders and that was on his fifties, had had the luck of not contracting the same sickness as his mother had done. His skin was as black as hers had been in her youth, and there were some who said that, due to this trait, his family descended directly from Hoel, of the Four Knights, albeit there wasn't any proof of that, neither was any mean in which attain any proof. A thick and light brownish moustache adorned his upper lip, while short hair of the same color adorned his head. In contrast with many other male nobles of Meridian, Cornelius didn't dress in the usual fancy robes they used (and that included Cedric and the Prince) but in a much more standard outfit, compromised of a pair of pants of light brown leather, a cotton white short over his torso and a couple of boots not very different that the ones you would expect of a commoner that has been able to gather enough money to buy them. Some say it was a proof of how nearer he felt with the smallfolk he ruled over. Others said that he didn't want to bother with more fancy clothing, because it would get in the way when he visited the Red House of Lannion.

"Uhm…" Clarine said in a tired tone as Cornelius accompanied her to her chambers. Even if the day had just entered the afternoon, the Countess slept a lot lately. "Ugh…" she said as she leaned against a wall of stone that the multiple fires lit in the building's hearths.

"Mother, are you alright?" Cornelius asked the old woman, putting an arm around her shoulders and helping her to continue walking.

"Of course I'm alright," the woman lied. "What were you saying before we stopped?"

"I was talking about the Rebellion's conquest of Torus Filney," Cornelius told his mother.

"Oh yes! Yes… the fall of good Roderick and noble Ishol," the old woman said with clear displeasure. "A tragedy… a tragedy like no other… Why do you bring it but again?"

As the duo approached the door to the Countess' chambers (nothing very portentous, just a room slightly bigger than the ones you could find in a big, countryside house), Cornelius voiced his opinion. "According to the information we have received, the Rebellion was able to conquer the city thanks to the aid of a new kind of weapon they use, able to pierce through armor like a spear while being used at a distance like a bow; their Shapeshifter and the aid of the Guardians of Kandrakar. Lannion, even with its army, is not ready to face that kind of power."

"Bah!" the old woman said, and afterwards coughed a couple of times. "We will strengthen the defenses of this city, and if it's necessary evacuate it. There is nothing of value in Lannion since the cathedral was lost."

"Lost because the Prince destroyed it," Cornelius pointed out. "And people have lives here, memories here."

"Either he destroyed the cathedral, or the whole city;" Clarine said as a counterargument, alongside more coughing. "And our smallfolk will be able to make new memories, they are survivors by nature. Why bring this matter all of a sudden?"

"I was expecting that we could discuss…" Cornelius said as he opened the door to his mother's room; "the possibility of joining the Rebellion."

Contrary to what anyone that looked at Clarine or the briefest of seconds could think, the elderly noblewoman approached the door of her chambers all by herself with slow yet now firm steps. She walked past her son and directed a glare towards him. "I shall die before any man or woman of Lannion aids the Rebellion, son. Now I gave you instructions, carry them out."

"Yes, mother;" the man said softly, admitting he had lost the conversation before even starting it. "And…" he muttered before closing the door. "I'm sorry."

As the door closed, a dumbfounded Clarine stared at it for some time before coughing and turning around. "What does that son of mine mean with I'm so- oh…"

Clarine's eyes had locked themselves in the person that was in her chambers with her. Normally it could have been a handmaiden waiting in order to help her remove her clothes and go to sleep, but it wasn't the case today. Today, in front of her was no one else than Wilhelmina Vandom in her Guardian form, her uniform and wings, clearly not something many meridianites could be accustomed to seen, made the old noblewoman to recognize who she was in an instant. While not a soldier, or a woman dedicated to the complicated movements inside a court; Clarine was an intelligent woman even in her old age, and after a cough and noticing the bottle containing a strange, orange-looking liquid in a bottle over the little table in her room; she was able to deduce what was happening. She sighed tiredly.

"Ah… so that boy of mine betrayed me?" the old noblewoman said, and coughing she approached the little table and sat in one of the chairs at its side.

"Either he betrayed you, or he faced the risk of the Rebellion doing to this city what it did to Torus Filney," the redhead answered her in the most polite and respectful tone she could use.

"Uhm… good point," Clarine answered. "Can I ask you your name?"

"Will," the Keeper of the Heart answered sincerely. "Will Vandom."

"Tell me Will," the old woman continued; "the deal my son made… was with the rebels, or with you?"

"With me," Will answered. "We contacted him using some of the girls in the Red House, but he… he made a good deal. Not only Lannion'll be left out of danger after giving its support to the rebels, but I'll take him to the Infinite City so there is no risk of us double-crossing him."

"Clever, and at least I know I can trust a Guardian of Kandrakar over the vacuous words of… cough, cough! Of those rebels," Clarine said tiredly. "Ah… will it be painful?" Clarine asked, pointing to the bottle.

"No," Will said once again, her voice never sounding as serious as now. "The Mage made it specifically so it won't be painful. It'll be like… going to sleep."

"The Mage, the Mage… another traitor. We thought she would see Roderick's reason, but in the end she turned out to be a tool of the Queens. Or would it be better to refer to her as a tool of Kandrakar?" Clarine criticized the Ancient One. She coughed violently a couple of times more before gesturing towards the bottle. "Give me that now, Guardian. Going to sleep sounds delightful now."

With Will's help, the old noblewoman drank half of the liquid inside the bottle and then walked towards her bed. There she lied on her back, her breathing slow and hard. Will directed a sad look towards her before heading towards the door, but the old Countess' voice stopped her before she could leave.

"Promise me, Guardian…" woman said, and her last words were ones without coughing or the weakness that had characterized her for so long. "Promise me… that my son won't die a worthless death…"

Without looking back, Will crossed the door. Only a corpse was left behind, and no matter how much dignity the Countess had shown in her moment of passing; Will had killed a woman.

* * *

"You're the Count now," Will told Cornelius when she found him in one of the buildings balconies, looking at the sky. "I'm… sorry it had to turn out like that."

The nobleman, now the Count of Lannion, shook his head. "There was no other option; mother won't have aided the rebels in a million years. One of the men that got killed by that little smallfolk uprising during Weira's reign… you know the one, right? The one directed by those upstarts Weira gave control of some zones. One of the nobles they killed during their short lived rebellion was my father. From her point of view, the rebels from now are no different from the ones of then, who killed the man that helped her raise her son."

"And you?" Will asked.

"The needs of Lannion outweigh the needs of whoever leads it," Cornelius answered citing a phrase his own mother used to tell him. "That my mother knew when she let Phobos destroy the cathedral without moving a finger. No matter how you look at it, the life of one woman weighs less than the ones of all our citizens and soldiers, and that is what a noble must have present at all times. I just hope the Light of Meridian can forgive me for the harsh decision I must make."

Will nodded. "Do you want to come with me to the Infinite City now, or…"

"In a moment," Cornelius answered. "Just… give me a few seconds."

Will did as said, leaving the man alone for a few moments of privacy. As she left, she looked at his now trembling shoulders, and the muffled sobbing that escaped his mouth even with one hand over his lips. The tall, imposing nobleman was crying.

* * *

 ** _Torus Filney; many hours later_**

"What is this time?" Aldarn asked one of the men under his command. "Can't you see I'm busy?" the rebellion's second in command asked as he pointed towards Drake, the blond rebel having come to inform him of latest developments. His subordinate answered firm and quickly.

"Sir, we captured a couple of scouts from the Guard. I suppose they were evaluating the zones around Torus Filney to see if it could be retaken or not."

"Prepare them to be executed," Aldarn instructed the rebel and the man left to do as such. Aldarn started to walk towards the part of Torus Filney's first level that he had designated to hold executions; Drake following in tow.

"So you are really not coming to the meeting?" Drake asked. "Will has brought very good news, apparently."

 _Yes, news about us joining forces with the same people that had been killing our friends for the past thirteen years_ ; Aldarn thought, the young Galhot preparing arrows and his bow as he walked. "I don't have time. Torus Filney needs to be functional again, that was why Caleb put me in charge. He must understand."

 _And the fact you despise nobles and that you clearly voiced your displeasure with this has nothing to do with it_ , Cyrus Ludmoore thought, amused. "Alright, I will tell Caleb that you are too busy taking care of the conquered grounds."

Both rebel commanders ended their little walk when they reached a spot in the first level of the great city in where two soldiers of Phobos had had their legs and hands tied, and were both on their knees, awaiting execution.

"You know, Aldarn?" Drake told his companion. "Some would call you cruel for doing this."

Aldarn clutched his stomach, where under his clothes, wrapped in a piece of cloth, was the Oni Mask he possessed. "Some should understand," the Rebellion's number two told the youngest Ludmoore sibling; "that sometimes cruelty is the only way."

 _I wonder for how long you will be able to cling to that thought_ , Cyrus thought as he bid farewell and departed.

* * *

 ** _Infinite City; time later; room of the Small Council_**

In the room of the Rebellion's Small Council, all the members sans Aldarn were there, with the addition of Vathek, who sat silently and listened patiently. Caleb, Sephiria, Drake and the 'Mage' listened carefully to Jade and Will's report, eagerly wanting to know how the redhead's plans for bringing the forces of Lannion and Fallbottom to their side had turned out.

"So… in resume, the plan was successful," Will said after she and Jade had retold their experienced. "The new Count of Lannion has agreed to our terms, and after a little trip into the Infinite City, he's sworn loyalty to us. He understands that he can't betray us, since that would mean a rebel attack over his city."

"Same with the new Baroness of Fallbottom," Jade broke in. "As long as we support her rule, she's gonna help us in everything we ask. Heck, she knows that if you win the war that'd mean she getting more power."

 _And everything turned out according to plan_ , Nerissa Crossnic thought under her disguise of the 'Mage'. _And on top of it, I'm starting to know perfectly how these two think. If they get in the way when I start moving more freely, I know exactly how to deal with both of you girls. Regardless, I cannot afford not feeling a little proud of you two._

"With this, our forces should increase exponentially," Caleb said. "And that's not speaking of the fact that Phobos can't count on their help now, and that he doesn't know that yet."

"Which means we hold an advantage," Drake said, smirking.

"The city of Lannion, on our side…" Sephiria whispered in her usual meek tone. For the fourteen year old healer, this meant a lot more than simple strategic help. It meant that one of the symbols of the worshipping of the Light of Meridian, Lannion's cathedral, could be rebuilt once the war had ended.

"What about that thing with the Princess, Mage?" Will asked the woman, who shook her head.

"Still unsuccessful," the 'Mage' lied using her glamour's mouth. _Not that I don't want this Rebellion and my son to win, but sadly Cedric is much nearer into bringing the Princess to Phobos' side than you of bringing her to this one_ , Nerissa thought. _It's better to let that to happen and then adapt to the circumstances than fight over the girl. And no matter which Escanor bears that power, the Heart of this world will me mine in the end_. "Whatever wards the Heart has placed upon its bearer until she matures completely; they are ones I cannot break through."

"Okay…" Will said, rubbing her forehead and feeling a bit down. Having the Princess, who supposedly was as strong as the five Guardians combined, in their side would a be a great help. "Anything else?"

"I think not," Caleb said, and then surveyed the faces of his fellow members of the Rebellion's Small Council. "Dismissed."

* * *

 ** _Ludmoore manor_**

Charles Ludmoore sat at his usual spot behind his desk when his stabilized Portal buzzed, indicating the arrival of a newcomer. He looked over his shoulder and then returned his eyes to the paperwork he was working in, tapping a part of the desk with one of his fingers, where a small bag full of gold coins.

"A pleasure making business with you, Miss Vandom," Charles said in the usual neutral tone he employed with all his clients once Jade and Will (still in her Guardian form) walked past him.

"This is how you do it, right?" Will asked of the oldest Ludmoore sibling. "This manor, the luxury… you sell and buy from Meridian, and then sell it in Earth. All while being just the guy of the trash of Heatherfield."

"Actually I do enjoy my work as the man in charge of this city's trash treatment," Charles answered in his fake emotionless and cold voice. "I find it relaxing. And the trash of one man is the treasure of another, never forget that."

"Whatever," Jade said then. "Can we please go now? We're lucky today's Saturday, but your mom will get worried after a while, Will. And this guy gives me the creeps."

The redhead Guardian and the black-haired Shapeshifter exited the manor's library and headed out. Once they were gone, Ludmoore returned to the paperwork over his desk. So far, everything was turning as designed. The Rebellion was getting stronger and more pragmatic with Cyrus still undetected, Cedric had the Princess in the verge of defecting to Meridian, and Wong believed that his brother was on his side.

"Business as usual," the oldest Ludmoore sibling said as he write down with a pen. And on top of the good news, he could finally give his employees back in Heatherfield the raise in their salaries that they deserved! All thanks to the mayor wanting the city as cleanest as possible before the elections began.

* * *

 ** _Heatherfield's skies_**

Flying towards the city with Jade in her arms in order to travel faster, Will was lost in her thoughts. Her plan had turned out perfectly, and on top of gathering help for the rebels, she had saved two cities. But what had been the cost?

"Earth to Will, Earth to Will;" Jade called for her, forcing Will to listen to her friend. "What's going on inside that pretty, little head of yours?"

"Uhm? Oh, you know what;" Will said. Truth be told, she didn't feel exactly depressed, but maybe that was the problem. Doing what they had done, killing… it had turning to be way easier than last time. Maybe that was why so many people killed? Because it became easier each time? "I killed a woman that could've been my grandma today, Jade."

"And I killed a bunch of guards that could've been my dad the other day," Jade told the redhead. "Will, what we do is not pretty… but we've to do it, remember? That's what you said. We've to be like this. Someone has to be."

"Yeah… I suppose you're right," Will said as a little smile forced its way up to her lips. "Yes, you're right."

* * *

 ** _Hale residence_**

Jackie Chan contemplated the door to the Hales' actually pretty big apartment. A moth had passed since that girl had broken through Chang's security, and things had changed again. Will and Jade were now in Meridian, carrying out the mission they had been working in for a month. And he knew what entitled. In fact, Jade had told him that she had killed some guards before they even had the opportunity to defend themselves. There had not been yells or shouts… just talking about how she felt. Jade had even joked that Jackie was doing the work of a therapist and that maybe they should search a real one… before adding that no therapist would believe what they did, and if he did, said therapist would probably suffer the biggest freak out of his life.

However, that wasn't why he was here. Ross had been able, with the help of Captain Black, to finally discover what Chang's plan was. And that meant he didn't have much more time to doubt himself. Now was the time for action. Fortunately, he had been able to gather some help.

He rang the bell, and in a few moments he heard a male voice behind it. Harold appeared moments after, opening the door and greeting him… before he realized who it was.

"What are you doing here?" Harold asked, puzzled and a bit angry. He didn't like his business life mixing with his personal one. Unfortunately, that wasn't going to last.

"I called him here, dad;" he heard at his back, and turning around, his actually scared expression met with his oldest daughter's serious one.

"We…" Cornelia Hale began, arms crossed over her chest while she was wearing a pinkish blouse and a pair of jeans. "We need to talk about your job."

* * *

 _While I know that both Will and Jade criticized Ludmoore and Nerissa for what they did, I never heard neither of the girls complaining about how they did it. By the moment Charles and Nerissa revealed themselves, Will and Jade used methods so similar to theirs, that calling them out in their manipulations would have been hypocritical_.  Jackie Chan

* * *

 **Author Notes: I hope that you all enjoyed this one, my dear readers. I wanted to take it off my head, so when I ended having more free time than I expected I put myself to it. So… let's talk a bit about this. Yes, both Will and Jade _are_ killing people, and will kill people in the future; and they are going to be far less monstrous than Rhouglar and Tharquin were. I bet some of you had thought that after what happened in the previous chapters they would find a way to win battles without killing, or if they were forced to kill then it would be against people like Tharquin and Rhouglar, but nope. Why? You could say is a thing about balance. The Rebellion becomes better with their presence (without them they would have just slaughtered those two cities they are now in an alliance with) but the girls became way darker than their canon counterparts due to this. And I'm going to say this here, in this fic everyone has an understandable reason for what they are doing. Heck, the only two characters you could call Pure Evil in this story are Phobos and Wong (and both of them are going to have chapters dedicated to showing how they get to be like that, because no one just turns into a maniacal monster one day) and the only characters you could call Pure Good in this story are Uncle, the four Guardians that hadn't yet killed and (at least for now) Jackie, Matt, Elyon, and the other teenagers from Heatherfield.**

 **So that's everything I wanted to say. Next chapters may take a while. It could be a month, two or three, but not less than a month. That's the reason this chapter was so big, in order to give end to this before getting in the chapters involving the Dark Hand. Having said all of this, until next time; my dear readers.**

 **Bye, Bye!**


	16. Let's Break a Hand

**Disclaimer: I own neither the WITCH cartoon-show nor Jackie Chan Adventures; they are the property of their respective creators, writers, and producers.**

 **Author Notes: Hello there, dear readers. It has been… quite a while since the last update, hasn't it? I must say, you should get accustomed to it, since my update rate it's going to decrease as time goes on. However, I won't abandon this story, especially considering how much fun I have with it and since we already passed the first season's half with last chapter. Yes, I plan for my adaptation of the first season of the WITCH to be just a bit more of thirty chapters, and according to my calculation, it shouldn't amount to more than 35 before we start the cover of the second season, including especial chapters. Because there are going to be especial chapters… but that's for another moment. Right now, we are into a little ride until chapter 20 in order to deal with Chang's Dark Hand. Many thanks to all of you who read this, improve the TvTropes page, and to everyone that enjoyed and left a review last chapter. You're all awesome. As I always tell you, enjoy your read and leave a review if you feel like it.**

* * *

Guardians, Wizards and Kung-Fu Fighters

Episode Sixteen

Let's Break a Hand

* * *

 ** _Shadow Realm_**

"So that's how things are…" General Ikki, leader of the Mantis Khan, currently in his astral form, said in a deep, thoughtful tone of voice. The red-scaled Oni frowned for a few seconds, his thick, whitish eyebrows creasing in the process. At the side of his astral form floated Tarakudo's, both of them manifesting as enormous, floating and ethereal heads. "Your Majesty, couldn't you have contacted me sooner?"

Tarakudo made his gigantic head to shake. "No," the King told his General. "I spent the last month strengthening the warding spells I used to hide the location of the other Masks containing our companions from that witch. I hardly doubt that she will be able to find them now. However, the fact that we can't take her out of the picture bothers me strongly. And that is not counting the fact that she is able to use both Raw and Chi Magic, something that the Dragon King forgot to mention."

Ikki glanced down, at the deeper parts of the Shadow Realm, from where the sound came, weak thanks to how far up they both were, but still audible. In contrast with his liege, he never accustomed himself to appear here in astral form. And even if muffled, the heartbeat could be heard now across the entirety of this Abyss.

"Lord Tarakudo," Ikki said in a serious tone, something he wasn't accustomed to use in normal situations. "Are you sure that the Idea banned us from touching the woman?"

"It declared Nimue was necessary," Tarakudo cleared up. "I hoped you could unravel why."

Ikki snorted. "No matter if Oni or Human, we mortals will always be mortals. That… thing in the depths, it's too different from us. We can't compare. However, as long as we follow its order of not disposing of Nimue, we shouldn't have any problem with carrying out our will. After all, it gave us power over its Shadow. However, I must comment something with you concerning our plan, Lord Tarakudo."

"Speak," the King said.

"The humans my current wearer works with are planning something;" Ikki told Tarakudo. "I have been doing some calculations… and there is a possibility of my Mask being taken from his face."

Tarakudo rolled his eyes. "If that's a problem, why not take control of the human and flee? He has been wearing your Mask for so long that possessing him completely should be no problem."

"Well, yes; but…" Ikki started to say.

"Too much effort?" Tarakudo inquired, one eyebrow raised and an exasperated expression in his face.

"A lot of effort!" Ikki joked, and then let out a long laugh. "But you should know better than anyone, my liege. I prefer to go with the flow. For me, there is nothing better than a board of Shōgi ahead, one cup of sake at my right and a voluptuous woman at my left. Anyway, considering the plan you set in motion, my Mask being worn or not is irrelevant, right?"

"When you put it that way, yes;" Tarakudo said, giving his General a point where it must be given. "Perhaps, considering the strengthening of the spells I used to block Nimue's searching, I should travel to Meridian next and focus into finding Ikazuki, while I let the wizards in possession of the Hana Fuda to find the other Masks."

"Good idea," Ikki said. "And do not worry, Lord Tarakudo. I may be a laid back man… but I'm still the Dancing Trickster, I'm still an Oni. If those humans desire to fight me," the crimson Oni said with a grin; "then I shall show them why we of the Naindēmon shōgun are so feared."

* * *

 ** _Japan; meanwhile..._**

In the rooftop of an abandoned warehouse in the outskirts of Tokyo, a small magical sparring match was being conducted. In the center of the rooftop, Nimue stood levitating a bit over the ground, arms at her sides, black hair waving in the wind and looking for the incoming attack.

She had been sparring against Mariko for an hour now, in the same vein they had been doing every day for the last month, ever since... since Tarakudo had defeated them. It was still a sore spot for the sorceress to think about the defeat she had suffered against the Oni. However, said defeat and the abilities Tarakudo had showcased in their duel just proved her point. An Oni with the same level of power as a Heart? And the possibility of he calling other nine Oni to his side, each of them (albeit weaker than him) with the power to endlessly create Shadowkhan? It wasn't the most brilliant of futures ahead, was it?

Chuckling, Nimue continued to wait. Mariko had used a diversion before in order to use her super speed to flee the scene and perform a surprise attack. Even if it was impossible for the human eye to follow the movements of any children of the Fast Realm once they started to move at super speed; Nimue wasn't a normal human. Thus, it was easy for her to pinpoint her foe's location due to the traces of magic she was leaving and that the Bane of the Nihil was able to feel. However, she didn't feel any trace of Mariko's power around her right now. But she could feel it perfectly from below.

Seconds after, Mariko burst from the floor, breaking it in the process; staff charged with magic and pointed at Nimue. The heir to the throne of the Fast Realm was now wearing a new armor in order to replace the one that had been broken in the fight with Tarakudo, being practically identical to the previous one, at exception of having been made with much resilient and stronger, (yet still light) materials. Someday Liam and Mariko would have to tell her from exactly where and whom they acquired those materials.

Anyway, Nimue answered the incoming attack by increasing her levitation spell, ascending several meters in the air and extending her palm towards Mariko, casting a protecting spell that manifested itself in the form of an oval shield. But before Mariko's staff could reach it, the shape of the half-human, half-child of the Fast World, flickered and disappeared momentarily before appearing over Nimue with the same ease.

The staff came towards her at astonishing speeds, and Nimue did the same with her other hand as she had done with the previous one, casting another shield.

Mariko disappeared again, appearing at the witch's back. This time, Nimue dispelled her defenses and decided to meet her apprentice with her own attack. So putting her fists one over the other and pointing them towards Mariko she called upon her Raw Magic, unleashing an attack that, albeit potent, Mariko shouldn't have any problem blocking with enough effort.

Interestingly, Mariko didn't block the attack right away, instead choosing for another tactic. Before counterattacking, the Princess of the Fast World threw a shinning card to the air, and seconds before it flashed with the usual gleam befitting of a teleportation, and after the buzzing sound that accompanied any teleport ceased; Liam appeared floating in the air too.

The dark-skinned blonde man shot his own attack at Nimue, who was caught by surprise and propelled downwards. Nimue landed over her hands and executed a pirouette backwards in order to put herself on her feet. As for Mariko and Liam, they landed a few meters away from her, Mariko in the front and Liam behind her; both of them ready to attack.

But before the fight could evolve into something more serious, Nimue clapped her hands. "Alright, time out;" the Bane of the Nihil said calmly, putting a lock of her black hair behind her left ear. "You cheated, Mariko;" Nimue said with a small smirk, then clapped her hands happily. "Very good."

The armored woman answered her with a snort and shaking her head a bit. Yes, cheating. Or more precisely improvising, that was the goal of the sparring session. While Nimue was worried about the fact that Tarakudo's physical form was able to contend in the same league as Heart wielders, Mariko was more worried with what the Oni's words had brought up. He had called her and Liam predictable… and he had been right, at least in regards to her. Even since a tender age Mariko had had problems controlling her super speed, unlike most children of the Fast World. After all she was half-human. That was the reason Nimue had trained her; that was the reason for her armor. As such, she had always focused her training and combat style around control. And the incredibly simple way in which the Oni King had adapted to said combat style and defeated her had made Mariko realize that all the control made her predictable. So here she was, learning alongside her teacher how to improvise radically during a fight to the death (well, a very heated spar session in this case) in order to not fall for the same trick again.

"Thanks, teacher;" Mariko said as she retired her helmet, revealing how her hair was tied into a topknot instead of how she usually let it free. "But you were containing yourself. You just used Raw Magic."

Nimue shook her head. "Well, of course. If I use the whole extent of my powers and I go all out from the very beginning, then you couldn't be able to actually contend with me. This is training, after all."

"Right, right…" Mariko said as she undid her topknot. She then clapped her hands a bunch of runes manifested around her armor, making it disappear in a flash of light; leaving Mariko dressed in her civilian attire. "And thank _everything_ that we had this idea;" she said, referring to the fact that, this time, both Nimue and Mariko had casted an spell around the new armor that permitted the Princess of the Fast World to put it in and off using magic instead of rudimentary methods.

Nimue let out a giggle. "Yes, yes; now you can't say I don't listen to your complaints;" the witch raised both hands and called upon her swarm of butterflies. The insects appeared and surrounded the trio, and in the blink of an eye the three of them were back in Mariko and Liam's apartment.

It took them half an hour to get themselves clean (magic summoning or not, the armor still made Mariko sweat a lot; and that meant the woman wanted a shower) and ready for a little snack. Teacher, student, and bodyguard sitting at the kitchen's table; the trio drank hot tea that Liam had made while eating whatever the couple had in their fridge. An apple for Liam and a tangerine for Nimue, Mariko ate a piece of chocolate cake that had been left over from the night before. As they ate and drank, the trio discussed their strategy.

"So… are we really going to do it?" Mariko asked after a few moments. "That whole thing about getting involved with the Guardians?"

"Not involved per se, but yes;" Nimue said after taking a few sips of tea from her cup. "Tarakudo hasn't been losing time during this last month. Whatever he has done, I'm still unable to locate more Oni Masks, and the spell is different enough from last time for me to go around it. That demon knows his tricks, and I would be a fool if I decided to challenge him directly once again without the proper preparation. When I cross paths with him again, it will be in a scenario that plays at my advantage."

"Which is why we are going to do this, right?" Liam inquired.

"Are you still unsure of it?" Nimue asked. "If you have problems, I won't force you to do it;" her gaze shifted to Mariko. "None of you."

Mariko crossed her arms and shrugged. "I told you already, teacher. I believe in what you do. And I still have a debt to repay."

"If Mariko is in agreement with this, so am I;" Liam said next. "But I hope you know what you are doing, Lady Nimue. Your idea of also involving that meridianite undead is also quite… worrisome."

"Don't worry, Liam;" Nimue told the inhabitant of the Fast World. "You can think about this as an experiment of sorts. In the moment we are certain it works, we will retire ourselves from the scene. And Tracker won't do anything to harm us, not with the possibility of facing against an Oni. Now…" Nimue glanced at a corner of the room, where the Sword of Thanatos, sheathed and wrapped in a mantle, leaned against the wall. Even from this distance, just eyeing it sent shivers down Mariko and Liam's spines. It seemed as if the black bastard sword had a life of its own, and the feeling of dreading power it projected wasn't a joke. And the worst part was that it seemed to be doing it on purpose, as if tempting those around it. ' _Come to me, wield me, and this power will be yours;_ ' the Sword of the Berserker said without saying anything.

"We need to find ourselves a swordsman."

* * *

 ** _Across the Veil; Meridian; Infinite City_**

"Caleb is going to Earth? Now?"

Vathek's question wasn't straightly met with an answer. Around him, the 'Mage', Drake and Sephiria sat in the Small Council's room. It seemed that Vathek was now part of it, albeit nothing had been spoken about the matter. He had just sat down one day at the table, and now he attended every meeting. Not that anyone was going to protest about that. Jade had basically taken Rhouglar's seat in the Small Council by force, and when she wasn't around, that Gareth man acted as her representative (the man and the rest of men that now followed Jade were out right now, since even after a month, the rebels still didn't trust the former Baroness of Fallbottom and had instructed those men to stay around her); and nobody had made an objection. Of course, no one was going to make an objection to Vathek, dutiful, patient and well meaning Vathek being part of the Small Council.

"He is preparing to leave as we speak. But to be fair with him, the situation right now isn't extremely complicated;" Drake said casually. "We have been striking minor victories across the kingdom's medium ring ever after the first week of our conquest of Torus Filney, and the entire outer ring sans Heliosport can be considered ours. While we aren't in fine form to take into another of the great cities so soon, we will be in mere weeks. And we haven't yet revealed to the enemy that Fallbottom and Lannion are on our side now. It will be quite a surprise. And besides, can you blame Caleb? The woman he loves lives there."

Sephiria, currently drinking from a half-filled glass of red wine, almost chocked in it upon hearing those words. Red lines falling from her nostrils, the fourteen year old, green haired leader of the Faithful let the glass down and cleansed herself.

"Excuse you?" Sephiria asked. _What do you mean with love? There is not love. Right?_

"The Earth Guardian," Drake said with a small smirk, taking the bottle of wine and serving himself a cup of the red liquor in his own glass. As he drank, his eyes jumped from one person to another. "I cannot be the only one that sees it, right?"

 _No you are not, he is my son, after all_ ; Nerissa thought behind her 'Mage' disguise. _And to be fair, I think that having a couple won't be bad for him. Dear, he will be sixteen in a few months… I hope Julian had a talk with him about how everything works when you are with a woman before passing away. The last thing I need right now is an incoming grandchild. Then again, I don't think it would be so bad. But returning to matters at hand…_

"The reason Caleb has gone to Earth is because the Guardians are in need of his help;" the 'Mage' explained. "Apparently, they have as many enemies on Earth as we have here, in Meridian. Young Wilhelmina informed me of the situation already, and she requested Caleb's help in order to incline the balance in their favor. There is no need to worry."

With that last sentence it was clear that the 'Mage' had decided that this meeting had ended. Sephiria was the first one to rise up and leave the room, and the disguised Nerissa left afterwards. Vathek and Drake stayed behind, still sitting in their spots at the table. After a while, a glass of wine appeared in front of Vathek after sliding over the table. Drake had served it.

"Drink," Drake said, while still holding his own glass of wine. "I think you need it."

Vathek doubted the offer for a few seconds, but in the end he accepted it and took the glass, drinking the wine in one gulp. He tossed it back to Drake. "Fill it again, and put more. We Galhots don't get our stomach full as easy as you humans."

With a chuckle, Drake did as told, and Vathek was presented with another glass of wine seconds after. He drank only half of it this time, slowly.

"I'm actually kind of surprised that you stayed here after the reveal of what the Rebellion did at Carhaiz;" Drake said in a serious tone, finger inside his glass of wine, moving it so it formed a small whirlpool. "I thought you, of all people, would abandon us immediately."

"I thought about it for a couple of times, and the desire to do so has returned to me many others during the last month;" Vathek said, reclining on his chair. "Grab my things, take Salazar, and then just go out, find a ship in Heliosport and… depart. Escape from this conflict that we have built upon lies and corpses;" the hulking blue Galhot chuckled dark and sadly. "It's funny, in a way. Many times, during my infiltration at the castle, I couldn't help but frown at some members of the Guard for their talks about nobility. The few times I saw Servantis in the throne room, talking with Phobos, I thought he was just a petty nobleman. I even called Raythor a delusional idiot when he was about to send me to the Abyss for remaining loyal to Phobos even while having such a strong code of honor… but then again, why would someone like Raythor side with us? Why would any of them? We have as many innocents' blood in our hands as they do."

"You weren't at Carhaiz, Vathek;" Drake told the Galhot. "Neither was I."

"Julian was," Vathek said abruptly. "Do you know I basically grew up with him? One of the few reasons I even joined the Rebellion in the first place, or agreed to become a spy on the Capital even if I knew how dangerous it could be for my life, was because I wanted to honor that friendship, the dream of a Meridian freed from Phobos;" Vathek drank the rest of his glass. "That's the reason I'm still here. Caleb has realized that we must change or else, if we even win this war, it would make no difference, even with Phobos gone. If we are to believe Servantis, then this entire war started because a bunch of idiots took advantage of Queen Weira's reformisms and empowerment of the commoners, and that made the nobles desperate enough to back up Phobos. Even if the Prince dies, that reality won't change; all the harm we and his side had inflicted won't be magically repaired. Caleb needs as much help as he can to do that."

"So that's the reason you are staying," Drake declared, finally catching into the Galhot's explanation; "because your friend's son needs help."

Vathek nodded and left the empty glass over the table. "Why are _you_ here?" the hulking Galhot asked then.

"Uhm?" Drake asked, confused by his fellow rebel's sudden question.

"Some say that Cedric killed your mother, but I have never seen you seeking revenge;" Vathek told the blond rebel.

"Revenge? And what can revenge achieve?" Drake said, chuckling a bit. "I suppose I stay here for similar reasons than you. I have my hands soaked in blood too, Vathek. I remind you that the reason I was accepted so quick here was because I came after leaving the corpses of a number of high ranking guards behind me. And I know that they were good people. But if I backed off now… wouldn't that be an insult to all the people that had died by my hands and that had died for me to be here? If I looked back and decided it wasn't worth the effort, all those sacrifices would have been in vain." _Mother's sacrifice would have been in vain. God, I still remember Cedric's shrieks…_

"That sounds a lot like an excuse," Vathek said darkly.

"Maybe it is. Or perhaps I'm just an idealist, Vathek. Ha! Can you believe it? Maybe the only one in this Small Council that actually acknowledged this Rebellion's flaws from the start is actually the only one that truly believed in the cause. It's kind of ironic!" Drake said as his face darkened and he served himself another glass of wine, emptying it almost instantaneously. "You mentioned my mother before. Do you know I travelled to the Capital once in her company, when I was nothing but a child?"

"No," Vathek answered. "To be fair, few of us talk about the people we have lost in this war."

"My mother… and my father too," Cyrus Ludmoore said, hands tightening about the emptied glass of wine. "They were terribly intelligent people," _and I know that even if big brother is smarter than them, it's them we all have to thank for many of our achievements until now_ ; "and they used to make a lot of interesting questions. When I came to the Capital, by my mother's hand, she made us stop and pointed to the Queens' castle, the castle of Escanor. Do you want to know what she asked of me?"

"What?" Vathek inquired. He had never seen Drake looking or sounding so serious. He seemed lost in his own memory and thoughts. Drake raised his eyes from the glass of wine and looked at the blue Galhot. The blond rebel looked enraged with an image that his memory had brought up after many years.

"Why must the people look at the castle from below?"

"At the time I wasn't able to understand it," Cyrus confessed. "But as I grew up, as this war started…" _as my siblings actually explained to me what this family has spent generations planning, after big brother told me what he was planning to do and how_ , "then I think I started to understand my mother's point. Tell me, Vathek, have you never thought about the possibility that the problem is not who sits on the throne inside the castle… but that the castle and the throne even exist? That maybe the solution is not to sit another man or woman in the throne, but to get rid of it? Of that damn, brilliant fortress in the clouds…"

Vathek didn't answer his friend's questions. He doubted he could, or that he even wanted to understand what they meant. A meridianite was raised from birth to believe in the Light of Meridian, in that it was the sacred duty and _right_ of the Queens of Escanor to rule and guide them. Such a thought as Drake's was… weird, for someone like Vathek. And even the Guardians had agreed that finding the lost Princess was necessary in order to give Meridian back its rightful ruler and the royal line.

"The castle is not in the clouds," Vathek told Drake.

"It was a figure of speech," Cyrus said. _And a slip, too; with which I should be more careful in the future_. "I think we should leave it here. After all, both of us have duties to attend to."

And with that last sentence, the blond rebel left and Vathek found himself alone in the Small Council's room. With a sigh, he rose up and walked slowly towards the entrance.

* * *

 ** _Across the Veil, Heatherfield, Hale residence_**

While Oni, sorcerers, and meridianites discussed their courses of action in order to further their respective agendas, two human men looked at the other in the entrance to the Hales' home. With Elizabeth and Lillian Hale out of the house for a few hours (due to one of Lillian's friends from kindergarten having a birthday party), the only ones at home this afternoon were Cornelia and Harold. Jackie Chan, archeologist, forced fighter against demon-kind and spy inside a criminal organization; had thought of this as the best moment for engaging Harold into a conversation.

The blond, mustache-sporting banker and secretly accountant for the current American branch of the Dark Hand, was standing in front of the dark haired archeologist, and behind him he saw his daughter. As he stood between the two individuals and after hearing his daughter talk about how they needed to 'talk about his job', Harold's mind didn't take too long to connect the dots.

"You son of a bitch!" Harold cursed suddenly, and turning around grabbed Jackie by his blue sweater. The action was so sudden and violent that Jackie didn't have time to react before his feet were in the air and Harold dragged him into his apartment and smashed him against a wall. It hurt, more than the archeologist had thought it would. Instinctively, one of Jackie's arms shot towards Harold's head, but the blond banker moved one of his own hands while still holding Jackie with the other (and maintaining him a few centimeters over the floor) and catching the incoming attack with ease.

 _How strong is he?_ Jackie thought with surprise. The form in which Harold had acted, the way his body had moved… it denoted knowledge about some sort of discipline in hand to hand combat, and even more; it denoted experience. And that was not speaking of how strong he was. Jackie Chan knew too much about self-control to recognize when someone was holding himself back. Harold was.

"Dad!" Jackie heard Cornelia scream with surprise and anger.

"Cornelia, don't get into this!" Harold yelled. "You had to do it, didn't you?!" the banker said angrily, eyeing Jackie. "Be a self-righteous idiot and involve my family into this!"

"Dad, I said stop!" Cornelia shouted.

"Princess, I swear…!" Harold started to say, but before he could end the phrase, Cornelia extended her hand to the ledge of a nearby window, in which a flowerpot rested, a plant in it. The entire flowerpot floated quickly towards Cornelia, and in the moment she moved her hand towards Harold, the flowerpot impacted over him.

"Don't call me princess!" Cornelia shrieked, and as she did so the flowerpot broke and the plant it contained started to grow magically, until it had successfully multiplied its size several times, and it had wrapped itself around Harold's body, restraining him and forcing the banker to let Jackie go.

Unable to move a muscle, Harold fell to the ground, and Jackie ended free. From the ground, Harold looked up with eyes wide at his daughter, who in return was eyeing him with anger and disappointment in hers.

"I told you we're going to talk, and we're going to talk;" Cornelia declared sternly. "About your job… and about mine."

* * *

 ** _Several minutes later…_**

After Harold had been immobilized, Jackie had (out of his own volition) exited the Hales' home in order to let father and daughter to talk alone. As he leaned against a wall of the corridor, the archeologist pondered how exactly he had ended in all this mess. Not only with Harold and the Dark Hand... but with everything.

One day he was nothing but a normal and ordinary man; an archeologist with a good job and a tranquil life. Next day his cousin Shen's daughter had arrived in San Francisco. Next thing he knew, he was pursuing the Talismans around the globe, meeting with such eccentric people as Viper or El Toro. Next he was facing against Shendu in a showdown for the fate of Asia. Then sealing the Fire Demon's siblings before they could wreak havoc upon this world. Next he arrived at Heatherfield, and everything had gone out of control... No, that was incorrect. Everything had gone out of control from the start, and he had just rolled with it. Now he was just finally facing the consequences.

Had… had that been the problem all along? Since the first second he had fell in this world of magic, intrigue, lies and risk; Jackie had accepted it. Even with all his complaints, he had never outright said 'no'. Not even when he saw how a bunch of kids were dropped into a war (he had even helped them!) or when his niece, whom he had grown to see as a daughter; had been transformed into a whole different kind of species against her will… or when his niece and one of the few friends she had in this world had been forced to kill people. Had he decided to get himself out of said world of magic and deception from the start… could all of this have happened? How hypocrite that sounded now, when the reason Will had accepted her role as Keeper of the Heart in the first place was because he had told her that you couldn't run away from this new reality. And he hadn't even tried to run from it. Could you blame him, though? Jackie Chan was a man of principles, hammered in his mind by his Uncle's tutoring. Be a good man, work hard, love your family, respect your family, respect others' love for their families… live with honor, and don't let injustice to prevail around you if you can stop it. Those beliefs, in unison with the fact that each of his encounters with criminals, demons, wizards, and the unjust had turned out alright, had lead him to perceive the world as Harold had reproached him of perceiving. In black and white, always a line dividing them, a line that (of course) people could cross to the better side (Tohru was a magnificent example of that) and be redeemed; but that couldn't be blurred.

But what happens when the unjust can't be redeemed, or when they have as many reasons to be so as you to be just? What if the unjust have families? What if your family is the unjust one? What if it's your niece and her friend who are now killing and deceiving? What if you were to live amongst the unjust and you saw that they were as human as you are; that the only thing that separated them and you was just one bad day?

 _What if in order to do the right thing…_ Jackie thought, reminiscent of his talk with his Uncle a month ago, in the Infinite City; _I must do the wrong one, and betray my code?_ His eyes shifted to the door of the Hales' apartment, his mind thinking about how much pain his decision of involving Cornelia in this mess would inflict in that family, how many wounds it would open between father and daughter.

Another section of his own self reminded him of what Captain Black had informed him about, of what Chang's Dark Hand was planning to do, on what they were trying to get their hands into. And that was not speaking of the fact that Hak Foo still had an Oni Mask and an army of Shadowkhan at his disposal. They needed to be stopped.

 _I_ _hope you are able to make him see that truth, Cornelia_ ; Jackie thought.

* * *

While Jackie had decided to walk out of the apartment, Cornelia had walked directly into the living room. Harold, meanwhile, had been left in the floor of his home's entry, still bind by the overgrown plant. Once Cornelia get out of his sight, however; the plant lost the magic that kept it around Harold's body; and it let him go shortly after.

The banker incorporated, putting his pants and shirt back in their place as he did so. Sighing, and knowing he couldn't back away from this, he walked towards the living room too. There he found his daughter, sitting at one edge of the couch, one leg over the other, arms crossed over her chest, face looking away from him with disdain. Harold sat at the other end of the couch, hands over his thighs and back leaning against the couch. For entire minutes, none of them uttered a word. Harold ended accepting he had to be the one starting this. The question was… how? How was he to start this conversation? He had feared this moment since the first time Cornelia had been held in her mother's arms. Well, she _had_ said they were going to talk about _their_ jobs… so he supposed he could start there.

"You can do magic," Harold said aloud. It wasn't a question, and he wanted to make clear to his daughter that it wasn't.

"I can," Cornelia answered, still not giving Harold the luxury of looking directly at her. "And you work for the mafia, it seems."

"It's more akin to a crime syndicate. Mafias are formed and leaded by families… and we aren't," Harold explained in a neutral tone. "Was it Chan that told you about us?"

Cornelia didn't answer right away. She turned her head around slowly eventually. The glare those blue yes, same as his own; were dedicating Harold was hateful beyond belief. "No," Cornelia told her father. "I've got an idea for some time, especially since encountering Hak Foo in the mountains after meeting with him in that restaurant. Jackie just… confirmed it." Cornelia made a pause and uncrossed her legs, putting her palms over her thighs just like her father. Her fingers were gripping the fabric of her jeans, creating wrinkles in them due to the strength she was putting in said grip. "How long have you known I do magic, dad? Jackie told me Chang didn't show you the photographs… but I don't believe it."

Dad. The word was the same, the feeling it carried… not. _She knows about the photographs then… and she has been smart enough to know I must have access to them. After all, Bartholomew only said that that one photograph was for Jackie's eyes only, but he didn't say anything about the rest._ "For quite some time."

"And when were you planning on telling me?" Cornelia asked, cold anger dripping from her voice. Harold fell silent, and Cornelia's deadly blue gaze fell over the man. "You weren't, right?" Cornelia snorted. "Coward."

"Cornelia, it's not so simple…"

"What's not so simple?" Cornelia asked. "What're you trying to tell me, that all you have done was for my own good?"

"It was," Harold said plainly. "It still is."

"What?!" Cornelia yelled, frowning at her father and jumping from the couch. "That's just… ugh! How can you say that?!" She had tried to take this calmly. She had tried her hardest not to burst into an anger attack, but it was just impossible. She was too angry, and she needed to let it out. "You know what's to have you as a father?! Everyone just telling me how good you are! How righteous you are!"

"Cornelia…" Harold called for his daughter, but the long haired blond girl just continued with her rant.

"No!" the girl yelled, now in front of her father, face red due to how much strength she was putting in her screams. "I always had to be the best! Always the number one, always the one winning! And do you know why?! Because you told me to! Because I'm your daughter!"

"I never did such a thing," Harold defended himself. What was this all about? It had come out of nowhere, but his daughter seemed to be sincerely angry with him about it. Why? He had always thought that all she did, like focusing so much in winning her ice-scatting matches, was because winning made her happy. "I never forced you…"

"No you didn't! Not with words," Cornelia continued. "But at least I knew I could feel proud of you being my dad… until know. So don't come at me with all that crap about doing it for me, because I don't believe it! And don't tell me that's not simple, or that I won't understand because it's too complicated! Do you know why I'm able to do magic?! I'm a Guardian! Do you know what a Guardian is? I fight in a war in another freaking world, dad! In fact, Jackie told me that those photographs depicted one of our fights! And, oh yeah! There're other worlds out there! So don't tell me it's too complicated, because that's just an excuse. I _deserve_ an explanation. Else I'm afraid you don't really care for me."

"I didn't value my own life."

Harold's words had come quick and bluntly. Cornelia tilted her head at him. Her father had lowered her head and stopped leaning in the couch, her arms still over his thighs, hands interlaced and gaze focused on them. Slowly, Cornelia's anger faded and became overwritten by surprise. She was still angry, but it seemed her father was now willing to explain things to her. That made her to calm down slightly… and to actually focus on her father. He looked tired now, defeated and his eyes looked old, as if they belonged to a man that had seen too much, lived more than he should have or wanted to. The shinning blue that had looked for years at her from above with pride and caring now looked cold and tarnished, as if it was the frozen surface of an old, forgotten lake.

"What?" Cornelia asked flatly.

"When I was your age… no, a handful of years older," Harold explained. "I failed miserably at something that I considered very important. I… I did something horrible, Cornelia. And in return, I lost everything, and I ended just walking around, without a course to follow. I became reckless; I became uncaring about me or the ones around myself. I was borderline suicidal. I ended mixing with the worst of companies, mocking them, challenging the power of people that weren't known for being nice, and I made a lot of enemies. But I also made a lot of… interesting friends. One of them ended up taking me to a man named Bartholomew Chang, who was in company of a British man named Niles Valmont. They told me 'Team up with us, and we can solve all your problems'. I didn't accept right away, why would I? I told Jackie this, too. But then I met Elizabeth, and… I fell in love. And then I had something worthy of fighting for again, so I cleaned myself up, I bought a suit, and I got a job in Heatherfield. Then your mother got pregnant with you… and I was scared, Cornelia;" Harold looked up at her. The frozen lake seemed to be cracking now. "I was terrified that everything I had done in my life could come back for me… and instead find you. That's the reason I took Bartholomew's offer. I just wanted a happy life for me… and for you. Know this always Cornelia;" Harold said as he rose up from the couch. "Everything I have done, and everything I will always do, I do it for you, and for this family."

"And how many must suffer for our happiness, dad?" Cornelia asked with sadness in her voice. "If I'm not the one paying for your mistakes, then all the people the Dark Hand's made suffer are."

Cornelia looked up, and Harold looked down at her. Without uttering another single word, Harold sighed and walked towards the entrance and opened the door. "Come in," he told Jackie; and the archeologist entered shortly after. Both men stared at each other.

"You were a spy from the beginning, weren't you?" Harold asked.

"Yes," Jackie answered.

Harold sighed again, this time more pronouncedly. "Bartholomew is no fool. He will be expecting you from a mile away." He glanced back at Cornelia and rubbed his temples. "He won't expect me, however. Anyway, I will need to discuss some things with you and this Section 13 of yours. Also, I would want to know more about these… Guardians."

"Of course," Jackie said. "And thank you for doing this, Harold. I knew you were a good man."

"I'm not doing this to prove I'm a good man;" Harold said, looking at his daughter over his shoulder. "I'm doing this for her."

* * *

 ** _Several hours later; Silver Dragon's basement_**

"So that's what it's come to. It's almost as if the universe's decided to screw with us. At least we can count in Cornelia's dad from now on."

Will's phrase, said in a low voice, summed pretty well the overall collective reaction of everyone gathered in the basement of the Silver Dragon. The Guardians and the Chan Clan in its entirety were there alongside Yan Lin; Will, Taranee and Hay Lin lying in the couch that usually was in the basement while Irma was standing up at Jade's side and Cornelia was in front of them all, standing besides Jackie. Uncle and Tohru were a bit distanced from the main group, observing the scene silently; and Yan Lin sat in one of the stairs near the entrance. At Jackie's request, Cornelia, the Chan Clan and him had shared all the information they had in regard to the Dark Hand and Harold with them days before, and now they were informing them about the progress they had made in regards to the banker, and also clearing any doubt the Guardians may still have regarding Harold's involvement with the criminal organization.

 _That's what that conversation was about_ ; Irma thought, remembering what she had heard back in Meridian. She had decided to don't bring it up, at least until Cornelia or Jade did. "Did you know this from the start?" the Water Guardian asked the young Chan girl.

The Chinese Shapeshifter shook her head. "No. Not until we fought Hak Foo in the mountains."

"That's when I started to get suspicions of my own," Cornelia confessed.

"I still can't believe this," Taranee said next, adjusting her glasses. "It's just…" her spectacled eyes locked into Cornelia. "Our families have dinner together from time to time! My father sees yours almost every day at the bank! I can't believe your father works with…"

" _Worked_ with," Will corrected her friend. "If what Cornelia and Jackie say it's true, then he's willing to actually change and help… erh… Section 13, was it?" Jackie nodded; "Section 13 with bringing down the Dark Hand."

"So… what's exactly our role in this?" Hay Lin asked in her usual sweet and peaceful tone. "I get that we should help Jackie, but… can we, grandma?"

The old Chinese woman looked at all the attendants from her spot in the staircase. "You can. Especially considering what Jackie has told us about the Dark Hand having access to many magical artifacts that they may use as weaponry; including the Oni Mask that that man called Hak Foo wears. It's the duty of the Guardians of Kandrakar to protect the Known Worlds from this kind of threats, and Earth is not an exception. However, I advise caution. Cornelia already revealed the Guardians' existence to her father, and Kandrakar and Earth's relationship isn't as… tight as the one Kandrakar has with other worlds; for no saying it's nonexistent."

"Yeah, sorry about that," the blonde apologized. "I just got carried away and spilled it out."

"Hey, no problem Corny;" Irma reassured her friend. "If my dad turned out to work for the mafia, I'd freak out too."

"How's that a problem?" Will asked. "I get why the whole population discovering us could be bad, but what's the problem with some people, like our families, knowing about Kandrakar?"

"None, at least not over the paper;" Yan Lin explained. "But you must understand that your families or some others knowing about Kandrakar will put them in peril. They may want to get involved, or your enemies could target them out in order to hurt you."

 _Yeah, I get that_ ; Will thought. _And to be fair, mom would freak out if she knew what's going on in Meridian… or what I'm doing._

"Keeper of the Heart must also understand," Uncle broke into the conversation. "That Earth is much more populated and diverse than any other world that serves as part of Kandrakar's congregation. Meridian, for example, has only ooooone ruler and realm! Earth has many nations, each with its own laws, governments and, most important, armies. If magic and the existence of Kandrakar and the Infinite Dimensions became a public knowledge again, many nations would try to use it as their advantage! They could even start a war either with each other, or with another world! When that veeeeery impolite agent questioned Uncle about Guardians, Uncle had to tell him that you all were Changelings that protected _only_ Earth, else not even Captain Black would have been able to stop his superiors from getting their noses in here!"

"So if Chang gets to actually show those pictures around, or if we make a show with our powers while helping to capture him;" Taranee explained. "We could have entire countries going after us, our families and our friends; for not speaking about creating an international or even a multiversal crisis."

"'Cause we didn't have enough stress already with all the Meridian shenanigans…" Irma complained.

"It gets worse, actually;" Tohru, who had remained silent until now, joined the conversation. "Captain Augustus Black, the commander in chief of Section 13, informed Jackie of the Dark Hand's next heist; one that apparently Chang intends to attend personally."

"Then that's the best opportunity, right?" Jade inquired. "We just got to get them there, and problem's solved! What's worse about that situation?"

"Jade please, let us explain;" Tohru told the girl. "Jackie?"

All the eyes turned to the archeologist, who cleared his throat and spoke. "As you all already know, I have been collaborating with a man named Quentin Ross in this investigation, or more likely he has been collaborating with me. Anyway, I already told you all about his suspicions about the Dark Hand since they bought a dry cleaning."

"A dry cleaning?" a dumbfounded Irma asked. Why would a crime syndicate do that?

"A dry cleaning that is built over what at first sight was an abandoned subway line," Jackie continued his explanation. "Except it isn't. A train travels through it from time to time… carrying multiple magical artifacts, according to Captain Black's informants."

"Wait, what?" Taranee asked. "Why? How? And who does that?"

"Five bucks it's a secret society;" Jade whispered in Irma's ear, making the Water Guardian to smirk a bit.

"Freemasons, apparently;" Jackie answered the Fire Guardian's questions.

"Called it;" Jade joked again, this time forcing Irma to put one hand over her mouth in order to contain a laugh.

"The train is apparently always in movement, only stopping in order to refuel;" Jackie concluded. "Heatherfield is, coincidentally, one of its main stops across the United States."

"Why Heatherfield?" Hay Lin asked. It was too much of a coincidence that their city seemed to be always the focus of all these things. The Oni Mask in the mountains, all the Guardians living here and Villa Ludmoore in the outskirts… those were just a couple of examples.

"Magic is attracted to magic, the more is in one place, the more it will gather;" Uncle explained, rising a finger. "And Heatherfield has lots of it!"

"Do we know exactly what's inside?" Will asked, her reddish eyes flickering with a cunning glow. She was already planning something.

"Not yet," the archeologist answered. "But I will meet with Ross, Captain Black and Harold tomorrow to discuss how exactly they plan to do this and so we can organize ourselves. I suppose they will inform me about what exactly the Dark Hand is trying to get their hands on."

"So… what do we do meanwhile?" Taranee inquired.

"We rest," Will told all of them, but especially talking to Cornelia. "And we prepare ourselves for what's to come. I… we'll think of a plan."

* * *

 ** _Later_**

Once the meeting had ended, all of them had decided to march for their homes. After all, the sun was practically gone by now and Will had been right, they needed to rest, some more than others. However, Jade had asked Jackie if she could walk with Will until they reached the redhead's home, and the archeologist had accepted. But the two girls had made a stop before going to Will's home, one none of them had informed the rest about said stop. But after all, they didn't want any of them to know about who they were meeting now, or why.

In the back of an alley, the two girls had met with none other than Caleb, the rebel leader having been waiting for them for a while now, leaning against one of the alley's walls. The three of them had been speaking for several minutes now, explaining to Caleb what the situation was.

"So that was the reason you requested my help here;" the young rebel leader said, arms behind his back, one foot against the ground and the other against the wall. It made sense for him, after all this 'Dark Hand' had a lot of operatives, alongside their own personal Shadowkhan army. The more help they had, the better. Of course, now that his talk about the situation with the redhead Guardian and the black haired Chan girl had practically ended, another reason for his presence had been added to that one. "How was Cornelia?"

"Not good," Will told him. "But you know her; she's so prideful she won't admit it. She'll endure this and come out of it stronger, that's for sure."

 _I hope so_ ; Caleb thought. _If there is someone that understands what she must be feeling right now, it's me. At least she can confront her father about it._

"Anyway, you got clear what we're going to do, right?" Jade asked to the rebel.

"I do," the green eyed teen said as he stopped leaning against the wall. "You sure I can't carry my sword, or my usual meridianite clothes?"

"Yes, this Ross guy;" Will began; "is an agent of Section 13. That means we can't let him know that worlds like Meridian exist, unless we want at least the entire USA government after us. So we'll have to work on an excuse, or something."

"Alright..." Caleb muttered. "Are you... sure you want to do this, Will?"

"Look, it doesn't matter if I want or not;" the redhead told the brown haired boy; "what matters is that we need to stop these guys before we get a fully magically armed criminal organization at our backs. For not speaking about the fact that Chang very possibly knows about Meridian on top of having those pictures, since you met with him during the Mask's auction and bought guns from him."

"Yeah, that wasn't the brightest of moves back then;" Jade acknowledged, a fact Caleb couldn't deny.

"And once Chang is down, no more earthling weaponry for us," Will said, eyes slightly narrowed.

"Then I suppose we don't have any other option;" Caleb ended admitting. "I will have Blunk gather some other members of the Passling-folk in order to form a small squad. They will be ready, and expecting a signal."

"Perfect," Will said, a small smirk coming to her lips. "Depending on how Jackie's meeting goes tomorrow, we'll adapt. If everything goes as planned, and if what Jackie and Tohru just said is true; then we'll be able to take a lot of advantage from this situation."

* * *

 ** _A day later, Chan flat; midday_**

Jackie's rented apartment in Heatherfield had been picked between all the other available ones because it was perfect for a family of four. It had exactly the necessary space for him, Jade, Uncle and Tohru to live in. It could perfectly house another person in any occasion a guest must be taken in, but not more. As such, now that the flat wasn't only occupied by the Chan Clan, but by Quentin Ross and Harold Hale, the living room (which was the one in where they had decided to discuss matters) was looking quite crowded. Tohru was sitting in the center of the couch, while Jackie and Uncle were at each of his sides. In opposite ends of the room, Harold Hale and Quentin Ross stood, the banker and now _former_ Dark Hand associate with a formal yet relaxed stance; while Ross was clearly stiff and containing anger.

And over the table in the living room, was Jackie's laptop, its screen split in two and each half showcasing the image of a man. One of them was the tall, middle aged, white and bald Augustus Black, Captain and chief commander of Section 13, dressed in his usual dark grey pants, dark red sweater and his black coat. In the other half appeared a black, fat, short man around his sixties, with ruffled dark grey hair covering his head and enormous beard of the same color to match. He was dressed in an elegant suit with a golden badge over one of its flaps depicting the square and compasses with a G between them that identified many freemasons, and while Captain Black was clearly in one of the rooms of the underground base of Section 13 in San Francisco, this man was sitting behind a large desk of some kind of office, or library; judging by the enormous bookshelf at his back full of thick tomes. The black old man had his fingers interlaced, hands resting over the desk. Both of them, however, shared the same serious expression.

As it turned out, Harold was not a fool either; as he had been smart enough to keep track of each one of Chang's illegal economical movements; with which smaller criminal organizations the Dark Hand was in cahoots, and in which operations across the country they were involved. After his talk with Jackie and a small visit to his office in the bank, Harold had sent all that information to Captain Black; and in return he had (of course) asked for a favored treatment and protection for his family.

"So… Mister Hale," Captain Black began, his eyes looking at Harold from the screen, stopping only to look at some paperwork he was holding. "I must admit this is… a surprising, albeit welcomed, turn of events. I talked with my superiors about your offer, and considering the information about not only this branch, but the Dark Hand in a worldwide scale… we have decided to accept your offer, albeit with some concessions."

"That's reasonable," Harold said politely.

 _Of course's reasonable_ , Ross thought bitterly. _You're going to get out of this with a reduced sentence, or something simila_ r.

"Even with the information you've provided, however;" Black continued; "Jackie and these… these…" the Captain looked into the papers once more, "Changelings, as you call them, will intervene and put a stop to Chang's actions during the robbery."

"Mr. Black," the black old man in the other half of the screen interrupted him. "I don't recommend following with that plan. My organization must insist in the danger the artifacts that train carries can prove to the population of this country. If this Chang can be detained before even starting his move, then I say we do it."

"Your organization, no matter how powerful;" Captain Black retorted; "is not recognized by the Government or the Law. As such, I don't have to follow your orders; and I will continue following mine. And my orders explicitly say that I need proof in order to detain Chang and put a stop to his activities."

The freemason frowned, eyes narrowing slightly. "You are making a mistake, Captain. Each of those artifacts is highly dangerous. My organization…"

"Your organization has them in a train with no contact with the outside world sans some specific times in the year, which make it incredibly predictable and easy to attack once you know of its existence;" Captain Black said again; "so forgive me if I decide to not trust _your_ organization when _mine_ has to clean your mess."

 _Whoa, Captain Black's on the house_ ; Jade thought with amazement, not accustomed to seeing the bald Captain so serious or threatening. "Wait, don't we have proof enough already?" she asked.

The freemason eyed her with a raised brow. Even if she had been presented as one of those Changelings, which was incredibly weird since he had always thought that Changelings in Earth had gone extinct millennia ago; it was weird to have a child in these meetings.

"Yes, but no;" Harold explained. "While the information I provided clearly incriminates them, it was acquired via illegal means. And it's just tied to the Dark Hand's American branch, not the organization in its entirety. The other leaders are very… cautious with those things, it seems."

"And if we detain Chang over just those terms, Taiwan will extradite him;" Black continued to speak. "And Chang is powerful in Taiwan, he will be out in no time, and we will be in the same situation as we were when Valmont fell from grace. That's the reason the higher-ups, especially after the revelation of Mr. Hale's desire to help us, had decided that we detain Chang."

"Eh… weren't we going to do that already?" Jade asked again, now a bit confused by the Captain's wording.

"You haven't understood me," Black said; "we are detaining Chang and his inner circle…"

 _Wait, does he mean…_ ; both Jackie and Ross thought in unison, albeit Jackie did with something resembling hope and Ross with growing anger.

"And no one else," Black sentenced. "My superiors have decided that losing someone like Harold so soon after gaining him would be stupid so… in the moment we take out Chang;" he said, looking at Harold with a face more serious than any of the presents had ever seen. The Captain of Section 13 seemed like a statue right now; "you, Harold Hale, will step in and take control of the American branch of the Dark Hand."

None of the presents said anything upon that sentence… none except Quentin Ross, whose face had grew as red as his hair after hearing them. Unable to restrain himself anymore, the violent agent yelled with all the might of his lungs.

"WHAT?!" the redhead shrieked. "What the hell's wrong with you all?!"

"Ross…" Black began, but the man didn't shut his mouth.

"No! He's playing you like a fiddle so obviously that's almost insulting! Can't you see it?! He's just another scumbag, another criminal; just like the rest of them! This is probably part of his plan! He will double-cross us in the moment that benefits him the most!"

"Ross, for the love of God, much of the information he gave us relates him directly to the crimes of the Dark Hand. I don't think he plans to betray us like that;" Black said slowly and harshly. "You are being paranoid. Sometimes you must lose the battle to win the war. Be pragmatic for once in your life and think that if we do this, then we will be able to have someone in the inner circle of a worldwide crime syndicate."

"Call me paranoid if you must, Captain;" Ross said. "But I'm not stupid, and I won't break my code. A is A, and Harold Hale is Harold Hale; that reality won't change. Good is Good, and Evil is Evil, never mixing, there's no middle ground. That's my code. I'll never compromise it, not even in the face of Armageddon. And I won't do it now."

The violent agent turned around to leave, but before he could exit the living room, Black called for him.

"Ross, if you cross that door, you won't be an agent of Section 13 anymore;" the Captain said authoritatively. "And leave the Talismans behind. The two you haven't already lost."

Angrily, the redheaded agent extracted both hexagonal rocks from his pockets and tossed them to the ground. Rooster and Snake Talismans fell with a loud sound, and Ross continued his leave. Before he disappeared, he directed a last glance to all of them.

"You're making a mistake, especially you;" he said, gesturing to Jackie. "You aren't doing this for justice; you're doing this because you feel like the two of you are similar. He has a family, just like you, and you're afraid of dirtying your hands when it entitles hurting him, because you feel like you're hurting yourself. You jumped to conclusions when you met him, and you're doing it again, Mr. Chan. The same can be said about you, Captain. But you'll regret this, all of you will."

And with that last sentence, the violent agent (or from now on, ex-agent) of Section 13 exited the living room and then the apartment, this time using the door and slamming it in the process.

"Your organization seems to have more disciplinary problems than mine, Captain;" the old freemason said in a tone between mockery and seriousness. "I hope he isn't a problem."

Black rolled his eyes and sighed. "Ah… he has been always like this. I took him into Section 13 because he was useful… but I always knew I couldn't control him forever. If he tries to return to his old ways, I will have him in a cell. I'm… sorry for involving you in all this mess again, Jackie."

The archeologist shook his head and smiled warmly to his friend. "Apologizing won't solve anything. We need to keep moving forward, with, or without Ross."

"Which reminds me…" Harold interrupted them. "If I'm going to take command of the Dark Hand here, then that means Bartholomew must not suspect about my connection to you. This means that I can't take those photographs by myself, else he will grow suspicious."

"That… will be a problem;" Captain Black said, taking a hand to his chin.

"Perhaps we could take advantage of the attack that girl perpetuated in us a month ago," Harold digested. "But I don't think that…"

"Oh, so we need someone that can get inside the building, take the pictures, and get out?" Jade asked, walking to the center of the room, hands in her jeans' pockets. "That's an easy answer! We need a thief! And we know one of the best in the world, don't we?"

"Jade, I'm not involving Vi- Auch!" Jackie protested as Uncle dope slapped him.

"Does nephew want to protect niece from criminals? Yes? Then nephew acts smart and let's thief to be called here!"

"These are the people I'm counting on to protect the artifacts…" the freemason whispered, rubbing his temples.

"Actually, I think it's a great idea," Captain Black said with a smirk. "And to be fair, she was a great help when you have to track down Valmont and Shendu. I think she was in Europe last time I contacted her, but let me make a couple of calls and she will be in Heatherfield in no time. I suppose I should start making preparations to move a unit and myself to Heatherfield too…"

"Who… are we talking about, exactly?" a confused Harold Hale asked.

Tohru moved a bit in the couch, looking at Harold. "About a woman called…"

* * *

 ** _One day later, Heatherfield's airport_**

"Viper!"

The woman heard the unmistakable voice of Jade Chan calling for her, audible even amongst the bustling of the airport of this city named Heatherfield. She had never heard of it before, and that was weird, considering how big it was. Anyway, she wasn't here as a tourist.

The woman known simply as Viper was a lithe, attractive and very beautiful woman; with long black hair worn in a side cortex, dark complexion and brown eyes. Her curvaceous body was currently clad in a red business suit consisting of a jacket and a skirt of said color, alongside a blouse of purple color and purple high heels to match. She was carrying a backpack and pulling from a wheeled suitcase. However, she didn't doubt a second before putting both of them in the floor as Jade ran towards her and embraced the former master thief in a tight hug.

"Hey there, kid!" Viper greeted Jade as both women embraced themselves. "You have… grown?" _In more areas than just height, I must add_.

As both of them broke the hug, Viper focused in the girl in front of her more carefully. Dressed now in a pair of bluish jeans and a whitish hoodie reminiscent of the orange one she wore in the past, Jade didn't only strike Viper as being considerably taller than the last time she had seen her, her body seemed to have finally started to develop into the one of a young woman. Hips pronouncing, breasts growing… puberty seemed to have finally hit little Jade Chan.

Jade contained a laugh. "You could say that."

 _Just by that comment, I think I'm in for a big surprise_ ; the former thief thought, but her mind changed priorities when her eyes fell over the approaching Jackie Chan.

"Hi there, Tiger;" Viper said flirtatiously to the archeologist. "How's the new city been treating you?"

"Fairly, I suppose;" Jackie answered the former thief in a neutral tone.

Viper smirked and made a side gaze towards Jade. "Still the same I see. How's someone like you related to him?"

Jade shrugged. "Meh, he can be funny when he tries."

"Can you please… not do that?" Jackie practically begged of the two femmes, who proceeded to both laugh.

Viper quickly closed distances with the man and hugged him in the same vein she had hugged the archeologist's niece. "I'm just messing with you, Jackie. I'm glad to meet you again."

"I am too," Jackie said, embracing her. Noticing Jade's smirk upon seeing this, he quickly ended the hugging. "So… did Captain Black tell you about why we called you for?"

"More or less," he ex-thief answered, returning to her luggage and taking it again. "Something about helping you with another version of the Dark Hand, right?"

"Something about that…" Jackie said, looking at Jade. "But actually, there is much more."

* * *

 ** _Silver Dragon's basement; a few hours later; afternoon_**

Yan Lin was starting to ponder if she would need to expand the basement of her restaurant, considering how each time the Guardians held meetings there a new attendant was added to the others. This Viper woman had greeted Yan Lin nicely, thanking her for letting the Chans and the girls to use the basement of her establishment to talk and plan strategies. However, most of the current conversation until now had been used to explain to Viper what exactly had been unfolded in Heatherfield for the past months.

"You are a werewolf?! There are other worlds?! You are fighting in a WAR?!"

Yes, that was pretty much the reaction you would expect from any person upon this revelation, especially from an adult, even from someone that already knew about magic.

"Viper please, calm down;" Jackie told her. The scene from yesterday was repeating today, only that Viper and Caleb were here too. The meridianite boy had decided to ditch his usual clothes in favor of an earthling's outfit, while Viper was now dressed in a pair of black shorts and a pinkish t-shirt. The woman was sitting alone in the couch, in the verge of a breakdown.

 _And now another knows about the Guardians_ , Yan Lin thought. _I know it's necessary, but the secret it's starting to spread too fast. What would you say about this, Halinor?_

"Does that make him an alien?!" the former thief asked, pointing towards Caleb, who stared at her in return, not knowing exactly what an alien was.

"Miss Viper," Will broke into the conversation. "I know this must be a lot to take in, but we need your help."

"I know, I get that you need my help to get those pictures… it's just, let me a second;" Viper said, breathing in and out a couple of times. _And I thought that after magic ninjas, dragons and wizards, I had seen everything…_ "Alright, alright… I'm done. I'm calm;" she breathed deeply again, rose from the couch and approached the table where a map of Heatherfield's subway lines had been extended. "How are we going to do this?"

Around the table, the five Guardians, Jade, Jackie and Viper were looking at the map, while Tohru and Uncle maintained themselves a bit separated, sitting in the ground with a bunch of vials full of greenish chi potions in them. Will pointed to a section of the map.

"Tonight, we'll get ourselves in the subway lines of Heatherfield;" the Keeper of the Heart said. "We'll access the line in which the freemasons' train is from here," the redhead instructed, pocking one of the walls that were depicted in the map; "Cornelia opening a way for us. Jade, Irma; once inside, I need you two to engage the Dark Hand's main force, no matter if they are their agents or Shadowkhan. It'll weaken them and serve as a distraction. Jackie, I need you to get one of those chi potions and take that Mask from Hak Foo's face. Like that, no more Shadowkhan army. Caleb will be assisting you. Hay Lin, you're going to be around Tohru and Uncle at every moment. Make sure that nothing gets in their way if we need another of those Mask-removing potions. Taranee, Cornelia; you two will come with me and try to take down Chang. I don't want anyone facing _anything_ alone, alright? We don't know if Chang's men will get their hands in some of those artifacts and use them against us, but I need us to be ready for that possibility. Miss Viper…"

"Just Viper, kid;" the former thief told the redhead. _She sounds like a seasoned general talking about tactics like that…_

"Right, sorry;" Will apologized with a silly smile, but her face turned serious moments after. "While we're doing that, you'll get inside Chang's building and steal those photographs and everything that can help us."

"Understood," Viper said. _How old is this girl? Thirteen? Fourteen? Jade's almost thirteen, so she mustn't be much older… What kind of war are they fighting?_

"What about that man you talked me about?" Caleb asked. "Quentin Ross, was it?"

"He left," Jackie said abruptly.

 _At least that means I can carry my sword…_ Caleb thought. _I changed my clothes for nothing, great_.

"But thanks to him leaving, we've got an extra advantage;" Will said, making a nod with her head to Jade, who pulled the Rooster and Snake Talismans out of her pockets and left them over the table.

"Rooster for telekinesis," Jade explained, pointing to each of the hexagonal rocks; "and Snake for invisibility."

"Snake is my sign," Viper said. "And being invisible will help with getting inside a building as heavy-guarded as the one of a crime lord."

"That's what I thought," Will said as Viper took the Talisman. "Jackie, please take the Rooster. I believe you'll need it in order to defeat Hak Foo."

Without saying anything, Jackie took the Talisman and put it in his pocket. He hoped it didn't end in the same vein that the Dragon and the Pig had ended, one in Daolon Wong's possession, the other lost under a mountain.

"Everyone's got clear what she or he has to do, right?" Will asked, her eyes falling over Caleb for far longer than they did in any other. One by one, each of the attendants nodded or voiced their affirmation.

"Very well," Will said. "I'll create another group of Astral Drops later on. I'll see you all at night."

* * *

 ** _Chang's building, at the same time_**

Bartholomew Chang sat at his office, adjusting his prosthetic hand and preparing himself for tonight's plan. However, the Taiwanese crime lord wasn't exactly alone. In front of him, a shadowy figure had taken form. Its features weren't appreciable, but it was clear it was a bald, thin man; leaning on a cane which's head was shaped like some sort of bird, perhaps an eagle. It was some sort of projection, and clearly a magical one.

"Is everything in place for tonight's play?" the figure asked, its voice sounding as if he was speaking underwater, making it deep and distorted.

"Everyone is ready, and everyone has his lines, even me;" Chang answered, getting up from his seat and approaching the figure. "But aren't you a bit worried about the possibility of failing tonight, Theodore?"

"No," the figure, Theodore, answered. "Even if tonight's play crashes the characters will still follow the lines we have written for them, and the Hand will come triumphant at the end. You have your lines… Bartholomew;" the shadowy figure said the name with some doubt, as if he wasn't sure of referring to Chang like that. "Be sure to follow them. Enjoy the nice night, Mr. Chang; Raphael told me that Heatherfield is quite beautiful."

"If you insist," Chang said. "Good night to you too, Mr. Riddle."

The shadowy figure of the man, Theodore Riddle, dissolved into thin air shortly after, leaving Chang alone. The Taiwanese crime lord looked at his prosthetic hand once again. Sometimes, he could feel as if he still had a hand made of flesh, and other times he could still feel pain. But pain was an old friend, and Bartholomew Chang had learned long ago that no one can achieve success without sacrificing something, even if it was a part of himself. He headed back to his desk and swallowed another bunch of painkillers.

"And now, the curtain opens," he said, looking at the city from the enormous window of his office.

* * *

 ** _An alley; at the same time_**

Diary of Quentin Ross. Entry 157

 _Chan's betrayed me. Section 13 and the Captain? Betrayed me too, betrayed the Cause, the Code. But I won't let them to get Section 13 corrupted, I won't let it to happen. They won't defeat me! I will get that Hale bastard before he can screw us all over. I just need to keep investigating, get something that…_

"Hey you!" a voice called for Quentin Ross, interrupting his writing. Looking up from the pages, Ross was greeted by the sight of a middle aged man dressed in clothes full of clothes of a dark color and wearing a hat over his head. He looked dirty, even more than Ross himself in one of his worst days. "Empty 'em!"

Ross tilted his head. "You don't want to do this now, believe me, scumbag."

"Who's the scum?!" the man, trembling, pulled a razor out of his pockets. "I said give me all you got!"

"I thought you said 'Empty 'em!'" Ross retorted in a deadpan tone.

With an angry growl, the tug charged towards Ross, who swiftly blocked the incoming blow and disarmed him, He then proceeded to punch him in the face and the stomach, repeatedly. He was trembling. He was probably an addict, in search of some cash to use in order to get high. But for Quentin Ross, that was irrelevant. A is A, and criminals are criminals.

"You are all the same," Ross said angrily, getting the man up and slamming his face against the wall of the alley. A loud 'CRACK' was heard, and the man fell to the ground. If he was dead or just unconscious was not something that concerned Quentin Ross. He exited the alley, putting his pen and notebook inside his coat. "All of you. I'll teach the scum of this city, the dirt like Chang and Hale, to fear me. I've seen their true face. I won't let them to win."

* * *

 ** _Heatherfield's streets; dusk_**

The purple haired girl known as Nyx had learned years ago how to survive for herself in the streets. And considering how Heatherfield's were much kinder than some of the ones she had lived in, the city proved quite the nice place to live in. Munching into a portion of pizza while walking the streets, Nyx pulled a cell-phone from her jacket's pocket and dialed a number.

"Hello?" a male voice answered.

"Yo, Mr. E!" Nyx greeted him with energy. "How's it going?"

"Nyx! I'm fine, I suppose. Were you able to make any progress? I received the data you sent me a month ago, but…"

"I know Mr. E;" the purple haired girl said. "But tonight's the moment, I told ya'! Those punks of the Dark Hand are going to make a mess in the subway. I just gotta get inside, get one of them and run, right?"

"Right;" the voice of the supposedly called Mr. E answered. "But don't do anything reckless, alright?"

"Got it, Mr. E;" Nyx answered, and hanged. Seconds after, she zapped the phone with the purple sparks of her magic, the device's insides burning on an instant. She dropped the wasted phone in the next trash can she passed by, and after finishing her pizza, she headed towards the nearest entrance to the city's subway.

* * *

 ** _Hale residence_**

Harold Hale stood in the entrance to his home, slightly hunched forward, staring into the Astral Drop of her daughter. "So these… creatures;" Harold said, as his daughter had insisted a lot in not saying the words 'Astral Drop' in front of the beings, since that basically erased them from existence; "are perfect copies of you and your friends, and they do whatever you ask them to do. And one of them was posing as you for almost five days… is that the reason you were so diligent about cleaning your room?"

"I think so," Cornelia answered as she prepared to leave. "Look, it's just for tonight, so make sure mom and Lillian don't say the forbidden words or get me into trouble using her."

"Alright," Harold said. "Cornelia…"

"No dad, I haven't forgiven you;" Cornelia told her father. "It's just… you can't expect me to forgive you just because you've decided to do the right thing now, just because Jackie pressed you. I have to go now."

"I wasn't going to ask that," Harold said, forcing his daughter to stare at him. "Cornelia, I… know we aren't going to be exactly the most normal of families from now on, believe. But I want you to know, whatever it happens between us; I'm proud of you and I love you. And no matter what any of us do, nothing will change that."

The blonde Earth Guardian looked at Harold and sighed. "Thanks dad," Cornelia said simply before heading towards the elevator. Harold turned around with the Astral Drop, and opening the door, entered in his house.

* * *

 ** _Minutes later; Heatherfield's night_**

The Guardians and the Chan Clan, plus Caleb, had banded together once again, the teenage girls and the three adult men having met at the entrance of a now closed subway station. The only thing they needed to do was to force the gate and enter the place in order to get to their destination.

"Everyone ready?" Will asked, earning herself nods as answers. "Okay," she said, holding the Heart up.

"Are you alright?" Caleb, carrying his sword but still dressed as an earthling human, asked of Cornelia in a whisper.

"I'm alright," the blonde girl answered the scarred meridianite boy in a whisper as soft and quiet as his.

"Guardians Unite!"

The Heart of Kandrakar glowed strongly, and after the glow died, the five girls were each in their Guardian form. The group started to descend the stairs towards the subway, each of its members preparing mentally for the incoming fight.

"Let's break this hand," Will declared.

* * *

 _What is the human quality I find the most dangerous, you ask? Of course, their cunning! Humans, who are weaker physically than the average Galhot, Lurden, Oni or Banshee… they have an innate ability to survive and adapt to any situation with their wit alone! In the moment you think you have finally understood their plans… then it turns out that said plan was just a part of one even bigger! They can change and make it evolve at any moment, and is very hard to stop them once they are determined to achieve something. Sometimes I think that the reason Kandrakar left their world out of their congregation, was because they were afraid of them._ General Ikki

* * *

 **Author Notes: Every side ready?! GO! Hey there people. I said no less than a month of wait, and here we are now. Truth to be told, I could have updated sooner… but I have been planning another story to be published soon, so… here we are. This chapter was smaller than previous ones, but it serves its purpose. And it was very hard to write, to be fair, getting everything together and make it function, for not speaking of including Viper in this one (she was planned to show up, but later on). And I originally planned for Ross to actually take part in the assault against Chang and his forces, but then I thought to take him into a different direction… things that happen. I mean, at first the cover of the first season was supposed to be no more than 25 episodes, but now I have added ten more in the plans, 'cause else I couldn't develop the story as I liked to do.**

 **As I said at the start, updating will become scarce from now on, but I will try and keep a schedule. I hope you enjoyed it, and please leave a review. See you all around New Year, or sometime like that, I hope.**

 **Bye, Bye!**


	17. Underground Clash

**Disclaimer: I own neither the WITCH cartoon-show nor Jackie Chan Adventures; they are the property of their respective creators, writers, and producers.**

 **Author Notes: Yes! It is I! I have returned yet again! Hello there, everyone; here I come with another chapter. Ah... I have not much to say here aside my usual thanks to the reviewers of the last chapter and anyone that takes their time to edit the TvTropes page. That been said, I hope you enjoy your read of this chapter, because now, it's time for some action.**

* * *

Guardians, Wizards and Kung-Fu Fighters

Episode Seventeen

Underground Clash

* * *

 ** _Chang's building; deep in the night_**

The building that served as Chang's base of operations during the day was eerily silent during night, a reality only strengthened by the fact that nobody could be seen in the halls or offices. It was a strange sight to behold, since even during said hours people used to be there, be either workers or security staff. Then again, according to the information Harold had provided, said staff had been exponentially decreasing since Hak Foo had acquired control over the Mantis Khan and the Dark Hand had started to rely on the creatures more and more.

As such, Viper found almost no obstacles when getting inside the building, security cameras being rendered useless thanks to the Snake Talisman making her invisible. Even so, she still advanced cautious, walking slowly and silently, making sure to take advantage of the blind spots the cameras could look at and carefully checking if any room she entered had some other type of security measure. After all, she was invisible, but not intangible. If Chang had some kind of device that could react to movement, then she was screwed.

 _Alright, Jackie said to turn left now, and… here we are_ ; Viper thought as she finally located the door's to Chang's office. As it had turned out, the elevator wasn't the only way to travel through this giant building, a set of inner stairs being the other option, albeit a very confusing one. In order to climb to the upper floors, you had to enter the staircase, exit it in some specific floors and then enter it again in order to keep going up. It was disorienting, to say the least. Who had built this thing?

Viper advanced and reached the door, pulling the keycard Jackie had provided her with (and that was originally of Harold's possession) and using it to open it. She entered the vast office of Bartholomew Chang seconds after and once inside and after making sure there were no cameras or any other kind of security device; she clutched the hexagonal rock she was carrying and she became visible again.

"This takes almost all the fun out of this," the woman, clad in a dark bodysuit, boots and gloves of the same color with only a utility belt around the waist, complained. There was no denying that one of the reasons she had dedicated so much time of her life to being a professional thief was because of the thrill of it, even if as she became older and her heists more complex and ambitious she had stopped to do them because of the thrill. She passed one hand over her dark hair and stretched her arms, and afterwards she walked towards Chang's desk, searching for any clue as to where those photographs could be.

 _According to the father of that blondie, Chang has some kind of secret compartment in this room, and there should be a…_ Viper thought as she inspected every corner of the desk, her fingers pushing a button almost by accident, which in turn activated a mechanism that made a chunk of the nearest wall to open and reveal a strongbox behind it. "Bingo," the dark skinned woman said with a smirk, approaching the strongbox and inspecting it as she had done with the desk.

"You're a nostalgic man, aren't you Mr. Chang?" Viper wondered with a quirked eyebrow as she noted how the box was just an old fashioned strongbox. No signs of being powered by electricity, neither signs of a fingerprint being needed to open it. Just your ordinary, now practically obsolete in terms of modern security and yet still useful in order to achieve its purpose of protecting valuable items, strongbox. It was clear what Chang was doing here, maintaining physical copies of the photographs while not having any digital copies, which any hacker with enough ability could snatch away. She cracked her fingers and put herself to work. "Seems I'm doing this the old fashioned way…"

* * *

When Viper exited Chang's office she was carrying an enormous amount of dossiers containing the photographs depicting the battle between the girls, the Chans, Daolon Wong and Cedric a few months ago. When she arrived in the archeologist's office and turned his (new) computer on, she took a bit of time to check the photographs one by one.

 _So this is what has been going on here_ , she thought with worry as her eyes travelled fast from one photo to another. The Guardians confronting Wong, Cedric joining the fight, the wizard changing into his other, more powerful and inhuman form, he dominating the girls, Jackie, Uncle and Tohru with a spell, Cedric almost eating Irma, and Jade joining the fight transformed into a wolf, driving the giant snake and wizard off by attacking them quite brutally. There were other photographs, depicting almost frame by frame how Jade transformed into her beast form. _These are only kids, and here they are, fighting monsters_.

Viper sighed and put the photographs back in their place and decided she had spent enough time in this dark, enormous and silent building. As such, she took the Snake Talisman back in her hand and activated it, making her invisible once again. She headed towards the staircase once again, not sure if the elevator would work.

"My part of the job's done," the former thief said. "I hope yours isn't very complicated, Tiger."

* * *

 ** _Heatherfield's subway; abandoned lines; the Freemasons' train_**

"Black rice?" a middle aged black woman with a thin frame, dressed in a standard dark suit, asked of a man sitting in front of her. He was dressed in a suit very similar to hers, and both wore a badge depicting the Square and Compasses that identified them as freemasons.

"Yes, black rice;" the man answered. "You never heard of it, Carla? It's just rice but instead of cooking it alone or with whatever you throw in it, you mix it with a squid's ink, and also with little parts of the squid; fried beforehand. It's like… have you ever tasted Spanish paella?"

"No," the woman, Carla, answered.

"Well, it's like paella, but black and it tastes more like…"

"Robert, how can I understand that comparison if I already told you I never have eaten paella?" the woman interrupted him, making the man to shrug.

"I just wanted to talk a bit," Robert replied. He was a white man considerably younger than her, perhaps not even in his late twenties, with a chubby frame and a pair of rectangular glasses over his eyes. From the way he talked and moved, it was clear he was one of those people that liked to talk a bit too much about practically anything. "I mean, we haven't had no one else to talk to since the moment we entered the train. I swear, this whole ' _no communication with the outside world until we stop_ ' it's pretty lame. Dangerous even, if you asked me."

Carla rolled her eyes at her younger companion's comment. They were sitting each at opposing sides of a wagon in a train made out of four, not counting the cabin that made the subway train move, and that was automated. The wagon they were currently in was designated to just house them while their trip lasted, consisting of a pair of individual compartments, each with a bed in which they could sleep and with a mini-fridge to contain enough food until the next stop of the train. And aside from the compartments, the wagon also incorporated numerous seats in order for the freemasons to sit down and have a chat from time to time. The other three wagons were full of boxes, each containing one or many magical artifacts, some more dangerous and powerful than others.

In the past this train had been a locomotive, and the train had been moving over the land, not under it; always a group of freemasons making sure that the numerous magic artifacts that the train carried were safe. However, as times had advanced the freemasons had to adapt to them and the rails and train, now a modern one powered by electricity instead of coal, had to be moved underground. No one but the freemasons and their trusted allies knew about the train, and it was made clear that its existence had to be maintained in secret unless it was completely necessary to reveal it, let's not give any greedy ones the knowledge of the arsenal of magical weapons waiting under their feet to be used. Security measures had been increased and upgraded during the years. Of course, these changes had meant that now only two freemasons were needed to be in the train at all times. And right now those two freemasons were Carla and Robert. It would be a lie to say they enjoyed each other's company like good and close friends do, but this was their job, and job doesn't understand about friendship. Anyway, Robert tried his hardest every time in order to ease the tension between his coworker and him, even if it was through the most meaningless of words. But this time, before the man could start another trivial conversation, the train came to a sudden halt, making both to jump in their seats.

"What the-?" Robert wondered. "Have we arrived in Heatherfield?"

"We were already in Heatherfield, but we should still have a couple of hours…" Carla started to answer, but then she stopped, looking up at the ceiling. "Did you hear that? Sounded like someone on the..." looking at Robert she noticed how the man's eyes were fixated on the ground, wide opened. "Robert!"

"Y-Your shadow…" the man said, voice trembling. Only then did Carla look down and notice how her shadow was unnaturally growing by itself, a red slit that seemed to be a big, brilliant and red eye appearing on it. Shortly after, said shadow was joined by Robert's own one, and by every shadow that any object casted in the wagon, each becoming a puddle of darkness. From each black puddle, slowly, rose a Mantis Shadowkhan, the last one of them accompanied by Hak Foo (dressed in his usual blue muscle shirt and jeans, face still resembling the one of a demon), Phillip Crane (who was carrying two suitcases in his arms) and Bartholomew Chang (dressed in his usually worn elegant and silky Asian robes), the Taiwanese crime lord smiling smugly at the duo.

"Good night," Chang said politely. "I'm sorry if we are bothering you, but we are taking control of this train. Hak Foo?"

"Mantises slash worms!" the masked Black Tiger yelled, and a fraction of the Shadowkhan force launched themselves towards the duo, who couldn't do much more than dodge some of the blows before being slashed across their chests and knocked out by the strength of the attacks.

"Hak Foo," Chang addressed him. "Make your Shadowkhan to tear a hole in this wagon so the ones in the ceiling can enter and start taking what we need. Crane, with me."

Both of his underlings did as he had told them, Hak Foo ordering the Mantis Khan to slash one of the sides of the wagon so Chang's human goons, currently over the train, could enter; and Crane following his boss into the other wagons.

"So this is it, eh?" Crane commented, putting both suitcases on the floor. "Our own magic armory, dozens of magic toys to use. Can you believe it, Boss? Just by selling one of these, each one of use could earn a fortune! But that's not the plan, is it?"

"Indeed Crane," Chang said with a grin. "But I'm not as stupid as to not expect some kind of interference, either by these freemasons or others;" he explained. "I'm going to search for the big one. Tell the others to look if some of these," Chang said as he walked ahead and pointed to some of the boxes with his flesh hand; "can be useful and to test them. And Crane…"

"Yeah, I know;" the handsome thief said, kneeling down and opening the pair of suitcases. One contained the Armbands of Shiva, the other a small statue shaped like some kind of Egyptian cat. "It's time to suit up."

* * *

 ** _Meanwhile; another sector of Heatherfield's subway_**

"This is the place, isn't it?" Hay Lin commented as the Guardians, Caleb and the Chan Clan arrived at a spot on one of the subway line's tunnels, her wings flapping as if showing her nervousness. At first sight, the place seemed completely ordinary, just being a mere wall. However, behind said wall and meters and meters of stone and metal, was the secret line in which the freemasons' train was.

"Yes," Will answered, looking at the wall. "I don't want to waste more time, the Dark Hand could've already began. Everyone knows what they got to do?" Will asked of her companions, who either nodded or answered with a simple 'Yes'. "Cornelia?"

"Got it," Cornelia answered by approaching the wall and placing her hands over it. Concentrating, she closed her eyes and ordered the earth that composed it to move. There was a small tremor, and slowly a hole started to open and expand in the wall, at first small, but then big enough even for Tohru to fit through it. Once their passage was opened the Guardians and Chan Clan crossed the small tunnel Cornelia had created and entered the abandoned subway.

The tunnel they were in now was considerably bigger than the ones of Heatherfield's standard lines both in height and width, with even sidewalks at the sides of the rails of the subway train. A few light-bulbs adorned the walls and the ceiling (albeit some of them were broken), casting a dim light over the scene, enough to see what was going on, but not enough to not force the Dark Hand's forces to carry lanterns of their own in order to see, even having brought a couple of spotlights, which were on the ground, casting their beams of light over the scene and leaving the Guardians and the Chans in the shadows. The place looked more like a long, enormous train station dedicated to house a single train than a tunnel per se. And speaking of the train… the Dark Hand had already started to ravage it. One of the wagons had been ripped apart and some men and women were entering it and coming out with some boxes, putting them on the ground and opening to pull whatever they contained out. Shadowkhan were either patrolling the area or helping to pull the boxes out. So far, nobody seemed to have noticed them.

"Look," Taranee whispered, pointing to the ceiling of the tunnel, in which a large hole had been dig, just over the train.

"That must lead to that dry cleaning Chang bought;" Jackie stated. His eyes surveyed the scene, looking for Hak Foo. In his pockets, his hands clutched both the Rooster Talisman and the small vial containing the potion needed to remove Hak Foo's Oni Mask. He reminded himself that he needed to be cautious during his fight with the enforcer, since Lothar had been possessed by Uta so easily after a few hours, he feared that Hak Foo, who had been wearing this Mask for so long, could be possessed by the General it contained. Jackie knew Hak Foo, knew how he fought and thus how to deal with him, and even if now empowered, the Black Tiger was still the same. But he didn't know what tricks an unknown Oni General could use.

"How many of them are there?" Will inquired then, just for Jade to sniff the air.

"Shadowkhan aside," the Chinese Ben-Shui reincarnation whispered softly; "I smell twenty goons and... something else."

"Something else?" Irma asked, leaning her head over one of Jade's shoulders.

"I don't know, but I don't like it;" the Shapeshifter said with a little frown and folding her arms due to how the smell was bothering her but also because Irma's breasts were pressing against her back, both of them considerably distracting. "Smells like... cat?"

"I wouldn't be surprised if there were stray cats around here;" Taranee said, making Jade to shrug and just ignore it. Cats or not, there were more important matters in which to focus right now.

"Jade, Irma;" Will addressed the Chan girl and the Water Guardian. "When you're ready, open fire."

Irma started to manifest water in her palms, while Jade clapped hers and as she separated her hands moments later, a ball of concentrated blood red chi formed between them.

"Oh, I'm ready;" Jade said with a smirk, her amber eyes falling over a bunch of the Shadowkhan. "There's something I've dying to try on these guys."

* * *

Still not noticing the presence of the Guardians and the Chan Clan, Chang's underlings were, for lack of a better term, testing some of the artifacts they had gotten their hands into. Boxes were lying opened around, all of them containing, on top of whatever artifact they held inside, a little dossier with the name of the artifact and a description of what it did. Shadowkhan were all around them, making sure that nobody did anything stupid with the artifacts.

"Hey Dimitri, check this out!" one of the Dark Hand's goons said while holding up a scepter no bigger than half his arm, with a white rod and a yellowish top shaped like a lotus flower. The criminal held the scepter up and, after the artifact's head illuminated for a few seconds, his arms stretched several meters, moving up and down as if they were made of rubber or they were spaghetti. "Haha! Look, I'm Mr. Fantastic!"

"Neat!" the other thug, the aforementioned Dimitri, said while approaching his coworker. "But look at this thing!" the man said while putting a robe of an ocher-like color over his torso. After several seconds, the robe transformed to one made out of silk to an enormous piece of armor made of heavy plates of thick steel, covering all his body. "Bet ya' I can take a shot at point-blank and the bullet wouldn't do me anythin'!"

"I don't know, I think I've a gun somewhere…" the first thug said, but before he could search properly in his clothes he felt the piercing red gaze of a Mantis Khan nailing on him. "But you heard Mr. Foo and the Big Boss. No in-fighting."

"Yeah, yeah…" the man wearing the armor said, as it transformed into a normal robe once again. "Hey, wanna check more boxes out?"

"Sure," the first thug said. "Hey, from where do you think these mason guys took all these things? Because some of them don't look American at all."

Dimitri shrugged. "Don't know, don't care. What I care about is that there has to be something like the… you know! The hand of that Greek guy!"

"King Midas?"

"That one!" the thief said, and then he approached his partner and whispered. "Hey, I think that the Boss wouldn't miss some of these, right?"

His companion smirked. "Well, if we can take two or three of the small ones without these giant bugs noticing…" the man whispered, but before none of them could make a move, his eyes fell over something really weird; a floating ball of red energy approaching them slowly, stopping its movement in the middle of a group of Shadowkhan. Both thugs approached it.

"Hey!" Dimitri yelled loudly, trying to make his voice to reach every one of the Dark Hand's employees that was nearby. "Has anyone lost a red ball…?"

But before he could eve finish his question, the ball, the same one of concentrated blood red chi that Jade had casted before, cracked. And then, without anything resembling a warning, the ball exploded, unleashing a wave of red chi that knocked both humans and Shadowkhan to the ground. The humans that were hit worse by the attack were left groaning but recovering. The Shadowkhan that were hit by the wave, however, were basically disintegrated by the attack. Even if made out of the Shadow, the different tribes of Shadowkhan were shaped into their respective forms by the chi that each of the Oni Generals imbued them with, and thus the ability known as Chi Degradation that any Ben-Shui Chosen One could make use of was fatal for them, especially when faced with such an attack as this one had been. As such, the Mantis Khan that were in the radius of the explosion dissolved into puddles of darkness and disappeared out of sight.

Of course, this gathered a lot of attention, both from the surviving Shadowkhan and from the goons that hadn't been reached by the attack and the ones that were still inside the train. The surprise their faces were showing became even more pronounced when Irma and Jade came into their range of vision. It was clear none of them were expecting to see a winged young woman dressed in one of the weirdest outfits they had ever seen while manifesting water in her hands, and a teenage girl dressed in a pair of jeans and an orange hoodie, the latter's hands imbued in blood-red chi; both of them ready to attack.

"What the heck?" an unidentified thug asked, summing up quite nicely the average reaction of all his peers. Then, after calming down from the initial shock, he added; "Don't just stand there! Do something!"

And in the blink of an eye almost a dozen of the Dark Hand's thugs were pointing their guns at Irma and Jade. Their attack was stopped before it even started, however; since before any bullet could be fired Irma shot a torrent of water towards them, sending them all to the ground drenched and coughing in an attempt to.

"Yup, we totaled rocked them;" Jade joked, giving Irma a high-five. As they both expected, their victory was short-lived, as around twenty Shadowkhan manifested around them then, trapping them in a circle.

"Here comes the hard mode…" the Water Guardian complained, cracking her neck after comparing their current situation to a videogame.

"Demon Spider Descends Upon Prey!" both girls heard then, and they watched as Hak Foo landed behind his mindless soldiers after jumping from the top of the train. The redheaded and now red-faced thanks to the Mask man narrowed his eyes at them. "You!" he yelled as he pointed a finger towards them. "Only you two?"

"What, worried about not being strong enough to handle us all by yourself, big guy?" Irma taunted him.

Hak Foo frowned, but didn't bite the bait. _If these two are here, the others can't be far away…_ his mind coming to realization, he grinned in a borderline feral way; _which means Chan must be here!_ "Attack!" he ordered the Mantis Khan, which launched themselves towards the duo of girls, more of the Shadowkhan manifesting from the shadows as Hak Foo's desire for clashing his nemesis grew. Once the two girls were busy with the Shadowkhan, Irma taking to the air and blasting them with water attacks and Jade dodging their blows and counterattacking with her kung-fu and chi based blasts; Hak Foo ignored the duo and ran pass them, searching for Jackie.

"Chan!" the enforcer yelled. "Chan! Come out and fight! CHAAAAAAAAN!"

* * *

"I think that's your clue," Will told Jackie as she, Cornelia and Taranee prepared themselves to depart towards the train in Chang's search.

"I know," Jackie admitted, preparing himself and taking a couple of steps forward. "Be careful, Chang is not a man that should be underestimated. And Crane should be around here too, probably with Chang,"

"Don't worry," the redhead reassured him and then she departed alongside the Fire and Earth Guardians.

"Are you ready?" Jackie asked of Caleb, the meridianite rebel boy having already unsheathed his sword.

"I am," the green eyed teen answered. "I have your back covered, don't worry. If Hak Foo summons more Shadowkhan, I will deal with them."

"Thank you," Jackie said, looking back and into Hay Lin, Uncle and Tohru. "Uncle…"

"Aiyah!" the elder complained. "Nephew talks too much! Go and fight yelling-man, Uncle and apprentice will have spell ready to make potion take effect and take Mask out!"

"Don't worry, Jackie;" Hay Lin said with a smile that could warm even the coldest of hearts; "I'll protect them."

Directing one last glance to Tohru, Jackie advanced in order to meet Hak Foo, Caleb walking mere steps behind him. In the center of the tunnel, Jade and Irma continued their fight against the small horde of Mantis Khan; to which new soldiers were added almost automatically each minute that passed, product of all the anger towards Jackie that Hak Foo was feeling. Some of them, noticing Uncle and Tohru and feeling that they possessed a large skill on Chi Magic tried to attack them, only to meet their end thanks to Hay Lin's razor sharp wind attacks or the chi blasts from Tohru's blowfish. Will, Cornelia and Taranee were reaching the train and Uncle… Uncle just stood there, face serious, arms folded at his back. Something had been bothering him since setting feet in this place. Not the 'willies', which meant not strong Dark Chi Magic or anything like that… but there was a small trail of weird magic around.

And unknown to the elder wizard and the rest of them; a quartet of purple butterflies flew over the place, hidden in the shadows of the ceiling of the tunnel and sending images of the fight to their master.

* * *

 ** _Another section of the freemasons' tunnel…_**

While the Guardians, Caleb and the Chan Clan had started their fight against the Dark Hand, Nimue and his two companions had been just looking at them via the witch's butterflies and one of her spells. Circular tears in the air showed their clash with Shadowkhan and humans alike, one for each of the small groups the party had divided itself into. Mariko, clad in her new armor, watched with attention, while Liam's eyes shifted from the tears to the… unusual fourth member that had joined _their_ party.

There, arms folded over his green torso and flail wrapped around it, Sniffer at his side, and standing tall and proud was the Tracker, the undead watching the ensuing fight with little amusement in his crimson eyes. Liam didn't like the undead; his presence not only bothered him due to his demonic appearance but also because the inhabitant of the Fast World could _feel_ the killing instinct that was emanating from him. Why had Lady Nimue requested the help of this… being? Baiting him to come to their aid with the promise of fighting an Oni, Nimue had insisted that he would have to wait until she gave him permission to do so. And the Tracker had obeyed, Liam supposed due to possessing knowledge of the immense power gap that existed between him and the sorceress. Anyway, standing near to an undead, especially one as this one was; was unnerving, to say the least.

"And what can you tell me about this one?" Nimue asked, pointing to the human known as Hak Foo in one of the tears in the air. She wasn't referring to the enforcer though, but to the Oni whose power the Black Tiger wielded. Liam knew that Nimue wouldn't risk an open fight with this General, Tarakudo could be around and interfere in the battle, and if the Oni King decided to shift into his physical form and use his full power, then it was clear that numerous people could lost their lives against him. It was better if Nimue didn't give him enough reason to interfere.

 _And besides, the goal of this mission is not to kill the Oni general_ ; Liam thought as his eyes fell over the Sword of Thanatos, the blade lying unceremoniously over the ground; _but to see if this sword can serve Lady Nimue's goals_.

"That one is named Ikki;" Tracker told Nimue in his raspy, unnatural voice. To both Liam and Mariko, this creature had clearly lived as long as Nimue since the sorceress had described him as a 'being that had been once a man', one of the most prominent figures on Meridian's tales about Escanor's war against the Nine Demon Generals. However, it seemed that the form of immortality he possessed varied enormously from the witch's. His voice was proof enough of that. "He was called Dancing Trickster in the past. If he takes control of that human, he will be troublesome. During our war in Meridian, facing his minions in open field was suicide, not only due to their strength, but his cunning. He is as much of a good schemer as he is a brilliant tactician. Fortunately, he was also extremely reluctant to put all his effort in one task if it didn't interest him enough."

"Interesting," Nimue said, her eyes jumping from Jackie to Hak Foo, then to the Sword of the Berserker and then landing upon Caleb, from whom they didn't move. _Very interesting…_

"Teacher, are you sure we shouldn't intervene?" Mariko asked, and albeit her helmet masked any emotion that her voice could be giving away, her gaze was locked in the tear showing the clash between Jade and Irma against the Mantis Khan. Fortunately, the two girls seemed to be winning by a large margin, but the Shadowkhan didn't seem to have an end and, plus the Shapeshifter and Water Guardian had a weakness that none of the Mantis Khan had. Their stamina had a limit.

"Not yet," Nimue declared. "They are faring pretty well on their own. We will make our move when the situation better fits us."

"I was promised a hunt," Tracker complained, the crimson of his eyes intensifying for a few moments.

"And you shall have your hunt, Didier;" Nimue addressed him, a purplish aura surrounding her body momentarily. "When _I_ say that you can."

The undead grumbled something between his exposed teeth, and the quartet resumed their watch.

* * *

Just like the Guardians, the rebel leader and the Chan Clan were ignorant of the presence of Nimue and her companions, so was Nimue about a girl with purple dyed hair walking through the same enormous tunnel all of them were in, albeit in the opposite direction as the one the sorceress was in.

Nyx, however, didn't have the advantage of casting spells in order to spy the fight from a safe distance, so she had taken a peep of the fight earlier and now had retreated into the shadows of the tunnel, were neither the Dark Hand nor the Guardians and Chan Clan could see her. The fight had just begun, and as she looked at the section of the tunnel were said fight was being conducted, attacks of red and green flashing from time to time; she decided that it was better to wait until both sides had tired each other and she could move in without the risk of being stopped or running into an opponent that was too much for her.

 _I hate waiting_ , the girl thought as she sat in the ground, legs crossed. _It's just sooooooo boring!_

* * *

 ** _The battle_**

Scythe-like appendages swung in the air of the tunnel. Wings flapped strongly in order to move Irma Lair out of their reach, the Water Guardian shooting blast of her element to the Shadowkhan. Some of them dissolved into puddles of darkness when the strong blasts struck them, others, more intelligent ones they seemed; cut the blasts with their long, curved claws. Being in the air wasn't proving any advantage as the battle progressed, Irma finding out that these monsters could still jump as well as they had done during their encounter in that mountain.

Jade was faring considerably better, as her Chi Degradation ability gave her an edge against her foes. Still in her human form, she dodged the attacks of the Mantis Khan and delivered chi-powered strikes only when it was clear she wouldn't receive a counterattack either from the Shadowkhan she was attacking or any of his brethren. It was a strange sight to behold, to see Jade Chan not going all out from the beginning. But she had learnt her lesson, the scars in her back being a reminder of how her recklessness could turn against her. Hee Shapeshifter abilities in conjunction with her Ben-Shui powers made her a fearsome foe… but this fight was just starting; and he didn't want to burn out so soon. And besides, once you accustomed yourself to these Shadowkhan and memorized their way of moving, it was easy to fight them without losing too much energy.

The next attack, however, was one she wasn't expecting. A human fist came out of nowhere so suddenly that she had no time of dodging, instead blocking it as best as she could. Her eyes widened when she saw that the fist that had collided with her guard was attached to an extremely long arm that stretched itself for several meters until it ended in the body of the man it belonged to. Once the fist had been blocked, the arm shortened and retracted, going back to its normal length.

"You!" the thug, wielding the same scepter than before, yelled at her. "You messed our whole operation, you stupid kid!"

Not wasting any time in words, Jade dazed towards him, charging her fist in chi, jumping with the intention of delivering a punch that would leave this guy out cold in one hit. However, a second thug appeared in her way. It was Dimitri, still wearing the robe he had taken before. Moments before Jade's fist impacted on his chest, the robe transformed itself in a set of armor, and the girl's attack impacted upon the thick metal.

"Auch!" Jade complained, moving a couple of steps back and shaking her hand. _What the hell's that made of?_ she angrily thought.

A Shadowkhan rose at her back, prepared to deliver a blow to her head. Then a blast of highly pressured water came from above and pierced the creature from its triangular shaped head to its four legged bottom, destroying it. Irma landed where the Mantis Khan had stood second before, and looking over her shoulder she grinned at Jade. The Chinese girl answered with a smirk of her own as she shot a wave of red chi towards the nearest of the giant bugs, the blast impacting over the creature's chest and destroying it.

The two artifact-wielding thugs readied their weapons and prepared to attack, and new Shadowkhan joined the fight, taking the spots their fallen comrades had left empty. The girls didn't need to tell each other any word of encouragement, and back against back, they prepared to face their foes.

* * *

"Chan! Chan! CHAAAAAN!"

The cry of the Black Tiger was heard through the tunnel, even over the loud sounds that the fight was producing. The Tiger searched for his prey, his enemy, but the enemy was hiding. Where was he?! Hak Foo let out a roar, more befitting of a beast than of any man, shadows moved around him, stirred by the Mask-wearer's own passion, but not knowing if he desired their help or not.

"Chan! You coward!" Hak Foo yelled, shooting his fist up. "I know you are here! I can smell your fear! Face me!"

"Here I am, Hak Foo."

The phrase, said by the unmistakable voice, sounded like the most beautiful of melodies in Hak Foo's ears. He turned towards the direction he had heard the voice coming from, and there stood Jackie Chan, not looking any different than the most common of men. There was a boy (that looked quite familiar) with a sword in his hands at Chan's side. But the boy wasn't important! Chan was important! He was the only thing important here!

"Finally," Hak Foo said in tone evocating the one that a thirsty man in a desert must have employed when finding water. "I knew you weren't really in our side, and I must say, I'm glad that had turned out to be true! Now come, face me, and fight me! Let us see which one of us is the greatest warrior, who is truly the greatest master of martial arts!"

"Hak Foo," Jackie started to say, and then sighed. A frown made its way to the archeologist's face, and the he spoke. "We don't need to fight. I just want to remove the Mask in your face! Don't you understand how dangerous it is?!"

 _Here we go, trying to reason with the mad_ ; Caleb thought. Not that he couldn't see Jackie's point or what he was trying to do, but it was clear to the meridianite rebel leader that the Mask was affecting this man as it had affected Lothar. The young Captain of the Guard had been practically a different person even before General Uta had possessed him, and this man wasn't any different. The Mask needed to be removed by force.

"We don't need to fight?!" an enraged Hak Foo shouted. "Angry Demon Crow Takes Flight!" the enforcer yelled, jumping in the air towards Jackie, extending one leg. "Demon Elephant Stomps Mice!"

Jackie was ready for the incoming attack, jumping out of the way but maintaining a close distance with Hak Foo. The archeologist counterattacked with a pair of punches towards the Black Tiger's ribs… that didn't do anything to the red haired man. Grinning, Hak Foo took the initiative once again. "Demon Wolf Slaughters Lamb!" the enforcer yelled, starting a series of rapid punches towards Jackie, who could barely block them due to their sheer strength. "Demon Heron Pierces Crab Shell!" Hak Foo declared, seeing an opening in Jackie's guard and punching him directly in the guts. The attack sent him flying, and of course hurting when he hit the ground.

Before Hak Foo could continue his rampage, he noticed a shadow looking over him. He dodged just in time to evade a descending blow from Caleb's sword, the Mask-wearing enforcer readying his guard, even if against his will. This wasn't the worthy opponent!

"Wait…" the man said with half a demonic grin. "I remember you now. You are that boy from another world! The one who bought guns from Chang! What are you doing here?!"

"The right thing," Caleb declared. _At least this time_ , he thought as he rushed towards Hak Foo, sword in high. As the rebel leader delivered the attack, he found himself in pure shock when Hak Foo took the blade between his right hand's index and middle fingers.

"You are just wasting my time," Hak Foo said in a bored tone. "Demon disposes of weak human," he said, kicking Caleb in the gut and sending him away, throwing his sword at the teen's feet. "Demon General Calls for Soldiers!" he yelled, and two Shadowkhan appeared to his aid. Not as many as he had wished, but the rest were busy with the two girls. "Get rid of the worm," the Black Tiger ordered them, and the duo of monsters obeyed, engaging Caleb in a fight. "Now…" Hak Foo said, turning his attention towards Jackie once more, the archeologist in his feet again. Upon seeing this, the enforcer didn't waste two second before attacking again. "Demon Buffalo Tramples Field Mouse!" Hak Foo declared, charging towards Jackie. But before he could reach him, he saw how Jackie put one of his hands in one of his pockets, and Hak Foo found himself in the air, held by an invisible force. Looking ahead, he saw how Jackie had the Rooster Talisman now in his hand, the symbol of the animal glowing, testament of the power being active. With a swift movement, Jackie swung Hak Foo up telekinetically, the enforcer impacting over the ceiling and falling to the ground without grace or anything protecting him from the impact. He rose quite quickly, anyway.

"The Rooster Talisman…" Hak Foo whispered, and then laughed. "Hahahahaha! Magic, you are using magic!" the enforcer laughed again. "You finally understand how I felt! What is to be powerless! Only magic can help you to compare with me now that I have ascended to a level beyond the one of humans!"

"Hak Foo for the love of God, are you insane?!" Jackie, unable to hold his thoughts back anymore, yelled. "This has nothing to do with defeating you, or being at your level! This is just a fight!"

"JUST A FIGHT?!" the Black Tiger shrieked. Then, against all forecasts… Hak Foo calmed down and spoke slowly. "No, how could you understand that this is _not_ just a fight? You say it yourself every time, you are _an archeologist_. You don't see yourself as a warrior. You don't care about fighting, about prowess, about who is the mightiest. But I do! Even since I was a child, I have been training, pushing myself to my limit, in order to be at the top! I worked hard, I fought hard, and at the end, when my body had been molded into a weapon made out of flesh, when my bones had grew stronger than rock, when I had won the thrones of the strongest, I felt proud of myself! But soon, I ran out of worthy opponents. I turned towards the likes of Valmont, in the hopes that he could provide me with enemies that could prove a challenge. And then I met you. You were able to do what no man or woman had been able to do in years. Defeat me, strike me down! And for the briefest of moments, I did feel happiness over the prospect of facing a worthy foe once again. But then I understood… that you didn't care! You saw martial arts as a way of achieving your goals, be it peace of mind or some trinket lost to history! I would have felt proud to be defeated by you if you were a man that the world knew as such a prodigy! The man that had fought demons, wouldn't it have been great to be bested by such a foe? To aspire to conquer such an opponent? But you and your damned humility! How could I admit, that I had been bested in battle by a man that didn't even think of himself as a warrior? But time and time again, you conquered me, shamed me.ñ Even since then, I swore, I wouldn't let that shame to persist. I will defeat you! I will heal my pride! I will rise to the top of this world, or any other that exists! But I won't be able to do so as long as you remain undefeated. No Chan, this is not just a fight. This is my life, and I'm going to take it back, no matter what!"

"That's it, then?" Jackie said. Then he shook his head, and his next words sounded almost sad. "Wounded pride? Hak Foo… I do understand what you feel. But don't you understand that you are sacrificing your own humanity in order to restore your pride? Look at yourself, Hak Foo;" the archeologist said, pointing to the enforcer. "Look at what you have become. That power you boast about isn't yours, it belongs to the Oni General trapped inside the Mask you wear! Don't you get it? Your pride isn't worth throwing your own freedom and humanity away. You aren't a warrior; you are a slave of Chang and that Mask's power! Is that what you want to be remembered as? Is that what you want to be? Not a warrior, but a slave? A monster?"

Hak Foo looked at his hands. Clenching his fists, he felt the immense strength and endurance the Mask had bestowed upon him. As he raised his eyes in order to meet Jackie's, the answer to the other man's questions came easily. "If that gives me enough power to defeat you and to defeat any opponent that may appear in my way to the top in the future," the Black Tiger said solemnly. "Yes."

Jackie frowned, and readied his guard again. No more words were exchanged between the two foes at that moment, and they charged at each other. As they both prepared a punch, Jackie used the Rooster Talisman to increase his blow's strength with telekinesis and be able to equal Hak Foo's newfound and unnatural might. Both fists collided, matching the other's strength. For a few seconds, both men remained there, trying fruitlessly to surpass the other. Then they resumed a more fluid combat, attacks being blocked, counterattacked and blocked once again. Both were determined to win and no one was willing to yield. And in this clash of skilled fighters, who could emerge victorious?

* * *

"Aiyah!" Uncle yelled as he fired a green beam of chi towards an incoming Shadowkhan, the last one that was attacking his group… for the moment. The majority of their forces were focused into fighting Irma and Jade, alongside a pair of men wielding strange artifacts that seemed to be empowering them in one way or another. "Do these Shadowkhan have no end?! What is nephew dooooooing?!"

"C'mon, I'm sure Jackie's doing his best;" Hay Lin told the old man as she landed besides him and Tohru. She wasn't nearly as tired as both of them were. Advantages of being hooked up to a Heart.

"His best may not be enough," Uncle said, rubbing his neck. "Apprentice, go and aid nephew!"

"Sensei?" Tohru questioned, not sure of being able to handle the spell in order to remove the Mask y himself.

"Go, Uncle will be fine;" the elder reassured him. "And apprentice has much more knowledge of Japanese demons and spells than Uncle; he is much more suited to aid nephew than me."

"Alright," Tohru said, directing a glance to Hay Lin, the cheerful girl nodding with a smile.

"Don't worry big guy, I'll take care of him;" the Air Guardian promised, and the sumo finally left.

"Ah… to think that man and I once stood at opposite sides of the Talisman hunt;" Uncle said in almost a whisper, rubbing his neck a bit more.

"Are you alright?" Hay Lin asked.

"Uncle's starting to be too old for these things;" the elder said in a tired tone. "When apprentice becomes a fully fledged Chi Wizard, Uncle will leave everything concerning magic to him, and just enjoy his afternoons playing Mahjong!"

Hay Lin giggled at that. She then noticed how a small group of Shadowkhan was approaching them, ahead of them a tall and broad shouldered pale blond woman with short hair carrying a large white stick with bluish runes all over it. She provably was one of Chang's thugs, no doubt. She pointed the stick towards them, and the thing shot a torrent of ice that Hay Lin barely blocked by rising a wall of wind in front of it.

"You ruined our heist!" the woman complained. "I was going to retire after this one, you morons!"

 _It seems those afternoons will have to wait a bit_ , Uncle thought as he and Hay Lin prepared themselves to fight their new opponents.

* * *

 ** _Meanwhile…_**

Caleb rolled over the ground to the left of the Shadowkhan he was currently facing. As he ended rolling, he knelt over one of his knees and used it as a pivotal point in order to deliver a blow with his sword towards one of the legs of the Mantis Khan; cutting it off. Once the Shadowkhan found itself without four legs, it lost balance and started to fall. Caleb seized the opportunity, and rising from his kneeling position, sword held upwards, he impaled the Mantis Khan in its head, making it to dissolve into nothingness. That left only one, and that meant that Caleb could be the aggressive one this time around.

"Ha!" he shouted as he delivered blow after blow, the Mantis Khan forced to be on the defensive now, blocking the teen's slashes as best as it could with its scythe-like claws. No much more time passed before Caleb was able to get through the Mantis Khan's defenses and impale it with his blade. This one ended the same as the other, becoming nothing but shadows.

Caleb, however, panted a bit. Looking around him, he noted how the pair of Shadowkhan had forced him to distance himself from Jackie. Having caught his breath, he started to run towards the spot where Jackie and Hak Foo were continuing their fight. He could see how Tohru was also approaching the scene. Good, that was good. If the three of them teamed up, then they could remove the Mask from Hak Foo's face with ease.

"Sorry, but I have to stop you there kid," a voice came from the darkness, alongside a… purr?

Two clawed and furred hands graved Caleb by the shoulders and hoisted him in the air, throwing back. The rebel boy returned to his feet with a quick maneuver of his legs, readying his sword once again. In front of him a new and really strange adversary had appeared.

Caleb was being confronted by no other than Phillip Crane, except the handsome thief looked now quite different than before. His body seemed more muscular and bigger than before, standing a few inches taller; his suit having been ripped in some parts. However, what drawn more attention about him was that he was completely covered in light brownish fur, from head to toe. A furred tail swung at his back, extending itself from his rear. His hands' fingers ended each in a long and sharp nail as if a lion's claws they were and his teeth were sharp as fangs. Around each of his wrists was one of the Armbands of Shiva, but Caleb didn't know what those were.

"What are you?" Caleb asked. "A Shapeshifter working for the Dark Hand?" _No, this can't be a Shapeshifter_ , Caleb thought; _he is too small, and too humanoid_.

"Nah, I don't think I'm a Shapeshifter, whatever that is;" Crane said, licking his left claw and confirming Caleb's suppositions. "Just got myself scratched by a statue called Cat of Khartoum and now I'm a cat-man, I think. I'm not a man of unnecessary violence, but the Boss told me to take care as many of you as I can, and here you are. And hey, better start by the easier one."

Caleb wielded his sword with both hands, over his head. "And why do you believe it will be easy?"

"Simple," Crane said, tapping his forehead. "Being an animal gives you this… sixth sense, for the lack of better words. And do you know what my sixth sense's telling me, kid?" Crane showed his new fangs and extended his claws, falling into a feral, fighting position. "That you are the weakest among your pack."

With a growl, Crane jumped towards Caleb, claws extended. The boy blocked the attack with his blade, but Crane had tricked him, using only one of his claws to attack, using the other to slash Caleb across the chest, leaving five bleeding, small yet deep cuts over his torso. The thief didn't stop there, kicking Caleb in the head afterwards, sending him to the ground. Then he grabbed the boy's sword and threw it away.

"See?" Crane taunted him. "The weakest one."

"Weakest, maybe;" Caleb said, grabbing a handful of dust and dirt from the tunnel's floor. "But not an idiot!" he said, throwing the dirt to Crane's face.

The thief let a feline shriek out as he took his claws to his eyes. As Caleb had thought, being now part animal meant Crane's senses were sharper and more sensible, including sight and smell. Caleb jumped from the ground and punched the thief in the face, this time making him to tumble and go down. Then Caleb rushed towards the spot his sword had ended in, taking it back.

Confident, he didn't let himself be bothered by the burning pain that the wounds in his chest were producing, and pointed his blade towards Crane. "Who is the weakest now?" Caleb taunted as he had been taunted.

Crane's answer, however, was to activate the Armbands of Shiva, which's Hindu symbols glowed with a golden light. Afterwards two holes opened in his suit's sides and two extra arms grew below the ones of Crane, each with its own fur and claws. Folding his new appendages, Crane put on a cocky, fanged smirk. "Still you," he said.

 _I may have spoken too soon back there_ ; Caleb thought as he prepared his blade.

* * *

 ** _The martial artists_**

"Shredding Demon Lion Claws!"

Hak Foo's next attack, a series of quick blows with his fists, was blocked by Jackie as best as he could. Once the archeologist saw the enforcer preparing his next move, Jackie used his Talisman-granted telekinetic powers to unleash an invisible wave of power that pushed Hak Foo forward. Once that had been done, Jackie jumped and delivered a flying kick to the enforcer's head. It wasn't enough to toss him to the ground, and Jackie doubted that the attack had inflicted any real, lasting damage.

 _No time to waste_ , Jackie thought as he used his telekinesis to strengthen his punches once again, delivering a series of quick yet powerful blows to Hak Foo's stomach, not very different to the ones the enforcer had inflicted upon him moments ago. _If it wasn't for the Rooster Talisman I couldn't keep this up for long_ , Jackie thought as he jumped backwards in order to avoid a descending attack from Hak Foo. _And I'm starting to get tired_ , he kept thinking as he heard "Black Demon Tiger Corners Little Lamb!" and fell on the defensive. _I bet I have some bones broken_ …

"Demon Rhinoceros Swats Fly!" Hak Foo proclaimed as he charged onwards, jumping and delivering a curved punch in the air aimed at Jackie's head. The archeologist used the Rooster Talisman to lift some sort of telekinetic shield around his arms as he tried to protect himself with them, but it did very little to soften the blow, and of course it didn't block it.

 _Bad day, bad day…_ Jackie thought as he fell to the ground, hurting even more. He looked up, arms and body burning. However, he forced his body to stand up once again.

"Stand down!" Hak Foo yelled at him. "I have already defeated you! My will to win… is greater than yours!" The enforcer didn't seem tired in the least. But that was ridiculous! He should be feeling tiredness… unless…

Jackie had had an idea. Doing his best efforts in order to suppress a grin, he felt into his standard stance once again. "But that's the secret, Hak Foo. At the end of the day, no matter how much you have trained, no matter how much you have pushed yourself forward… and no matter how much you want to win, you are fighting only for yourself. I'm not. I'm not fighting you because I want to, but because I have to. And that means that no matter how many times you knock me down, I will keep getting up."

"Nonsense!" Hak Foo yelled, charging towards Jackie without even bothering to use any of his unnecessarily complicatedly named moves. He just charged forward, eyes blood-red with rage, and a borderline demonic roar escaping his mouth. And Jackie dodged, with a bit of help of telekinesis in order to maintain him floating in the air without effort.

"Coward!" Hak Foo yelled. "Demon Angry Crow…!"

Before Hak Foo ended his move's name, a beam of green chi impacted upon him, sending him down to the ground, groaning. It seemed that the Mask wasn't so good empowering its wearer's defenses against magic as it was against physical attacks.

"You know, that thing of yours about yelling what you are going to do is a great weakness;" Tohru Higashikata declared, blowfish still fuming from the heat of the chi beam he had just fired. The sumo's eyes fell over Jackie. "How are you?"

Jackie landed a few feet ahead of Tohru. "Tired… but not as much as he must be;" the archeologist said, pointing to the incorporating Hak Foo.

Tohru understood in an instant. "Just tell me when you think it's safe to use the spell. I will be ready."

 _Spell?_ Hak Foo thought.

 _They mean a spell used to remove Masks from their hosts_ , a voice whispered inside his head, too much like his for him to understand that it belonged to a whole different being.

 _I won't allow it!_ the Black Tiger thought angrily as he raised his arms and called for more Shadowkhan. Five of the Mantis Khan manifested themselves this time, their master pointing towards Tohru. "Mantises Slain Whale!"

With a roll of his eyes upon Hak Foo's wording, Tohru prepared himself to face the incoming Shadowkhan, while Hak Foo focused his complete attention on Jackie once again.

 _Think, think!_ Jackie thought. _How could Jade do this in the middle of chaos?!_ "What happened to being a great warrior, Hak Foo? You just let your minions to do your dirty work."

"Tohru is beneath me," the red haired enforcer proclaimed."My only goal here… is to see you kneeling at my feet! Demon Bull Impales Toreador!"

Jackie evaded Hak Foo with the help of the Rooster Talisman once again. And when Hak Foo attacked once more, he did the same. And he proceeded to do the same again, and again, and again…

When Hak Foo proceeded to attack yet once more, Jackie used a little amount of telekinesis… and he stopped the enforcer's attack without munch apparent effort. Jackie then kicked him in the chest. Then punched him across the head. And this time… this time both attacks hurt him considerably. He could feel the pain, the attacks injuring in his flesh.

 _What?!_ Hak Foo thought as he took a hand to his chest while kneeling down. _Ridiculous! I surpassed the limits of a human body when I donned this Mask!_

 _Technically, no_ ; the same voice as before said. _The reason you are now stronger and more durable than any human is because my chi has been mixing with yours and giving you some of my abilities. But your body? Oh, your body is still human, and can be hurt, bleed and of course, tire. The funny thing is that, due to my chi giving you so much more raw strenght, you just don't feel it_.

 _I can still tire?_ Hak Foo wondered. Of course! How could had he been such an idiot?! Chan had been playing him, waiting until he tired out!

 _Now you understand_ , the voice said. _You can't hope to win this duel of yours_.

 _What?! No! I will defeat him! I will…_

 _You haven't understood me; I'm not letting you to continue this hopeless fight. And besides, this is a moment as good as any other as to measure the enemy's strength. So be a good boy, and sleep for some time_.

As the conversation took place in Hak Foo's head in the spam of a few seconds; Jackie was charging towards the kneeled down enforcer, determined to knock him unconscious. Taking the Mask from his face would be easier if he could fight back, right? However, as Jackie was preparing the final blow, Hak Foo's arms moved fast, blocking the attack. Then, only index and middle finger extended, one of the red haired man's hands delivered a series of tinny hits across Jackie's left arm, the one with which he was holding the Rooster Talisman, which he was forced to drop. Jumping backwards, Jackie ended between the large hands of Tohru, the sumo having already dealt with the Shadowkhan.

"Jackie, what's wrong?" a concerned Tohru asked.

"I can't move my arm…" the archeologist complained, not being able to feel his limb. He was sure it wasn't broken, it was just… frozen.

"And you should be grateful it's just that," Hak Foo said, again on his feet and stretching himself His voice, or rather the voice coming from his body, wasn't Hak Foo's. It sounder way raspier, and less boisterous and angry than the enforcer's. "If this was my original body, your arm would be on the ground and you would be bleeding, possibly dying. But now I only pressed some pressure points, so you should regain your mobility in a few hours. I couldn't do even damage with these," Hak Foo looked at his hands. "I mean, look at these things!" he said, moving his fingers. "His Majesty and the others have these… _fingers_ too, but I never imagined they could feel so _weird_ …"

"You aren't Hak Foo," Jackie, arm still frozen, said. Behind him, he noted how one of Tohru's hands had stopped holding him and was now gripping his blowfish.

"Oh yes, it's very clever of you to decipher the truth once it has been revealed to you," the not-enforcer proclaimed. He then made a somehow exaggerated reverence. "General Ikki, the Dancing Trickster, from the Naindēmon shōgun; at your service."

"Oni…" Tohru whispered, his blowfish glowing green. A shiver ran through his spine, his own willies confirming his suspicions.

"Oh! You must be that onion-wielding Chi Wizard from the motherland! Lord Tarakudo spoke greatly about you!" Ikki said gleefully through Hak Foo's mouth. It was the strangest sight in the world for both Tohru and Jackie, to whom Hak Foo had directed nothing but despise and anger, to see the enforcer's body act so… happily and relaxed with them.

"What… what do you want?" Jackie asked. This was exactly the situation he had wanted to avoid. This Oni General was a completely new foe, with goals and methods he didn't know about.

"Would you believe me if I told you that I wanted to do a bit of exercise… Ah, I don't believe that one myself!" the Oni laughed almost comically.

 _The bedtime stories never spoke of this kind of Oni_ , Tohru thought. In his mother's stories, Oni were ogres that ate bad children, horrible and sadistic creatures in Japanese folklore. This one wasn't much different from an optimistic man, he noted.

"But now being serious," the Oni General said, mood shifting completely. "It's clear you are my enemy. You took Uta out; you have been taking the Masks of some of my friends and brethren… forgive me if I don't seize the perfect opportunity to make a preventive strike. And since I don't give a damn about this whole… Dark Hand business," _at least not for this operation in particular_ , "then… to me, my Shadowkhan!"

* * *

Hay Lin threw a current of air towards the woman of the ice shooting stick, but she blocked the attack by hitting the ground with it, creating a wall of ice that crumbled upon the attack, but that did its job. As for Uncle, he was busy fighting the Shadowkhan that had come with the woman… up until they stopped attacking, became shadows in the ground and left.

"What the?!" the woman asked, shocked to say the least, but her surprise was short lived since it earned her to be hoisted up in the air by Hay Lin's next attack, and then a green beam of magic from Uncle doing the rest of the job of disposing of her. She fell to the ground unconscious, stick falling from her hands and rolling away from her.

"Yay!" Hay Lin cheered, throwing her arms up. "We won!"

Uncle, meanwhile, had approached the trinket and taken it in his old wrinkled hands. "Uhm… very nice and considerably old…" he said, inspecting the trinket. "Strong magic that feels… Scandinavian? Norwegian?" Good antique, anyway. "Uncle could sell this."

"We're here to protect these things," Hay Lin told him. "Why do you think the Shadowkhan left?"

"Uhm…" Uncle muttered, rubbing his chin after leaving the stick down. "Uncle has a bad feeling. Quick! We must aid my nephew and apprentice!"

* * *

"Wait, wait, wait, wait!" one of the thugs facing Irma and Jade shouted, fear and worry growing as the Shadowkhan around him transformed into their shadow forms and left the scene. His arms still elongated thanks to the scepter he was holding, he found himself facing Irma all alone. He made his limbs to return to their usual size, and put on a silly smile, putting the scepter down. "Hehe… erm… I surrender?"

Irma's answer was to shot him down with a huge blast of water, the man almost choking on it. When the Water Guardian stopped, the guy was gasping for air with all the strength he could use, unable to keep fighting.

Jade's opponent, the aforementioned Dimitri; didn't seem to have decided to follow the same path as his companion. His magic robe still transformed into the thick set of armor than before, he kept exchanging blows with Jade.

 _This guy's trained_ , Jade thought. _Some of the things he does look like boxing_ … "Okay, time to end this."

"You kidding, brat?! Shadow bugs or not, I'm still untouchable!" the thug answered smugly from inside the armor.

"You sure?" Jade asked, both of them stopping from hitting each other for a moment. Even if she was infusing her attacks with her red chi, it still hurt to hit that armor. Then again, she wasn't using her full strength. With a roar, her black hair grew until it covered her whole body, the ball growing and growing, sprouting legs and taking a new shape until it had become the enormous wolf form of the girl. The wolf roared in the armored man's face, who even if protected by the thing he was wearing, was now basically shitting his pants.

"SWEET LORD JESUS!" the man yelled, terrified.

With another roar, Jade infused her whole body in her red chi, and hit the man with both claws, pinning him to the ground, where she bit into his neck and tossed him around like a ragdoll, making him to impact several time against the ground, leaving cracks on it. The armor protected him from dying, but as the Shapeshifter stopped her brutal attack over him and reverted to her human form, the man's armor transformed back into the robe, revealing how he was badly injured. Even if the armor could protect him from outside attacks, enough strength would make to be injured by the armor's own insides.

"Untouchable my ass," Jade said, putting a foot over his torso.

"M-Monster…" the injured man called her. Jade frowned upon that word, the scars in her back itching. Her amber eyes looked into the man's scared ones. From them, two thin lines of blood were falling, mixing with the thicker ones that were falling from his mouth. "You're a… ACKH!"

Jade had put her foot over his neck now, pressing his throat. "I'm a what?" she said bitterly. She kept pressing, making the man to gurgle. "Sorry, can't hear you."

"Can't… breathe…" the man complained weakly.

"Jade!" Irma called for her friend, forcing her to realize what she was doing and stop. The Water Guardian landed at her side. "Christ, we won this round, okay?"

"Okay, okay…" the Chinese girl said, retiring her foot from the man's throat, letting him breathe weak but normally. "Sorry, I just…"

"He called you a monster, I heard him;" Irma told the girl. She directed another glance at the two defeated goons, both girls walking away from them. "This guy's not Tharquin."

"I know," Jade told the brunette. "But when I heard him call me _that_ I just… Sorry, I got carried away."

"No problem, really;" Irma told her. "Just… remember these guys have done nothing to us. And Jackie insisted that they'll end in prison, so don't worry about that jerk. You're above that."

"Alright, alright;" Jade told Irma. She knew she was right, she had almost chocked that man when he had done nothing to him but remember her of the monster that had tortured her. "Let's go, those Shadowkhan weren't defeated, they just went to somewhere else."

Both girls reassumed their walk, and Jade dedicated one last glance at the half-conscious man.

 _You are nothing but a Beast_ ; Alistair Tharquin's voice resonated inside her head.

 _I'm not_ , Jade thought as Irma pointed ahead and both girls, one running and the other flying, hurried up.

* * *

While the other small groups finished their own fights, Jackie and Tohru had been completely surrounded by a small horde of Mantis Khan, composed of all the ones that were in the tunnel and by some more Ikki had summoned.

"This is almost ironic," the General possessing Hak Foo's body said, shaking the head of his temporal vessel. "Uta and his Ninja Khan face you in open field, when they could have dominated you all here in a dark tunnel; and in return I'm the one fighting you in a space where my soldiers can't move as freely as they should. But I was always of the kind to see the cup half-filled instead of half-empty. Attack!"

"Very bad day!" Jackie shouted as the small army of Mantis Khan rushed toward them, scythe-like limbs rose with ill intent.

Tohru fired some chi beams at the Shadowkhan, but he couldn't possibly handle all of them by himself. Jackie wanted to fight some of the creatures by himself, but since his left arm was now useless and his body was starting to realize the full extent of the wounds Hak Foo had inflicted upon him, he couldn't.

Fortunately, a fraction of the Shadowkhan army was then hit by a blast combining water and wind, Irma and Hay Lin appearing flying over Tohru and Jackie's head, forcing some of the Shadowkhan to focus on them. Blasts of green and red chi were shot at the nearest Mantis Khan, making them to disintegrate into shreds darkness. In the blink of an eye, Jade, Irma and Hay Lin had taken the helm of the fight, with Uncle walking to Jackie and Tohru's side.

"Nephew, apprentice!" the old man said, dope slapping both of them in their foreheads.

"Ouch!" both of them complained.

"Aiyah! Didn't Uncle tell you that dealing with yelling-man was a priority?!" the elder told them, waving his finger in their faces. "One more thing! Why isn't nephew there fighting him! One more thing! Why hasn't apprentice already used Mask-removing spell?! One more thing! Where is rebel boy?!"

"The Oni inside the Mask has taken control of Hak Foo, sensei;" Tohru informed him as fast as he could, seeing how the girls were outnumbered against the Shadowkhan. "And he did something to Jackie's arm; I don't know exactly where Caleb is…"

"He did?" Uncle asked, examining his nephew's arm. Then, extending index and middle fingers, he delivered a series of little blows over the limb, returning it to life. "Aiyah! He just used pressuring technique with you! Don't be a baby and go help niece and Guardians!"

"Yes Uncle," Jackie said dutifully, flexing his arm and rushing to fight alongside his niece.

"Apprentice!" Uncle yelled. "Spell! Now!"

"Yes sensei;" Tohru obeyed, preparing to chant.

And while the duo of wizards prepared themselves, Jackie and the girls fought the small horde of Shadowkhan.

"Hak Foo got possessed like that Lothar guy?" Jade asked of Jackie, both of them fighting back to back in order to not let the Mantis Khan to take advantage of their blind spots.

"Why isn't he doing anything?!" Irma shouted from above, she and Hay Lin blasting Shadowkhan after Shadowkhan.

"I'm a lazy man!" Ikki answered, the General possessing Hak Foo's body standing behind a wall of five Shadowkhan that had yet to enter the fight.

 _Why do the demons from Tohru's country act so casual?_ Jade thought, a little freaked out by how calm the Oni seemed to behave in comparison to how Shendu and his siblings had acted.

However, albeit Ikki considered himself to be a lazy man and surely acted as such most of the time; right now he was just catching breath. Hak Foo's body was tired from his fight with Jackie, and Ikki would need as much energy as he could when facing these ones. And besides, a tactician's place is not at the frontlines, but at the core or back of the army. He would wait, and strike when the enemy was at their weakest.

* * *

 ** _Nimue's group_**

"Now?" Tracker asked of the sorceress, impatience dripping from his raspy voice.

Nimue surveyed the ensuing fight. Only two tears in the air remained now, one for the group fighting the Shadowkhan, the other for Caleb fighting Crane. The sorceress tilted her head to one side, eyes narrowed. Where were the other three Guardians? In the train yes, with that greedy man named Chang. But those three were fresh, the two that were there fighting a demon and his minions were not, neither was the Ben-Shui reincarnation, or any of the wizards, much less the human warrior.

"Now," Nimue told tracker. "But if you know what is good for you, Didier; refrain from touching anyone but the Oni."

"Don't talk as if you were better than me, Destroyer of the Asmodei;" Tracker said, citing one of Nimue's titles. The witch looked at him with a slightly puzzled look. Was that supposed to insult her? She didn't ask what _that_ was supposed to mean, instead looking in silence how Tracker left her and her two companions. The undead walked down the tunnel, into the battle's direction.

 _Well, that being solved_ ; Nimue thought, her attention now completely focused on Caleb. _Now…_ she thought as some of her butterflies surrounded the Sword of Thanatos, teleporting it away; _let's see if this thing can be useful or not_.

* * *

 ** _The rebel and the cat burglar_**

Caleb, son of Julian, wasn't an arrogant leader. Even since the moment he had taken a sword in his hands, wielded it against his enemies and emerged victorious, he hadn't indulged into being, as many older rebels called him, 'a prodigy with the blade'. His sin wasn't pride, at least not individually. Those words hadn't gone to his head, and thus he was able to recognize when an opponent was superior to him. This… was one of those moments.

Fighting the cat-man was proving borderline useless, as the two extra limbs had given Crane a serious advantage over Caleb. As their fight progressed since the handsome thief's use of the Armbands of Shiva, the rebel leader found himself not only driven more and more away from the fight, but also unable to block all his attacks with a mere blade, feline claws nailing and tearing his flesh open, bleeding cuts all over his arms and chest. Crane had now disarmed him again, this time with even more ease than before; and kicked Caleb in the gut, the boy going down, cursing the fact that he hadn't grabbed a shield before coming here from Meridian.

"Meow…" Crane said as a joke, holding Caleb's blade with his four hands. Then he started to exert pressure over it, until the blade started to crack and finally broke in two. "Ha!" Crane laughed, tossing the two halves of the rebel's blade aside. "Not only more agile, but also stronger! If I've known I could become a literal cat burglar with that Cat of Khartoum, I'd use it when Chan and I received it!"

 _I have to do something!_ Caleb thought, knowing that Crane would shift his attention to him again any moment now. The cat-man did as expected, quickly moving towards him and kicking the boy in the gut. Another pair of slashes came to adorn the boy's arms, and then Crane held him up with his four arms. He threw him as strong as he could, Caleb impacting over the ground and rolling over it.

"And stay away from this," Crane said. "This is the adults' business, kid. I don't want to kill you, but if you get in the bad side of the Boss right now, he will."

 _Damn it!_ Caleb cursed in his mind. He gazed at Crane, who was leaving him alone. He wasn't even bothering to look back at him! Then again, why should he? He was clearly the superior warrior in this fight, his agility and strength outclassed Caleb's. Caleb cursed again, hitting the ground with his fist. He couldn't lose here! The Guardians needed this victory! Cornelia needed this victory! Even the Rebellion needed this victory!

 _If only I was…_

 _Stronger? Do you wish to be stronger?_

Caleb froze. From where exactly had that come from?

 _Who…?_ The rebel leader thought, crawling even deeper into the tunnel. _Who said that?_

 _Do you wish to be stronger?_ The same feminine voice from before asked again, and Caleb was drawn towards it as if an invisible force pulled from him. He was greeted shortly after by a small group of purple butterflies, which was flying in circles over a sword in the ground. It was a… _strange_ sword. A bastard sword, to be precise, blade as black as charcoal, hilt of the same color and the pommel shaped like the head of a roaring beast. The sword lied there without anyone to attend to it, and it looked old, _very_ old; and yet Caleb could see how the blade was sharp even at this distance. The sight of the blade made strange feelings to awaken in him. For some reason he couldn't describe with words… he wanted it.

 _Do you wish to be strong?_ The voice asked again. _Take that blade. Take it, and you will be strong enough to protect your friends_.

Caleb knew that this was likely some kind of trick. But he didn't have time to lose. So without thinking it twice, the meridianite boy crawled to the sword and gripped its hilt with his hand. He felt as if something, like a hundred of small spikes, nailed in his hand when he had taken the bastard sword. And in the blink of an eye he felt all his pain and tiredness from the fight with Crane to disappear. The butterflies disappeared too, and Caleb incorporated with renovated strength. His wounds were still bleeding, but he didn't feel them burning.

 _Fight_ , he thought, albeit he didn't know if the through was really his. The voice… didn't sound like his. It wasn't feminine either, so it wasn't the one from the butterflies. But he didn't care. Not now. Unbeknown to him, black marks resembling curved lines started to ascend from the hilt of the sword all the way to the arm with which he was holding the blade. _Fight, I must fight!_

 _Fight!_

* * *

Crane was approaching the section of the tunnel where the train was. Walking calmly, he was actually enjoying his newfound strength and agility. He felt as if he had lost ten years by transforming himself!

"You!" the handsome and now feline thief heard behind him. He repressed the urge to let out a long sigh.

"You kids really don't understand when to give up…" Crane started to say, but then he felt _something_. A chill that made his newfound 'animal sixth sense' to go crazy with _dread_ ran all the way up his spine. _Predator! Predator!_

Turning around, eyes open wide with fear freezing his muscles; Crane looked at the same boy than before, now carrying a new sword with him. How? Where had he found it? Those would have been the question a normal person would have thought upon looking at Caleb, but not Crane. His mind was now thinking only one thing. Run, run, run, run…

 _But I can't run. The Boss' orders…_ Crane's human mind thought.

 _Screw the boss!_ The animal part of it retorted. _That thing will kill me!_

"You… what the hell is that thing?!" Crane yelled, pointing a claw to the blade.

"A sword," Caleb said, gripping the hilt with both hands and rising the blade up. Marks as the ones adorning his other arm started to extend over this one. "That I'm going to impale you with!"

 _Dodge!_ Crane's mind shouted, and the cat-man jumped out of the blade's way. He tried to counterattack with one of his new arms, but Caleb then held his new blade with just one hand, using the other to catch Crane's own arm by the wrist.

"Let go of me!" Crane demanded, just for Caleb to tighten the grip as strong as he could.

There was a loud 'crack!' sound, and next thing Crane knew was that he was in the ground, screaming in pain, his wrist's bones completely shattered around the part where Caleb had exerted pressure. Crane removed the Armbands of Shiva from his original arms, and the new ones disappeared shortly after, stopping the pain. Caeb, however, didn't let him more room to breathe. The rebel loomed over the cat-man and kicked him in no different manner as he had kicked him before. Crane groaned. The blow had hurt immensely. At that moment, he made his decision.

 _Sorry Boss, but you are on your own from now on_ , Crane declared in his mind, and using the full extent of his new feline agility, he ran down the tunnel, away from Caleb, the fight and most important; that sword.

And speaking of the Sword of Thanatos, Caleb was now holding it in front of his eyes, staring at the blade. _What's wrong with this sword?_ he thought. It had made him stronger, faster! Swinging it felt… it felt as nothing he had felt before!

But those thoughts were for another moment. The girls and the others needed him now. So deciding that Crane wouldn't cause any more problems, Caleb ran in the opposite direction the handsome thief had done so, rushing to aid his comrades.

* * *

 ** _The train_**

While the numerous fights had been progressing, Will, Cornelia and Taranee had entered into the train in hopes of finding and stopping Chang. Of course, they had found some resistance…

"OUCH!" a thug cried out as Will's punch collided with his face, breaking his nose and leaving him unconscious in the train's floor.

But not anything they couldn't handle.

Once in the floor, Cornelia proceeded to bind them with some vines that had sprout from the ground inside and that had entered into the train by the same hole Hak Foo's Shadowkhan had opened. Taranee was inspecting the wagon while her companions did that.

"Those were the last ones, right?" Will asked, to which Cornelia gave an affirmative nod. "Great, now we only need…"

"Will!" she heard Taranee's voice from the entrance to the next wagon. "Come quickly, I've found people!"

The Keeper of the Heart and the Earth Guardian flew towards Taranee's position, just to find her kneeled at the side of the pair of freemasons that were on the train when Chang had started his attack. Both of them were badly injured, and how they had remained conscious was something that escaped the minds of the three Guardians.

"Hey, hey!" Cornelia called, shaking Carla a bit while Will checked on Robert. Both of them had just been left there, none of the members of the Dark Hand paying attention to them. "Are you alright?"

"Wha-?" Carla muttered, sing the little strength she had left to try and put Cornelia away from her.

"Don't worry, okay?" the blonde told her. "We're the good guys. We're here to help you."

"Help… no, the artifacts…" Carla muttered.

"Artifacts later, you two first;" Will declared, putting Robert's arm around her shoulders, Cornelia doing the same with Carla. "Taranee, cover us."

Nodding, the Fire Guardian manifested two fireballs into her hands and covered the backs of the other two as they took the pair of freemasons out of the train. Flying, Will noted how Robert was whispering something.

"Have to stop… the Asian man… the Gauntlet…"

"What?" the redheaded Guardian inquired.

"Will?" she heard Taranee at her back. "I don't think that's good news!"

Looking back Will saw how the insides of the train were now being illuminated by an eerie golden light. Before she could ask to any of the freemasons if that light was a byproduct of any of the artifacts they were keeping there, there was a loud 'BOOM!', and the three Guardians were hit by the expansive wave of an explosion that destroyed the last wagon of the train. They maneuvered well enough to drop the freemasons they were carrying without injuring them more than they already were, but that meant that they were the one getting the worst of the impact against the ground

"Cough, cough!" Cornelia coughed as dust expanded from the explosion. She waved her hand in front of her face. "I'm getting tired of this damn job!" she protested.

"Cornelia, calm down," Will told her. "The freemasons…"

"They're alright Will;" Taranee said, standing next to the pair, who were both lying in the ground, still badly injured and gasping for air. "I think…"

"No, the Gauntlet…" Robert kept saying.

"What Gauntlet?" Will asked of the man.

"Gauntlet of Indra… an ancient weapon of war," Carla was the one to explain.

"Oh, I think that defining this thing just as a mere weapon is not doing justice to what it can do," a male voice came from behind the dust the explosion had risen. Then, from the nearest cloud something was thrown towards the Guardians, the three of them lining themselves in front of the freemasons. The thing landed at the feet of Cornelia, who narrowed her eyes upon recognizing what it was. It was the green prosthetic hand made out of jade that Bartholomew Chang usually worn.

"You can keep that one;" Bartholomew Chang declared as he emerged from the cloud of smoke. Where his usual prosthetic hand was before, now was an enormous gauntlet made of silver-colored metal, extending itself over the crime lord's arm up until the elbow. It was massive in comparison with an adult human's standard arm, the palm of the hand being bigger than an adult's head; but Chang seemed to be able to move it easily. The most nightmarish part came when he moved it and, one by one, he started to move his fingers, each phalanx moving with a mechanical and unnatural sound. He then clutched his new fist, and golden lighting ran from it to the end of the gauntlet. "I like the new one better."

"You are Bartholomew Chang?" Taranee asked. She had been expecting someone with a far more fearsome look, not a Taiwanese man in his fifties that could pass for someone's grandfather.

"I am," Chang answered. "And you are those… Guardians, right? The ones who fight creatures from other worlds."

 _Great, so he knows about Meridian_ , Will thought. _Why wouldn't he? Caleb, Aldarn and the Mage bought guns from this guy! Fortunately, he doesn't have more proof than the photographs, so nobody will believe him even if we capture him_.

"And…" Chang smiled wickedly as his eyes fell over Cornelia. "Miss Hale, long time no see," he said alongside a chuckle. "I knew Chan couldn't keep you all away from this for long, but to actually involve you? You know who I am, don't you? And what your father's role in my organization is." Upon no receiving any answer from Cornelia, he sighed. "It's a shame. I promised your father that you wouldn't be harmed, but now I suppose I will have to kill you here, and get rid of Harold later. Petty, he was an excellent worker."

Cornelia's eyes shot daggers at Chang. Without uttering a single word, she extended her arms and a large chunk of the ground broke and separated from it, the blonde throwing it at Chang as if it was a large rock.

Chang raised the Gauntlet of Indra and from its palm a golden lightning bolt was shot, impacting on the rock and practically demolishing it into dust. Chang clenched his new fist again, and laughed a bit. "This thing was supposedly a part of a full set of armor in the past, but now only this part remains. Have you ever heard of Indra? In Vedic Hinduism, he is some kind of deity. This gauntlet was made in order to emulate his power over the storms, or maybe the one that once wore the whole armor was Indra, and due to magic he was revered as a god."

"So that's it?" Will inquired, making signs to Cornelia to stop attacking, and to put the freemasons in a safe place, which the blonde did immediately by raising walls of rock around them. "You did all this in order to be a god?"

Chang smirked. "Gods are… overrated. Business, on the other hand, is _not_. But the world is changing, a new era approaches; an era in which magic is starting to raise its head again after years of slumbering. And the best way to survive a change of an era is to adapt yourself to it. I just did it literally," the Taiwanese old man said, holding up his new, artificial hand. "Being able to move fingers one by one again… is a welcomed plus. But just think about what I could do with all these artifacts. I could control the entirety of Earth's criminal underworld, and if there is another world out there, then said world's too!"

"And you think we're going to let you?" the redhead asked. In response, Taranee and Cornelia at her sides prepared their elements, the blonde making vines to sprout from the ground and the black girl creating more fireballs in her palms. Will fell on one of the Kung-Fu stances Jackie had taught her and that she had been practicing during the last month with Jade. Without any more banter, the trio of Guardians flew towards Chang, who waited for them with a smirk on his lips and golden electricity coursing through the Gauntlet of Indra.

* * *

 ** _In another section of the tunnel…_**

There is a moment in almost every long battle in which each combatant just stops giving a damn about tactics. It's not because they are stupid or because they don't care about the success of the mission or about carrying out the planned strategy. It's because it becomes impossible to keep your mind focused on those when you are overwhelmed by the enemy and fighting for your own life and the ones of your companions.

For Irma Lair and Hay Lin, that moment was now. Both of them were blasting Shadowkhan after Shadowkhan, water and wind slamming the creatures and either making them slow their pace or to be destroyed. Both of them had stopping caring about the possessed Hak Foo, and focus all their attention in the army made of oversized shadow bugs.

In the ground, the Chan Clan faced the army of General Ikki, Jade, Tohru and Uncle faring quite better than Jackie, who didn't have any type of chi-based attack and had lost the Rooster Talisman on top of being already tired from his fight against Hak Foo, thus had to restore to stay in the defense, letting his niece, uncle and friend to be the ones mainly attacking.

And meanwhile, General Ikki continued to stand there, using Hak Foo's body as a puppet, behind his also unmoving quintet of Shadowkhan; not moving an inch. He was just invoking Mantis Khan after Mantis Khan.

"Jackieeeeee!" Uncle yelled far behind him while he blasted a nearby Shadowkhan in the face. "Uncle and apprentice cannot use spell if they keep fighting Shadowkhan!"

 _And what I'm supposed to do?_ Jackie thought as he evaded another attack. The vial with the potion was still in his pocket. Frankly, it was a miracle that it hadn't broken. Not that it had any relevance if it broke or not, since Tohru and Uncle had more of those vials. His eyes focused on Ikki momentarily. The General needed to go down... but how?

"Uncle Jackie!" he heard Jade's voice. A Mantis Khan was rising from his own shadow, taking advantage of him getting distracted with his own thoughts. As the scythe-like limbs descended upon him, Jackie heard something. An inhuman shriek coming from the Shadowkhan, which halted suddenly. Only then a black blade emerged from its chest, and as it receded, the creature disintegrated with another shout of... pain? Could Shadowkhan feel pain?

When the bug-shaped creature disappeared, Jackie was able to spot Caleb standing there, with the Sword of the Berserker in hand. Of course, no one knew what the bastard sword really was.

"I told you I have your back," the meridianite rebel leader told him. His clothes had stains of blood all over them, and between the openings in them, Jackie could see opened and still fresh wounds over his chest, bleeding slightly. However, the teen didn't seem to be bothered by them. "Watch out!"

Caleb practically shoved Jackie aside when a new Mantis Khan charged at them ready to kill. However, and much to Jackie's shock, instead of blocking or parrying the incoming blow with his new blade, Caleb literally took one of the scythe-like limbs of the creature with one of his hands, slashing its torso with a quick and swift movement of his sword. Even if the wound was superficial, this Shadowkhan let out a shriek no different from the one of the other Mantis Khan and also disappeared. The sight of seeing a Shadowkhan, mindless and basically lifeless puppets screaming… was a bit unnerving. But Jackie didn't thought of it anymore, as suddenly they both found themselves fighting again.

Noticing Caleb joining the fight and getting her uncle out of harm's way, Jade inhaled deeply after delivering a chi charged ascendant kick to one of the Shadowkhan and adopted her wolf form again. Using all ounce of strength and Chi Magic in her body, she covered all her fur in blood-red chi and charged directly towards the quintet of Shadowkhan protecting Ikki, the five of them launching towards her. They met a quick end after Jade unleashed a chi wave and forced them to dissolve, charging straight up towards Ikki.

The General however, maintained his calm and, before the Shapeshifter's claws could reach him, he entered his own shadow and evaded the attack. He re-appeared far away from Jade and the others, another quintet of Shadowkhan protecting him, forming another line.

"Do you believe I'm a fool?" Ikki asked. "Your determination is admirable, but I'm not of the likes to fall for a spearheaded attack."

Growling, Jade dispelled the chi coat around her body and narrowed her eyes at her foe. Before she could attack, she noticed a strange stench in the air, a stench that was becoming stronger and stronger with every second. A smell reminiscent of… rotting flesh? She smirked smugly.

"And for an attack from behind?" Jade asked in a humored tone.

Before Ikki had time to think about it, a chain imbued in greenish energy wrapped around the upper half of his body. The chain pulled from him and hoisted him in the air, slamming him against the quintet of Mantis Khan and then letting him free to collide with one of the walls of the massive tunnel. A whistle was hear in the dark, and then Sniffer appeared, fangs dripping spit and jumping towards the nearest Shadowkhan's neck, biting it. After several seconds, Tracker appeared from the same part of the tunnel his hound had appeared; twirling his flail in the air.

 _I should have thought about this…_ Ikki complained in his mind, getting up and rubbing his borrowed neck. _Curses, this body is still too weak to engage in a direct fight with a fresh opponent without risking a total lost!_ "I knew you would show up sooner or later," the Oni General addressed Tracker, the green-skinned living corpse walking towards him. "But I must say… you look horrible, Didier!" the Oni General shouted. "The centuries haven't been kind to you!"

"Says the man trapped inside a mask and using another's body," the undead said with his raspy and inhuman voice.

"Ha! Good one, not as good as Hoel's wits, but good enough;" Ikki flattered him. "But how did you survive? I saw Ikazuki's blade cutting your neck, your head falling to the ground and blood coloring the grass, joining the one of your companions. How?!" _This man… Escanor was a Knight of the Round Table in Earth before coming to Meridian… Could this one be related to Nimue?_ Noticing that Tracker didn't seem too disposed to answer his question, Ikki sighed. "So this is it, isn't it? We are going to fight, for old times' sake? You don't even have your old sword…"

Tracker answered his old foe by swinging his flail, aiming for the mace at the end of the chain to smash the General's (borrowed) head. Using Hak Foo's body, Ikki dodged and closed distances with Tracker in order to deliver a series of hits all over the undead's torso with the intention of paralyzing him. However, the hits didn't have any effect, even if Ikki was sure to have hit all the needed pressure points.

Letting out a deep and sinister laughter, Tracker pushed Ikki away, extending his arms and opening a hole in his torso, From the hole and also from under Tracker's robes came a swarm of strange and nightmarish bats, that quickly attacked Ikki.

"What the hell did you do to your body, Didier?!" Ikki, half shocked and half scared, asked as he delivered blow after blow to the bats, but instead of flling the little animals literally poofed into greenish dust. The Oni deduced that they probably shared some kind of connection with the undead.

Noticing their injured master and how he was fighting the new enemy the few Shadowkhan that were still fighting became shadows in the ground and came to the aid of their General. They were good enough to drive Sniffer and the bats' attention. This gave them all a moment to breathe, Irma and Hay Lin descending to ground level and Jade shifting back to human form.

"The undead?" Caleb asked, narrowing his eyes. Why… why had that other monster called him Didier? Didier was one of the legendary heroes of Meridian! One of the Four Knights! Could Tracker be…? But no, it couldn't be true!

"I sniffed him, and hey, he did help us with the last Oni we faced;" Jade stated casually.

"Isn't he supposed to be one of Phobos' lackeys?" a tired Irma asked, panting a bit after fighting for so long. How much had they been fighting without rest? An hour, two perhaps?

 _And he has haunted so many of us, so many rebels, as if they were animals!_ Caleb thought with anger.

"And how's he gotten here?" Jade asked next.

"Aiyah! We will take care of undead creature later!" Uncle shouted, then coughed a couple of times due to tiredness. "Apprentice, the spell."

Jackie took the vial with the potion from his pocket, while the two chi wizards chanted. He directed one glance at the possessed Hak Foo fighting the undead from Meridian. Would that humanoid monster come every time they fought an Oni? He winced a bit seeing how they both seemed to be going for the kill, just their skills stopping one from killing the other. But as seconds passed, it was clear that Tracker held the advantage. "Tohru," Jackie told the sumo, "quickly, please."

With a nod, both the elder and sumo sped their incantation. " _Nukeru He Men Ja'aku. Nukeru He Men Ja'aku_ …"

* * *

 _As much as I hate to admit it, this is a fight I cannot win_ ; Ikki thought as he barely blocked one of Tracker's attacks. He couldn't summon Shadowkhan properly under this tension, and the few he mastered to invoke were quickly attacked by the swarm of bats and the hound. _His Majesty…_ he kept thinking as he glanced to the group composed of humans and the two Guardians. He had heard the explosion before, and since he had access to Hak Foo's memories, Ikki knew what the other three were probably dealing with. He calculated a bunch of scenarios in his head, but many of them ended with him and his host dead. _I apologize, but the best course of action here, is to yield_.

He called for his Shadowkhan, but instead of invoking one he used it to enter his own shadow and travel to where Jackie and the others were. There, he emerged, finding how the wizards had completed the spell, Jackie's hands colored into a bright green glow.

"Whoa!" Irma shouted, and soon Ikki found himself with all the humans pointing their weapons at him, be it a blade, fists, Chi Magic or an element. Their surprise only grew when the Oni raised Hak Foo's hands in a signal of defeat.

"I surrender," Ikki announced as casually as he had done before.

"You… what?" a surprised Jackie Chan asked in disbelief.

"I surrender," Ikki repeated. "It's the best course of action. I'm tired, and you want to get my Mask out of this human's face. But I recognize compassion when I see it. You don't wish this man unnecessary harm, or death. Him?" he said, pointing to the approaching Tracker and Sniffer. "Oh, he would murder this man if it meant killing me afterwards. And I believe you wish to stop losing time here in order to go help the three Guardians that aren't here."

Jade's eyes narrowed at the Oni. _This guy's just trying to pit us against Tracker, isn't he?_ she thought. However, she didn't voice her thoughts when Jackie put his hands over the Oni Mask and pulled from it, finally getting the red trinket out of Hak Foo's face. Speaking of Hak Foo, the enforcer fell to the ground, unconscious and badly injured. Ironically, Tohru was the one to catch him in his arms.

"What do we do now?" Hay Lin asked. Tiredness was palpable in her words, and so was fear. Tracker was quickly approaching them and he seemed angry.

"We need to put Hak Foo to safety and this Mask…" Jackie said just for Uncle to grab Ikki's face-shaped prison.

"Uncle and apprentice will take care of them," Uncle said, Tohru putting the unconscious Hak Foo over his shoulders. "You must go and aid Keeper of the Heart and the other Guardians."

"What about the zombie?" Irma asked, gesturing towards Tracker while Tohru and Uncle distanced themselves from the group.

"I will take care of him," Caleb answered. "You all go and help Cornelia."

"What?!" Jackie protested. "Caleb, you are badly injured!"

"I said I can take care of him alone!" Caleb answered, swinging the Sword of the Berserker. For a second, Jackie could have sworn that there were black marks extending themselves over the teen's torso. "I just need to distract him enough until you deal with that Chang, right? Then you can come and help me."

"Alright," Jackie answered. "But if you see yourself in problems, just leave."

"I can protect myself," Caleb said as his friends left the scene. Then he readied his guard as Tracker's flail slammed into the ground.

"You… stole my prey;" Tracker said, the red slits he had as eyes glowing with anger. Yet, his voice didn't betray him, for the Tracker wasn't known for shouts or even rising his raspy voice. _But I was promised a hunt, and I will have one_. "It seems… I will have to conform myself with you, leader of the Rebellion."

"Why did he call you Didier?" Caleb asked, pointing the Sword of Thanatos towards Tracker. "Why?! Answer me!"

 _The blade…_ Tracker thought. _Nimue, you manipulative woman, have you sought to test the efficacy of this cursed thing with me? It will consume the boy before it consumes me._ "Didier… died centuries ago, almost one millennium ago. A man named Ikazuki cut his head, and left his corpse in the field. I rose where Didier fell, and I buried him in the hunt. A foolish boy like you wouldn't understand. And besides, what does it matter, who we, who stand against you in war, were in other lives? Nothing, nothing at all. What matters… is the hunt. The stronger predator consumes the weaker, for in the end a human can only care for his own self."

With a loud battle cry, Caleb rushed towards Tracker, swinging his new blade, which collided with the undead's rising flail. "I don't understand! If you are really Didier… if you are the comrade of the Knight Grendal, the Knight Brandis and the Knight Hoel whom I admire, whose tales I grew with! Why are you fighting for Phobos?! Why are you fighting for a man that doesn't deserve the throne of Escanor?!"

"You fool," Tracker answered, swinging his flail and sending Caleb flying away. Sniffer growled, but his master hadn't given him any order of attacking, so he waited. "There is no such thing as an Escanor worthy of that throne," the undead proclaimed, directing another blow towards Caleb, which the boy blocked with difficulty. Even if this blade was far stronger that the one Crane had broken before, it was still just a blade, and not able to protect him as good as a shield could. Fighting Tracker was no cakewalk either, since the flail permitted him to attack and maintain a distance at the same time.

 _Let it go_ , Caleb heard inside his head.

 _What?_ The boy thought as he dodged the undead's next attack.

 _You have hatred, you have wrath, but you don't use them_ ; the voice said again. _Wield me with them, only then you will be able to strike this man down._

 _But…_

 _Let it go_ , the voice said. _Only your wrath can win this fight and save your friends,_ the voice continued _. Let it go, let it go_ …

The black marks over Caleb's body kept expanding, ultimately covering his entire face. Without knowing exactly how, he felt stronger than ever, as if now he could take in an entire army on his own. A roar fueled by pure and unadulterated rage left his mouth, and he felt as if his mind became clouded with raw emotion. He ran towards the undead, sword in high.

 _Fight him! Tear him apart! Kill him!_

 _Kill them all!_

"Ah…" Tracker said as his next swing failed to strike Caleb due to how much his speed had suddenly increased. "See? In the end, the line between man and beast is nothing but an illusion."

* * *

 ** _Near the train_**

Flames, rocks and huge vines crossed the air trying to strike Bartholomew Chang, the Taiwanese crime lord defending himself as best as he could with the golden lightning that the Gauntlet of Indra provided him with. Will approached the man from time to time with a quick maneuver, delivering a punch or a kick, but Chang either dodged or blocked most of them. He may have looked old, but the man knew how to fight properly, and what his lack of youth had taken from him, his experienced had added. It was in that chaos that Irma, Hay Lin, Jade and Jackie joined them, the Water and Air Guardians joining the Earth and Fire ones, firing their elements at Chang. Enraged, Chang gathered energy in the gauntlet and unleashed a wave of golden electricity that collided with the four elements, generating a small explosion that threw both parties back, and forced them to come to a momentary halt while the dust settled.

"What took you so long?" Will asked as the five Guardians landed.

"Hak Foo got possessed, Tracker appeared again, Caleb's now fighting him…" Jade summed the last events quickly. "What about you?"

"Chang's got his hands, erm… hand in something called Gauntlet of Indra;" Will explained. "It makes him quite dangerous and powerful, actually. Wait, Tracker's here?"

"And you left Caleb fighting him alone?!" Cornelia angrily inquired.

"He can take care of himself," Jackie said. "We must take care of Chang so we can go help him…"

"Jackie Chan!" the voice of Bartholomew Chang came from behind the dust, the Taiwanese crime lord emerging from it moments later, lightning bolts shooting from the Gauntlet of Indra without control. "I knew you were up to something… where is Hak Foo?!"

"We took him down," Jade said, transforming into her wolf form once again. "As we're gonna do with you!"

Ignoring the girl's declaration, Chang clenched his fist. "Do you think I'm like Valmont? That you can just take me down so easily? No! Never again a Chan will get his or her nose in the Dark Hand's business! I'm going to exterminate you!" he said, golden lightning surrounding his entire fist as if he was the embodiment of a maelstrom.

"I think the power's gotten to this guy's head…" Irma declared jokingly, trying to ease the tension.

BUMP!

Before the battle could restart, two figures fell into the scene. One was the hound Sniffer, the other his master, the Tracker. Both of them had bruises all over them, but fortunately for them, no cuts.

"What in the name of…?" Chang started to ask, but his answer came with a new figure entering the scene.

It was Caleb, wielding the Sword of the Berserker. But he looked way different than before. His whole body was covered in the black marks from before, his wounds had stopped bleeding. And while one of his eyes had remained green, the other was now red, with the sclera black. The marks seemed to be trying to do to the other eye the same they had done to the other one.

"Caleb?" Cornelia asked weakly and with worry. What had happened to him? And what the hell was that sword he was carrying?

The teen's green eye looked at them with anguish, the white sclera already becoming black. "R-Run…" he was able to say before the green of his eye changed to red too.

"Caleb!" Cornelia yelled, while the girls and Jackie contemplated in horror how the marks in his body glowed in a fiery red, expanding and making his skin as black as the blade was. Rising the blade in high, Caleb opened his mouth, teeth now sharp as fangs.

 _Kill them!_ The voice inside his head said. _KILL THEM ALL!_

"RIARGH!" the rebel leader shrieked. And where man had stood, only a brutal, unholy and unleashed beast remained.

A Berserker…

* * *

 _Why are we demons called demons? Because in a one on one battle, a regular human cannot hope to defeat one of us, and as such demons are demons and humans are humans. Then, how do you refer to a human that can kill demons? As a saint, a hero, an angel, a god? Perhaps, that human has just become a stronger demon_.  Tso Lan, Demon Sorcerer of the Moon

* * *

 **A/N: And done! Done finally! This my early Christmas present to all of you! I won't be updating until February or so, so I wish you liked it! Hahahaha! I bet you all thought that Chang was going to be the final boss of this arc. Well, look! Chang may have a strong magic weapon, but Tracker's here too, and Caleb has gone crazy and is armed with a weapon that can kill with one cut! And yes I'm leaving you all in a cliffhanger, sorry. Having said that, hope you all enjoyed and please, leave a review. Also, this fic broke the 100 review barrier, so… hurray! Thank to all of you. I wasn't hopping this thing would become so popular when I started it, but damn I've become involved with it. Having said all of this… some of the artifacts used in this chapter are based on Xiaolin Showdown's Shen Gong Gu, and Caleb's Berserker Form (yes, I'm calling it that) is based upon the Cursed Seal from Naruto, or at least drew inspiration from it. Next chapter we dwell a bit into Caleb's past and the battle progresses! See you all next time, and Happy Holidays to all of you!**

 **Bye, bye!**


	18. Berserker Fury

**Disclaimer: I own neither the WITCH cartoon-show nor Jackie Chan Adventures; they are the property of their respective creators, writers, and producers.**

 **Author Notes: Hello again, dear readers. My thanks to everyone that enjoyed last chapter and that left a review, and to those that take their time to check and/or edit the TvTropes page for this fanfic. I hope you enjoy this one, it's mainly the conclusion to the purely action driven part of this mini-arc.**

* * *

Guardians, Wizards and Kung-Fu Fighters

Episode Eighteen

Berserker Fury

* * *

 ** _World of Meridian; Infinite City; four years ago_**

"Was it your first one?"

An eleven year old boy, with green eyes and hair of a dark brown adorning his head raised his gaze from the sword he was cleaning and polishing. For a teenager, four years is a long time, and as such many would have had problems recognizing Caleb, son of Julian; at the tender age of eleven, in the ninth year of Prince Phobos' rule over Meridian. He was smaller than his current self, his muscles less defined, his hair shorter and spikier, and his features still holding quite strongly to the softness of the ones of a child. And yet, even if for many he was still a child, this eleven year old boy had just exited his first battle and his eyes had started now to harden. But after all, the boy had just killed for the first time.

It hadn't been a true battle, but more of a quick and violent skirmish. The group sent to the village and mostly composed of Lurdens had been small, and Lurdens weren't known to fare well when not outnumbering their opponents. And yet one had been able to make him trip over a rock and fall to the ground, where the Lurden had tried to deliver a descending blow over Caleb with a dirtied and yet sharp axe. Caleb had raised his sword in that moment, the Lurden practically impaling himself with the boy's blade. The body had fallen to his side, lump and lifeless, wound still pouring fresh and hot blood even after death. They had, of course, won the battle; rescuing the worshippers of the Light of Meridian that were hiding in that village after the Usurper had burned their abbeys down and bringing them to the Infinite City with them. There had even been a girl, with greenish hair and that was no more than a year older than Caleb himself, amongst them. The girl, Sephiria (if Caleb remembered her name correctly) had personally approached him in order to thank him for the Rebellion's actions.

Once back in their base, Caleb had distanced himself from the other rebels and found a spot in one of the Infinite City's endless halls in order to clean his blade. Lurden blood was usually thicker and of a darker red than the ones of humans and Galhots for some reason, and thus harder to clean than normal one. However, Caleb hadn't found solitude as easily as he had thought, since he had been met by another rebel. Looking up from the spot he had sat at in order to clean his sword, Caleb's yes met Rhouglar's, the muscled and dark skinned Galhot looking at him with interest in his eyes.

"Was it your first one, or not?" the Mad Dog of the Rebellion, as he was starting to be known, asked. "That Lurden," he clarified, "was it your first kill?"

"What if it was?" Caleb asked.

Rhouglar shrugged. "The first one's always the hardest, or so they say;" Rhouglar smiled a smile which's meaning Caleb couldn't really discern. "That wasn't my case. But I know the best thing to do after a good fight and a good kill is getting a drink. So, why don't you...?"

"Rhouglar!"

The shout draw the attention of both rebels, and was even able to make Rhouglar jump a bit out of surprise. Caleb looking ahead and Rhouglar over his shoulder, they saw a man in his thirties approaching them. He was garbed in a purely utilitarian attire, with pants of dark leather, black boots and old whitish shirt; a brownish coat over all of it. While he carried no sword here in the Infinite City he had a little dagger always with him, sheathed and in his belt. His height was the one of an average man, body of a trained and well-fed individual. Hair of the same color as his son's, he had a well trimmed beard and a pair of eyes of a lighter tone than the brown of his hair. Julian, son of Robert. The leader and also one of the core founders of the Rebellion. And of course, father of Caleb. An excellent tactician and better leader both in and out of the battlefield; Julian had been, alongside the 'Mage' and a handful of good people, one of the reasons the Rebellion had made it so far. They had been the ones to organize them under one banner, building their power and gathering more allies. Before them, the rebels (if they could even be called that) had been nothing but disorganized groups of people; hungry commoners from the outer ring armed with pitchforks and hammers, striking against any guard patrolling or against anything resembling a Lurden, a guard or a noble. And albeit the Rebellion still wasn't an army that could take the Prince's forces head on, they had improved a lot in using guerrilla tactics and thus had achieved numerous victories. Many linked the existence of this man, of Julian, to those victories and as such they idolized him. His son was no different, for little Caleb thought that he would be lucky if he grew up to be half the man than Julian was.

"Get back to your men;" Julian ordered in a somewhat harsh tone, a cold anger in his eyes. "I wish to speak to my son."

The Galhot shrugged again, a sign that he didn't give much importance to the tone Julian had used with him or to the fact that he had spoken to Caleb. "If you insist, sir."

The Mad Dog of the Rebellion walked away from father and son, Julian following him with the same angry glare until he disappeared out of sight. Only then the anger vanished and was replaced by a much more complex look. Tiredness, worry, exasperation... but also calmness. Yes, always so calm and collected… it wouldn't be wrong to say that Julian's best defining trait was coldness.

 _The things I tolerate for the cause_ , Julian thought. He didn't like Rhouglar and his followers; his thieves, killers, and worse... but the Rebellion needed them. The same could be said about Tharquin and his band of fanatics. And he hated how they had the tendency to approach the youngest when they were shaken and weak, convincing them to believe in what they believed. And yet, those were as necessary as the men and women that were as noble as the heroes of old. War was war, and this one needed to be won. And for that the rebels needed all who were willing to help, no matter the reason. ' _It needs to be done_ ,' that's what the 'Mage' used to tell Julian, and to be fair, he couldn't agree more with her in that regard. No matter if they were the best, good, bad or the worst; everyone that was willing to help and could help _would_ help. When the war had been won, he would sort the rotten or the poisoned apples from the edible ones.

With a long sigh, Julian let his back to fall against the same wall his son was leaning against, and left his body to slide down until he was sitting next to the boy. Noticing this, Caleb left his sword at his side. It was clear his father wanted to talk. Before that, however, both remained in silence for several minutes. Julian extended his hand, and slowly, Caleb took his sword again and handed it to his father. The adult man inspected it carefully. The blade was still dirty with Lurden blood.

"You should try mixing water with a bit of juice from a g'hardim fruit," Julian explained. "It won't clean it right away, but it will help. Or you could pick another blade. You know you don't have to keep a particular one."

"I like this one," the boy told his father. "It's the one I used to... kill the enemy for the first time."

"Do you feel prideful of your victory? Of your killing?" Julian inquired.

Caleb stiffened; something Julian took notice of. He could see how different his son was from him just by looking at how they were seating. While Julian had his legs extended and his back fully leaning against the wall in order to be comfortable, Caleb sat with his legs crossed, back leaning against the wall just the necessary to maintain balance. He was ready to act, even in a place like this, which was safe. Had that trait, that instinct of always being alert, been inherited from his mother?

"Yes," the boy answered. "Of course I do, those were the enemy. Those were the same bastards that killed Bessie and Rolph..."

 _Ah yes, those ones_ ; Julian thought. He was unable to remember their faces, but yes who they were thanks to how many times his son had described them. They had been young too, but not as young as Caleb or his friend Aldarn were. A girl and a boy of fourteen each, both half-breeds, both firm believers in the Rebellion's cause. They had been friends with his son, and perhaps he had thought of them as older siblings. They hadn't been fortunate enough to survive, killed by some guards protecting one of the caravans they had assaulted; but their sacrifices would be remembered. Just as the sacrifices of all the men, women and young that had to be left behind would be remembered and mourned... in due time.

"Not exactly the same, son;" Julian told him.

He looked at Caleb nod, but the adult was sure the boy didn't understand the true meaning of his words. But could he be blamed? All of them went to battle; the young, the adult and sometimes even the elderly. Those who weren't lucky, strong or skilled enough were always at risk of being killed, and the ones who survived and came back... those wanted revenge. But how do you enact revenge into someone whose face you ignore? Nameless guards, nameless Lurdens... those were the ones killing rebels, the ones striking friends and family down. If a group of rebels drew more attention than needed or was unfortunate enough near the Capital or into the middle ring of the realm, they could run into Raythor, Frost or even the likes of Tracker and Cedric. But normally? Normally you couldn't put a name or a face to the ones that had hurt you. So who did you hate? You hated them all. No matter if human, half-breed, Galhot, Lurden or Shapeshifter; you hated all of them from the bottom of your soul. And of course, you hated Prince Phobos, whose existence made your suffering possible, whose existence had put a Veil around Meridian.

The part of Julian fully dedicated to leading the rebels and fighting the Usurper acknowledged the advantages of hatred. If not by shared ideals or goals, at least a shared hatred of Prince Phobos' regime motivated all of the individuals that composed the Rebellion to fight like one, as a unified and proper army. But what about the part of Julian that was a father? Hatred was useful... but the man knew too well how addictive it was, how poisonous to the mind. What would become of his son if hatred grew roots in him? What would happen, if when the war was won, that feeling was still there? Who would be hated then? With those questions in mind, Julian decided it was time to leave the leader apart and let the father speak.

"Caleb... I know how you feel, believe me;" Julian said sincerely. "I lost friends too, good friends, during the first years of the tyranny. I too pursued revenge during the first battles against the Prince's forces, and I know your first kill can be hard to swallow..."

Caleb shook his head fast. "No... No, it wasn't, father;" Caleb answered. "I had my sword, I lifted it... and the monster was dead. And I don't feel... anything. He was just a Lurden. Just another servant of the tyrant. Should I be... feeling something?"

Julian didn't know what to say. No one had taught him what to say in these situations. He had had very good teachers in what meant tactics or fighting, but no one had taught him how to be a father, and frankly he had had very little time to practice. Caleb had been a two year old baby when the war had started. His son had known nothing but war, he had grown on it, with the speeches and the proclamations that Meridian would one day shine like in the past. A past that Caleb had not known... and that ironically was his ideal future. No, his son couldn't be blamed.

"No, my son;" Julian told him. "You did well."

They didn't exchange more words then. In the coming years they would fight side by side, and father and son would grow more and more attached. However, just as Julian had feared, the seeds of hatred and wrath had already been planted in his son's soul.

And there they would patiently wait, until their opportunity came, to grow and blossom.

* * *

 ** _Now; Heatherfield, the freemasons' tunnel_**

"RIARGH!"

The scream, or more accurately the roar, that escaped the Berserker's mouth was deafening. It was loud enough that it made the eardrums or all near enough to hear it to hurt a bit, and it seemed that its strength shook the foundations of the tunnel.

Jade Chan wasn't a girl that got frightened with ease. Especially after becoming a Shapeshifter thanks to whatever Daolon Wong had injected her with. However, in that moment, there in that tunnel under Heatherfield, and even when she had already transformed, she felt fear. There, standing with the Guardians and her uncle Jackie at her side, with Bartholomew Chang wielding the Gauntlet of Indra and Tracker and his bloodhound Sniffer standing against them, she felt fear. However, none of them were the source of that emotion. The source was no other than Caleb, who looked now like a demon. Skin and sclera as black as charcoal, eyes blood-red, teeth sharp as daggers… it made the part of Jade that more resembled the mind of a wolf, that had animal instincts, to tell her that whatever that _thing_ was now, it wasn't Caleb.

"What the hell is that?!" everyone heard the voice of Bartholomew Chang, asking the same question everyone was thinking there.

"Caleb?" Cornelia asked again.

Before any of them could say or ask something else, the Berserker jumped ahead in the air, decided to strike whoever was in his path with his blade. The Guardians flew backwards, Jade jumped to the side and Jackie dodged as fast as he could. The blade ended, fortunately, striking the ground. There, the sheer force of the blow cracked the stone and left a huge and deep cut in it that extended in a line and got out of sight once it entered the dark of the sections of the tunnel far away.

"What's going on?!" Will asked of her companions once they had regrouped. "What happened to him?!"

"I don't know!" Jade said, her animal instincts going crazy as she saw how Caleb (or whatever he had transformed into and was now controlling his body) charged towards them again. "He just found that sword, and now he's like that!"

"You let him to take a sword?!" Taranee inquired then. The black girl was quick to think, and before Caleb could reach them she shot fire to the ground, creating a wall of flames. "What if it was one of the artifacts…?! Careful!"

As it turned out, the Berserker didn't seem to give a damn about the wall of fire in front of him. Passing through it without seemingly receiving damage, the Berserker proceeded to try to attack the party again… just for a small pillar of stone to rose from the ground and hit him hard, sending him flying. Thank god this tunnel was so astonishingly huge; else they would have a real problem fighting such a large number of opponents. However, as soon as he landed, the Berserker got to his feet again, unscathed, and still roaring like a monster.

Cornelia, who had been the one to perpetrate the attack, lowered her hand. "How do we snap him out of it? By taking the sword?"

"I don't know," Jackie explained to the Fire Guardian; "I lost track of him while fighting Hak Foo, and then he already had it. Perhaps it is one of the artifacts… but he wasn't even near the train."

"He must have lost his other sword and pick this one," Will stated. _Damn it, the whole plan could go to hell because of this…_

"So… do we fight him?" Hay Lin inquired. "We take the sword and then he gets better?" It was clear from the Air Guardian's tone of voice that she was feeling a bit reluctant about fighting a boy who she considered a friend.

"Maybe if we hit him hard enough…" Irma suggested.

"Seriously?" Cornelia asked with a crooked eyebrow.

"Hey, it was you who just hit him with a big rock," the Water Guardian retorted. _Talk about tough love, geez_.

"Irma's got a point, leaving him unconscious is our best option right now," Will declared. "Cornelia, Irma; take on Caleb. Jackie and Jade, you're with me, we'll take care of Tracker. Taranee and Hay Lin, Chang's for you. Move!"

* * *

 _This was not according to the plan_ , Bartholomew Chang, still standing nearby the trashed train; thought as he saw Caleb incorporate after being hit by Cornelia's attack. To the Taiwanese crime lord's horror, the Berserker shifted his attention to him, walking slowly, as if he was a panther stalking a prey, the edge of his sword scratching the ground and producing an uncomfortable sound. _Ah, shit!_

Golden bolts started to be produced by the Gauntlet of Indra, and once Chang had gathered enough energy, he extended his new, mechanical palm forward and fired an enormous golden lightning towards the incoming Berserker.

"RIARGH!" the possessed Caleb roared once again, holding the hilt of the blade with both hands and thrusting his sword forwards and charging head on towards Chang's incoming attack. The blade of the Sword of Thanatos collided with the golden lightning bolt, and for a moment Chang saw how both his attack and the teen's struggled with one another. Then his eyes widened as he saw how Caleb gave a step forward. And another. And another. And yet another one.

 _He… he is piercing through the lightning bolt?!_ Chang thought in shock. He used the Gauntlet to summon more golden lightning, but no matter how much more intensity he put in the attack, he was just able to delay Caleb a little more. "This is ridiculous! This is impossible! No one should be able to…! Oh, shit!"

Chang dispelled the lightning bolt in the moment he saw the black edge of the Sword of the Berserker to emerge from his attack, Caleb already having closed the distance between the two. The Taiwanese man rolled over the ground to avoid the attack, not being able to fully stand up again, instead rising the Gauntlet of Indra while on his knees in order to block the incoming blow of Caleb's sword. For a second, Bartholomew Chang had believed that the sword would cut his new hand in two and then do the same with his body, but the Gauntlet stopped the blade with a sonorous 'CLANG!' sound.

However, the strength of Chang couldn't match the one of Caleb, not in the state the rebel leader was now. In a stroke of luck, a chain imbued in green energy wrapped itself around Caleb's torso, pulling from him and dragging him away from Chang.

Struggling, the Berserker swung his blade in the air, being pulled away by Tracker. "I was promised a hunt," the undead declared in his usual raspy voice; "Berserker or not you are my prey; mine and mine alone, rebel leader." Of course, Caleb answered with nothing but a roar. He tried striking the chain with hi blade, to no effect.

He doesn't even seem able to swing the blade properly, a contrast with how he was even when slightly influenced by it; Tracker thought as he forced Caleb to move towards him, something that was taking a lot of effort from the undead's part. He is way stronger than a normal human like that, but his mind is too chaotic to use it properly…

Distracted as he was with Caleb, Tracker missed the incoming blast of blood red chi that hit him and sent him to the ground, forcing the undead to lose strength on the grip of his flail, and permitting Caleb to get free of the chain. And while Tracker quickly found himself surrounded by Will, Jade and Jackie, the Berserker found himself in the starting point of an attack when he was hit by a blast of water that forced him to shift his attention from Tracker to the Guardians of Earth and Water, who descended and positioned themselves in front of him.

"I know you're still in there, Caleb;" Cornelia declared. "But if I have to hurt you in order to get you back to being you, I'll do it!"

"RIARGH!" the Berserker roared again.

"Riaghaghagah!" Irma said, swinging her arms in the air. "See? I can do that too!"

Without any more roaring, the Berserker charged towards the duo of Guardians, black blade in high. The two girls flew up in order to avoid the attack, but the Berserker jumped and rotated over himself in order to deliver an ascendant and rotary blow towards them. They evaded it by centimeters. After gravity took its toll on the possessed Caleb, Cornelia pointed her hands to the ground and concentrated, forcing a series of strong and long vines to emerge from it, wrapping themselves around Caleb and immobilizing him. However, he was able to strike one of the vines with the Sword of Thanatos, and then Cornelia looked with fear how the vines became black and then rotten, the Berserker freeing himself from them with the same ease a gorilla gets through weak branches.

"What happened?" Irma asked.

"I don't know," the blonde told the brunette. "But that sword seems like bad news. It's better if we stay…"

BANG!

The shot got everyone by surprise, both the duo of girls and the Berserker. Where did that come from? The answer to that question was simple. It had come from a man, one of Chang's goons that must have regained consciousness. He was trembling, holding a pistol with his shaking hands. How he had been able to shoot in the first place was a miracle. He was looking at the Berserker with eyes wide opened and full of fear. Why? Why had he committed such a stupid act? Why had he shot? From where had he taken the gun?! Why had he been such an idiot?! Foolishness inspired by terror, probably. His most basics instincts as a human being telling him, yelling at him, that the monster needed to be stopped. However, his shot had missed. And when the Berserker charged towards him, he stood his ground and shot more bullets, which also missed. And while Cornelia lifted entire chunks from the ground and threw them towards the Berserker, the possessed rebel leader crossed distances and slashed the goon across his torso. The rocks impacted with him shortly afterwards, forcing him to separate from the fallen man. Irma, meanwhile, flew fast to the side of the injured thug, kneeling at his side. He had a wound all over the torso, visible due to the fact that the blade had torn apart the clothing he was wearing. The wound was bleeding… and the blood was becoming black. And from the wound, lines of black were expanding through the man's body. They were his veins, his blood vessels, which now had started to carry black blood. The man started to shake shortly after, spasm traversing his whole body. He screamed, and then grabbed Irma's arm. The Water Guardian couldn't do anything but watch, terrified.

"H-Help me… it hurts, f-fire… in my body… I feel I'm d-dissolving…" the man was able to say in a stutter; "I… I… don't… don't wanna…" the black lines were now practically covering his entire body, the spasms intensifying. "Don't wanna die…"

"I…" Irma started to say, but no more words escaped her throat. She had wanted to tell something, something comforting or that had been able to make the pain easier to bear, but the words became ash in her mouth. Not that it could have made any difference. The man was gone, dead. Such was the power of the Sword of Thanatos.

Irma had seen someone getting killed before. During their attack on Torus Filney, she had witnessed the rebels killing numerous enemy soldiers, those soldiers killing rebels, and then Caleb beheading Rhouglar. But now, now the person who had died had been in front of her, touching her, begging her for help. Something that Irma Lair hadn't been able to provide. So the Water Guardian breathed in and out. Then she repeated the action. When Cornelia reached her, she was practically hyperventilating.

"Is he…" the blonde asked, looking at how Irma stood up, leaving the _corpse_ in the ground.

In any other circumstance, Irma Lair would have cracked a joke. But now wasn't the time for jokes. Who had this man been? One of Chang's thugs, probably one of the ones she or Jade had previously knocked out. And now he was gone, for good. Was this what Will had felt in Torus Filney? The brunette felt horrible, and she hadn't been the one to kill the man. So Irma didn't crack a joke. Instead, she clenched his fists and stared at the possessed Caleb.

"Yeah, he's… he's dead;" Irma stated. Her teeth joined her fists in the clenching. "You hear me, you idiot! He's dead! You killed him!" she yelled at the possessed Caleb, who was standing meters away from them. "Come here, you!" Irma declared, surrounding her fists in water. "If leaving you out cold it's what we need to do to bring you to your senses, then I'm happy to oblige!"

Then something neither the Earth Guardian nor the Water Guardian were expecting happened. Instead of charging, the Berserker held his sword high with both hands, adopting a position not much different from Caleb's or any other warrior's. A gargle-like sound escaped his throat, and his lips formed a cruel smile. The gargle sound became louder and louder, until it became something that both girls recognized.

"Ehehehehehehehe…"

A laugh. The Berserker was laughing. Laughing at them, with cruelty, with joy at what had just happened. Irma and Cornelia contemplated this stunned. This went beyond of merely being overwhelmed by the power of some magic artifact, actions lead by sheer instinct and rage. And both Guardians were able to see it.

"You…" Cornelia muttered. "You're not Caleb. You're not Caleb at all!"

"Ab… Aba…" the Berserker started to say. New body meant new vocal cords, and considering that this body had just one mouth in contrast with his previous one, it was hard to articulate. Anyway, it was better than having to deal with Thanatos. "Abad… on. Abaddon! I! Abaddon!"

"Kill you! Kill you all!"

* * *

 _Kill them! Kill them all! Tear them apart, rip them limb by limb!_

 _No! I won't do it! Those are Cornelia and Irma! They are my friends!_

 _Foolish! Foolish little, pathetic boy! You let me in! Your wrath makes me strong; your hatred makes me fast! They give me as much strength over you as they give you!_

"Yes, wrath and hatred can be allies," a new, third voice said aloud. "But you have to work it, in order to make them work for you. Else they'll consume you, lad. Same they consumed me."

It was a bizarre landscape. It was both enormous, and small, and seemed to be made out of parts of different locations. The eerie halls of the Infinite City that had seen him grow, the bloodstained grass of the first battlefield he had set his feet upon, the dirty and dark oubliette in the castle where Raythor had thrown him into, the peaceful basement of the Silver Dragon, the burning streets of Torus Filney… all of them seemed to have been fused at random to form this place. And then there were the occupants.

In the part of the landscape composed by Torus Filney and the oubliette stood a hulking creature of obsidian scales, two long muscled and three fingered arms and two muscled legs that ended in the hooves of a goat instead of feet. Its torso was human-like (or at least reminiscent of the one of a hominid) but its head was shaped like the one of a lion, with a lone, twisted horn growing out of the sides of its head. It towered over Caleb by several meters, and it was clearly inhuman.

In the part composed solely by the bloodstained battlefield, stood a hulking man clad in armor. Or it could have been just the armor, standing on its own, Caleb wasn't so sure. The thing had been given a hound motif, the helmet shaped like the one of the aforementioned animals. The one who had talked just now had been this man, this knight.

And Caleb? Well, Caleb stood in the part composed of the merge of the Infinite City and the Silver Dragon. He was there, without weapons, without knowing exactly what had happened. He had this strange sword in hand, that made him feel strong enough to take on Phobos alone, and then he was fighting Tracker, and then… No, not Tracker, Didier. But how could Tracker be Didier? It was preposterous! It was…!

"Maddening? Angering?" the knight asked again. "Yet not very important right now; don't you agree?"

"I…" Caleb began. Only then the realization that he wasn't exactly in a normal place seemed to hit him. "Where am I? What is this place? Who are you?"

"This is your soul, or some would say mindscape or even dreamscape, albeit you are not dreaming now, just in trance;" the knight in black armor answered. "Every person has one of these, one place that acts as reflection of his or her soul, and that can be accessed by training, or with a strong enough shock. But I never was a man of knowledge. Brother Hypnos was that one. And I'm Thanatos of Meridian, a Berserker; just like you."

"A Berserker?" Caleb inquired, his brain still trying to process all the information.

"A Berserker. A warrior driven by wrath in battle, just as I;" Thanatos answered. "But that was in other times, when I was living, now I'm nothing but an amalgam of memories of the real Thanatos, who's nothing but dust under a rock." The knight removed one of his armor's gauntlets, and let it fall to the ground. Instead of flesh or even a hand made out of only bone, only sand fell. "See? I'm dust too. Consumed by wrath, fury ate my flesh, my blood, my bones and humanity. What a fool I was, he was, my living self. The Sword was made out of Abaddon's remains, just like the Horn was made out of Mammon's; of course they carry the sins of the creature they were forged from. Thus, this monster," he said, pointing to the creature; "is nothing but a memory too."

 _Not memory! I am Abaddon! Abaddon the Wrathful! Abaddon the Destroyer! One of the Seven Princes of Sheol! We are eternal!_

"Eternal?" Thanatos wondered. "Even in the time _I_ was not a memory, _you_ were already. A meatless corpse which bones were melted and mixed with iron in order to forge my blade! And I thought that Khor was the one known as 'The Destroyer'."

 _Khor was my child! Of course we shared titles!_

"Enough!" Caleb yelled. "I don't know who you are, and I don't care! Tell me how to go back!"

"Go back, like that?" Thanatos asked, and as he started to approach Caleb, sections of the platter of his armor started to fall, and more dust poured from them. "That is an impossible task, child. At least for the man you are now;" with that statement, he put his remaining hand over Caleb's chest and pushed him backwards. Instead of stumbling, Caleb fell, as if the ground beneath his feet had disappeared. "Listen to me! Learn from me! There were wars then, and there is war now. There will be war in the future. And war fuels wrath and hatred as much as those fuel war. But those are as part of you as your virtues! Sin is what makes living beings to be really alive! Don't destroy your wrath, conquer it! Use your own vices to create something better! Learn to forgive your own sins, and stop hating yourself!"

* * *

 ** _The tunnel_**

Claws moved fast, searching for a piece of flesh in which sink. Fangs did the same. This was a somehow new experience for Jade, since from the very first moment she had started to use her wolf form to fight; she had been dealing with purely humanoid opponents… and Cedric. But he was very humanoid for a guy that transformed into a giant snake. Right now, Jade was fighting Sniffer. Since the moment the three of them had engaged Tracker in a fight, the undead had called for his hound and ordered him to attack the Shapeshifter. And it was proving considerably harder that what she had first thought. She practically dwarfed Sniffer, and yet the hound was proving a challenge. For not speaking of how determined the creature seemed to take her down while his master dealt with Jackie and Will. Every time she was able to knock the animal aside with either a slash of her claws or a blast of her blood-red chi, Sniffer got up again and engaged her in close combat. And Sniffer was _an animal_. He was a real animal, not a Shapeshifter that at the end had been artificially crafted. She bit him in a leg, and he did the same in her thorax, wounding her for the first time since they had started brawling. With a loud and angry roar produced by the pain, Jade decided it was time to stop holding back. So she imbued her whole body in blood red chi and struck Sniffer with a wave of her energy, then with a claw imbued in her chi, she hit him in the snout, and then bit him in the neck, throwing him in the air. Sniffer landed badly and unceremoniously in the ground, whimpering and defeated. The hound was bleeding (disturbingly, in green), but it was still alive and… healing? Jade noticed that the wounds were bleeding less and less by the moment.

 _Duh Jade, he's not a dog from Earth_ ; the Chan girl thought, blaming the strange behavior of the hound's body in his meridianite origins. She looked in the direction Jackie and Will were fighting Tracker, and dazed towards them in order to aid the pair.

And speaking of Jackie and Will, they were faring quite well against the undead. Of course, Tracker wasn't going to go down so easily, after all being an undead had a lot of advantages, like having way more strength than any normal human being or possessing practically endless stamina. And then there was the issue of not being exactly a normal undead. As he swung his flail again, trying to strike Will down from the air to where she had flown to evade his previous attack, Tracker roared and extended his free arm, unleashing a swarm of bats from under his robe. Jackie focused entirely in fighting them, while Will, seeing that Tracker was distracted, took the opportunity and charged towards him from the sky, delivering a double kick to the undead's torso. Then she flew again, trying to help Jackie with the bats.

"Impudent girl…" the undead muttered, starting to twirl the chain of his flail. "You steal my prey, you steal my other prey. Fine, then I shall defeat you, strip you or your wings and keep them as a hunt trophy."

"I'd love to see you try!" Jade's voice reached Tracker, who turned his head left to see the wolf-girl running towards him, claws extended as she jumped, ready to reduce him to shreds. "You're mine, zombie guy!"

"Foolishness," Tracker answered, stopping swinging his flail and getting one of his hands in a pocket of his robes. Jade was then stopped on mid-air, her claws centimeters away from Tracker, as if held by an invisible force.

 _What?_ The Shapeshifter girl thought, but then the force intensified and sent her flying in Jackie and Will's direction, colliding with the both of them. It wasn't so much of a great impact that they were hurt or had something broken, but it was enough to leave them momentarily shocked.

"What was that?" Will asked as she leaned in Jade in order to come to her feet.

Jackie, meanwhile, looked at Tracker in astonishment. "Telekinesis?"

"I couldn't resist myself. You may say that is only fair, since you have stolen no one but two of my prey from me;" Tracker said, taking his hand out of his pocket. Opening his palm and turning it towards them, the three saw the undead holding the Rooster Talisman. "And if that wolf uses magic against me, then is only natural that I even the odds. A hunter must always improve his methods."

"How did he get that?" the redhead asked, her reddish eyes turning towards Jackie.

"I dropped it during…" Jackie began.

"Jackie, stop giving Talismans to our enemies!" Jade interrupted him, albeit her voice had a funny undertone. After all, the Dragon and the Pig getting lost was not exactly Jackie's fault, but Ross'.

"Great, because fighting him before wasn't hard enough;" Will commented as Tracker started to twirl his flail again, holding the Rooster Talisman tightly. "Jade, you take the initiative. I'll try distracting him; we need to take that Talisman from him. Go!"

* * *

While the Keeper of the Heart, the Ben-Shui Chosen One and the archeologist were fighting Tracker, and Cornelia and Irma tried to defeat the Berserker and free Caleb from the fury consuming him; Taranee and Hay Lin did their part dealing with Chang.

As the Fire Guardian had found out, it was easier to fight the Taiwanese man with Air and Fire than just Earth and Fire. Because on top of hers and Hay Lin's elements not being solid (like Cornelia's) and thus hardest to disperse with lightning, flames do grow stronger when there's wind around them. So Taranee and Hay Lin flew around the lightning throwing crime lord, attacking him with their elements from time to time, sometimes both of them cooperating in order to form a tornado of flames around Chang at Taranee's request.

"Why are we...?" the Chinese girl asked.

"Wait for it," Taranee said, stopping the stream of flames coming from her palms. Hay Lin did the same with her wind. Once the tornado was dispelled, Bartholomew Chang was seen again, except he wasn't firing any more lightning bolts towards them. He was on his knees, panting. "Fire consumes oxygen."

"Ah… ah…" was all that Bartholomew Chang was able to say, panting and exhausted as he was, knees and palms (both flesh and metallic) against the ground. This night! This night was going out of the rails! And he wasn't thinking it just because he was in a subway! _I need to catch my breath… a distraction, I need to…_ "This is not… how it ends;" Chang told the Guardians, but he supposed they couldn't hear him. At least until them both descended and stood mere meters separated from him. This night had gotten out of control; this wasn't how it was supposed to be! But did it matter? Did he matter, in the end; was he truly important and indispensable in Theodore's scheme? Or was he just another disposable character in this, which was nothing but the prelude of the real play? Hak Foo was out of commission, Crane was nowhere to be seen, his forces were out cold, and the artifacts were scattered in the ground. For not speaking of that strange creature, and whatever that boy he had met in Ludmoore's manor had transformed himself into; and that was not having in account the fact that there was always the possibility of the freemasons or Section 13 sending reinforcements… And yet, Bartholomew Chang refused to yield. "This is not how it ends!" he yelled, clenching the fist of the Gauntlet of Indra, generating more golden lightning and punching the ground. "This is not how _I_ end!" he said as the Gauntlet let out a strong enough electrical current that the ground shattered beneath his fist and around him, generating a cloud of smoke.

"Cough… cough…" the Fire Guardian coughed. _I can't see anything, Chang could be anywhere!_ she thought. "Hay Lin could you…?"

Before the Air Guardian could use her powers to dissipate the cloud, the duo of Guardians started to hear a low crackle that seemed to be approaching them fast. Then Bartholomew Chang appeared through the dust and punched Hay Lin across the head with the Gauntlet of Indra, still imbued of lightning.

"Hay Lin!" Taranee shrieked, pressuring her body to go and fight Chang immediately and save her companion. Chang reacted by turning the lightning-imbued Gauntlet of Indra towards her. The Taiwanese crime lord had had enough of fighting from a distance against fighters that were clearly better suited to fight from a distance. However, he was surprised by how Taranee quickly responded to his incoming attack by dodging and counterattacking with a swift punch to his stomach.

Taking the blow as best as he could, the Taiwanese man jumped back in order to put some distance between him and Taranee. "You are trained," he declared as he generated more lightning. Both of them engaged into an exchange of punches. Taranee answered Chang's lightning-charged attacks not with words by reinforcing her own punches and kicks with fire. However, as their fight progressed, Chang started to gain the upper hand, if not by sheer strength (in which Taranee clearly held the advantage) but by skill. _Her movements are not refined_ , the Taiwanese man thought; _and very similar to Chan's. He must have trained her…_ he blocked Taranee's next punch with the Gauntlet, _which means that if I fight like I would do to defeat Chan_ , he kicked her legs and destabilized her, _I will win_ , he thought again, kicking her in the stomach. Taranee landed on her back, and Chang pointed the Gauntlet of Indra towards her, the artifact charging electricity once again.

"You have overestimated yourself," Chang proclaimed, ready to shot Taranee with a lightning bolt.

"And you," the Fire Guardian retorted, smirking and adjusting her glasses; "have underestimated a Guardian's strength… and Hay Lin."

Chang's face twisted itself in one of shock just before he started to elevate in the air by a tornado that was starting to grow at his feet. The tornado launched him upwards, and when it disappeared and Chang started to fall, Hay Lin, flying as fast as she could, kicked him in the chest with both feet. Chang was launched across the tunnel, and at the end he clashed against the exterior of one of the wagons of the freemasons' train.

"And that's the power of teamwork!" Hay Lin proclaimed cheerily. Then the Air Guardian descended to the ground and extended her hand towards Taranee, helping her to incorporate.

"Thanks," the black teen told her.

"Nothing," the Air Guardian said. "But you didn't need to act as bait like that. Do you think he's…?" A golden lightning bolt struck the ground in front of them before Hay Lin had time to finish her question. "That means 'no', doesn't it?" she asked slowly, or maybe tiredly. They all had been fighting for a lot of time.

"I said… I'm not going down… so easily;" Chang, standing weakly over his two feet, said. The hand of the Gauntlet of Indra was tightened into a fist, still generating golden lightning. "I have had enough of all this! This has gone on for too long!" he proclaimed, preparing to unleash another of his lightning-based attacks towards them.

"I agree. This has gone on for too long;" a feminine voice said then.

Chang froze. Not because he wanted or out of fear, but because he couldn't move. His body seemed to have been unnaturally stopped, a purplish aura surrounding it. Them, slowly, a purple butterfly descended from the ceiling and landed over the Gauntlet of Indra.

"What an interesting toy you have here," the voice continued to say as the butterfly flew away from Chang and was joined by more butterflies until a whole swarm was swirling in front of the dumbfounded Taranee, Hay Lin and Chang. Once the swarm dissipated, the three of them were greeted with the sight of Nimue of Britannia, who face serious, walked towards Chang, black hair and edges of her dress moving slowly, and put her left hand over the Gauntlet of Indra. "A dangerous toy, nevertheless. And you, a boy that doesn't understand that he's playing with his father's revolver as if it were a water pistol. And some have the nerve to tell me that humans can be as dangerous as demons to humankind;" she started to exert pressure over the Gauntlet, her hand glowing with an intense purple color. To Chang's shock and horror, the Gauntlet started to crack. "What a joke," Nimue ended her declaration, her grip tightened even more and her spell intensified. There was a crackle-like sound, then a loud 'Crack!', followed by an even louder 'Boom!' as the Gauntlet of Indra exploded into a thousand of small pieces, Chang being thrown back by the explosion's force.

"Im-Impossible…" he was able to whisper before falling unconscious over the ground.

Then Nimue turned around, looking at the Fire and Air Guardians. Her face dropped the serious visage and put on a friendly one, wide smile and all. "Don't worry girls, I'm not here to hurt you," she declared. "Now, if you would kindly excuse me…" she said as the butterflies surrounded her again, making her to disappear in thin air.

"What just happened?" Hay Lin asked softly.

And for once, smart and quick-thinking Taranee had no idea of how answer a question.

* * *

As one of the fights concluded, another continued. Jade, Jackie and Will continued to face Tracker and Sniffer; defeating them a goal way harder to achieve than before since Tracker was demonstrating that he was quite adept into using the Rooster Talisman. A flail was swung, a telekinetic wave was unleashed, and it was matched by punched of blood red chi blasts. The fight seemed to have reached some kind of dead end in which neither side seemed able to overpower the other. After all, Tracker had the advantage of being an undead creature and of having entered the battle shortly before, while Jackie's body was being pushed to its limit during this night do to having already faced an empowered Hak Foo, some Shadowkhan, and now this. Will and Jade had the advantage of having way more stamina than any normal human being due to being respectively a Guardian and a Shapeshifter, but it only get them this far. Ten, when Tracker tried to strike Jackie with the mace of his flail, a loud 'Clang!' was heard, and the flail was parried by a staff that was being held by Mariko Takeda, clad in her new armor and having appeared in front of Jackie seemingly out of nowhere.

Before Jackie, Jade or Will have time to react, Mariko gave a step and she disappeared again. Or so it seemed to the two Chans and Will, whose eyes couldn't follow Mariko, the heir to the throne of the Fast World moving at such high speeds that she couldn't be detected by the common eye.

"What the hell?" Jade asked as she shifted back to her human form, standing between Jackie and Will. None of them were going to protest against this, after all any opportunity to rest was welcomed.

Meanwhile, Mariko continued to fight against Tracker, breaking his defenses with ease due to not being able to see her, and the fact that he wasn't expecting this. Once Mariko had hit him enough times, she stopped moving at super-speed and stood in front of him.

"What are you doing, you stupid girl?" Tracker inquired.

"Teacher said it was time to stop this madness;" Mariko answered, her voice distorted by her helmet.

"Your teacher and I have an alliance," Tracker told her angrily in his growling and raspy voice.

"We brought you here to deal with the Oni!" Mariko protested; "Not to attack innocent people!"

"You seemed to have no problem with giving the Sword of the Berserker to that boy, even knowing how that would affect him. And they are my prey," Tracker declared, referring to the Chans and the redhead. "If you want to take their place…"

"Oh, I'm not, believe me;" Mariko declared nonchalantly; "and you're not killing any innocent tonight, Tracker of Meridian. Because I put a teleportation spell in you when we were fighting."

"What?" Tracker wondered, looking at his own body and seeing how strange runes had started to appear over it.

"And don't worry; I'll leave you by the side of the Portal in the Veil that you used to cross to this world. Good bye," Mariko said, hitting the ground with her staff and teleporting Tracker away. The bats that were still around and Sniffer also disappeared in the green flash and loud sound that characterized every average teleportation spell.

"Did she just… send Tracker away?" Will wondered as Mariko turned around to face them. _That was pretty similar to what Yan Lin did when we first fought Phobos_ …

"And like that, we've lost another Talisman;" Jade commented in a somber tone. "Captain Black's gonna be _mad_ at us."

"Bad day…" Jackie said tiredly, rubbing his shoulder. "Who are you?" he asked of Mariko, falling into a defensive position, but nothing too aggressive. He wasn't sure this new person desired any conflict.

"Please," Mariko said under her helmet. She was glad that her face was covered, and that Liam hadn't been involved. After all, the sumo the elderly man knew them both from Japan, and they could recognize them. Nimue had insisted it wasn't time, not yet. "There's no need to fight, I'm not your enemy."

"Somehow, I doubt that;" Will declared. "You just said that you've brought Tracker here _and_ that you gave Caleb that weird sword."

 _Damn it_ , Mariko thought, seeing that none of the three were too willing to trust her. And even if they didn't want to fight, it was clear for her that none of them would let her go if she tried to flee. _Teacher, please, solve this mess fast…_

* * *

"I got him!" Cornelia shouted as she wrapped the Berserker in more vines. "Quick, before…"

The Berserker used his blade to cut the vines, which rotted now almost instantaneously. Fortunately, he was struck by several blasts of high pressured water to the head courtesy of Irma, which Cornelia topped by raising chunks of the ground in the form of rocks the size of an adult man's head and smashing them against the possessed Caleb's cranium. They had been following this very same procedure time and time again during the entire fight. But it all felt irrelevant. No matter with what and how much they hit him, the Berserker, Abaddon, continued to stand on his feet, and swing his blade with the intention of killing both girls.

"Why isn't anything working!" Irma complained as she flew upwards in order to avoid the incoming blow from the Berserker's blade.

"I! Strong!" Abaddon declared through Caleb's mouth.

The Water Guardian rolled her eyes, and she and Cornelia continued their attacks over the Berserker, but none of them seemed to be having effect. Cornelia tried something different this time, rising a section of the ground as if it was a wall, sending it towards the Berserker. With quick movements of his blade, Caleb cut through the stone as if it was paper, and jumped towards Cornelia, blade ready to cut her vertically in two halves.

But then his body was stopped in mid air by a spell not very different than the one that had stopped Chang before. The telekinetic force pulled from him backwards, putting enough distance between Cornelia and him as to keep the Guardian safe. Irma quickly came to her side.

"Are you okay, Corny?" the Water Guardian asked of her friend.

"A bit tired," she confessed. "I took a risk with that one… what's exactly going on?"

"No idea," Irma said, shrugging her shoulders. "But angry boy seems to… hey, aren't those butterflies?"

Indeed, they were butterflies; Nimue's purple insects helping her manifest between the Guardian duo and the Berserker. The surprise of Irma and Cornelia, which was already extreme from seeing the woman appear, only grew when she ran towards the Berserker.

"Hey you!" Irma yelled. "Don't be stupid!"

The Berserker answered by just raising his sword, in which Nimue impaled herself due to be running towards him in a straight line. The same process that had affected the thug's body happened to hers, and at first the Berserker laughed. But then, when he tried to retrieve his sword from her body, he found that he couldn't take it out. The black lines over Nimue's body, product of her poisoned blood, disappeared, and then the sorceress opened her eyes. Her hands moved fast and grabbed each one section of Caleb's head, putting him under a much stronger version of the paralyzing spell she had used to immobilize Chang before. "I know I know…" the witch said as the Berserker struggled against the spell to no effect. "Fighting immortals is not fair. Now, stop moving and be a good boy! Let's see what we can do with these anger issues."

And with those words having been said, Nimue's fingertips started to glow intensely, she closed her eyes and started to mutter an enchantment. The glow of her fingertips started then to enter Caleb's skull. And the teen screamed; he screamed in pain as the witch invaded his mind and soul.

"Oh my God!" Irma, witnessing this act, screamed.

Cornelia, meanwhile, acted and flew straight towards them. Before she could reach the pair, she clashed with a dome of energy around them. If it was there due to Nimue's doing or due to whatever she was doing to Caleb and the energies it was generating, there was no way to tell. She tried piercing through it, but no matter how much she tried, she couldn't.

"Corny, stop!" Irma yelled, grabbing Cornelia by the waist and dragging her away from the dome of energy.

"Let go!" the blonde yelled. "She's hurting him!"

"No Corny, look!" Irma shouted, pointing towards the scene.

The blonde did so and, to her surprise, she saw how Caleb's body was returning, albeit slowly, to being normal. His skin was changing again, from being purely obsidian to normal with those black markings once more. Then the markings started to slowly recede and disappear. First from his face, then his neck, his arms... all of them were slowly disappearing from his entire body.

"She's... healing him?" Cornelia asked aloud. It both did and didn't surprise her. This night had become increasingly complicated and shocking as time had gone on.

"I think so," Irma told her. The Water Guardian wasn't going to complain about this. She had had enough for tonight.

However, defining what Nimue was doing as just 'healing' would be an error. Technically, she was invading his very mind and soul in order to reverse the process that had made him to assume his Berserker Form. It was a delicate and complicated process, since the witch was always in the risk of letting the maelstrom of rage and hatred inside him to overwhelm her. Not that those emotions were strangers to her. And yet, she was finding out that she couldn't completely severe the connection the echo of Abaddon had established with the boy.

 _So much anger, so much hatred..._ Nimue thought. _And not only directed towards others, but also towards himself. No wonder the Sword of Thanatos had such a quick effect over him. If the blade has this effect in everyone so fast… Agh! Then it's completely useless in the long run!_

After several minutes, the marks were completely gone from Caleb's body, his teeth returned to normal, her eyes now with white sclera and green irises again. With a loud breathing sound, he was freed from Nimue's grasp and fell to the ground, the witch taking the Sword of the Berserker as it finally slipped out of Caleb's hand. The Bane of the Nihil gave a couple of steps away from Caleb's body. The scarred boy had bruises and wounds all over his body, but he seemed out of danger. The Earth and Water Guardians approached him as soon as they were sure the barrier wasn't there anymore, and Nimue continued to distance herself from them. However, once she had given one too many steps, the Sword of Thanatos disappeared from her hand and appeared at Caleb's side.

"Is he alright?" Irma wondered as Cornelia kneeled and held Caleb's head and torso in her arms.

"He's breathing," Cornelia said, putting her hand over the boy chest, feeling the up-and-down that her lungs taking air in and out of them were making his torso do, and also the beating of his heart. "He's alive," she said, but she didn't have the nerve to actually figure if he was really alright. Her eyes fell then into the Sword of the Berserker, and then on Nimue, to whom they scolded. "You take that thing away from us!"

"I can't," the witch confessed. "The Sword of the Berserker has now bonded to him. Up until he passes away, it will accompany him in his journey."

"Cornelia!" the blonde heard before she had any time to retort to the witch's cryptic words or ask for more information. Will, Taranee and Hay Lin landed around Irma and her, while Jackie and Jade appeared in scene shortly after. Mariko appeared too, positioning herself at Nimue's side.

"How's he?" the redhead asked of the blonde, repeating Irma's question almost word for word.

"I don't know," a more calmed Cornelia told her. "He's alive, but I think he needs medical attention, the sooner, the better."

Will nodded slowly, and then her reddish eyes shifted to the pair of women standing in front of her group. "Who're you?"

"The people that solved your problems right now," Nimue declared with a little chuckle. "Now, you see; that Oni Mask you retrieved? If you would be kindly enough to give it to me so I can…"

"You think we're going to give you that Mask?" Will interrupted her with a question, rising one of her eyebrows. "That woman over there," the Keeper of the Heart said, gesturing towards Mariko; "Tracker told her you were the ones that had brought him here, and that you also brought here that sword."

"You gave Caleb this thing?!" Cornelia, leaving out the unconscious rebel leader in the ground and fully standing up, asked angrily. "Who the hell do you think you are?!"

Nimue's answer towards the blonde was to take her lift hand to her lips and chuckle darkly. "My, my… Is that caring product of your love for that boy? You should be careful with those feelings; else they can cloud your judgment about him. Trust me, Guardian of Earth;" Nimue addressed Cornelia. "A man like that just leaves you to burn bright red, but then he leaves you to fall alone sooner or later. And you are left with cold, icy regret."

"Okay, I've got enough of the strangers appearing out of nowhere, the weird riddles, the weird names, and the weird everything!" Will said. "You tell us who you're and what you want, and we'll discuss with you giving the Mask then!"

Nimue looked around her, surveying the Guardians, the Shapeshifter and the martial artists. Her eyes travelled back to Mariko, still clad in her armor. She didn't seem in very high spirits to fight these girls. Her gaze fell then over the bright Heart of Kandrakar, the jewel beating and glowing calmly against the chest of its Keeper. Himerish could be watching... So in the end, she just chuckled again. "You are a bit of a controlling person, aren't you? I suppose it comes with the position you have been given. But alright, if a sign of trust is what you need;" the woman started to dematerialize in her swarm of purple butterflies, the insects surrounding Mariko too; "then I shall give you at least that. Enjoy your victory, despite half of it been mine. Enjoy your spoils, in spite of the fact that you will regret gaining them sooner or later." Nimue and Mariko's shapes disappeared completely, leaving nothing but the voice of the witch behind.

"We will meet again."

After the two women were gone, Will tilted her head towards Jade. "You got their smell?"

"The one of the butterfly lady," the Chan girl told the redhead. "But the other one smelled too much to iron and other alloys. Tch… You think that's the same lady that helped us to deal with Uta, right?"

"Probably," Will answered, rubbing her temples afterwards. "Anyway, not the priority right now. Hak Foo and the Mask are secured. What about Chang?"

"That woman destroyed the Gauntlet of Indra and left him unconscious," Taranee explained. She pointed towards the trashed train. "Chang is just…" she started to say, but then her eyes widened behind her glasses, the Guardian of Fire finding herself pointing at nothing. "What?! He was just there moments ago!"

"There he is!" Hay Lin screamed, pointing in the opposite direction of the train, where (effectively) Bartholomew Chang could be seen, walking towards the exact same hole the girls had produced in order to access the freemasons' tunnel.

"Is he trying to escape?" Irma commented. "For real?"

"I will get him," Jackie declared, starting to run after Chang.

"Alone?" Jade asked, not without a hint of worry for her uncle in her voice.

"You all have done enough," Jackie told her before speeding up. "This is my responsibility." _I only hope that he has arrived…_

"Let him go," Will said with authority. "He can handle Chang on his own, especially if he lost that Gauntlet. We have to secure the goons before leaving. Cornelia, I need you to wrap them in vines and then we need to retrieve the freemasons before getting out from here. Jade, search for Tohru and Uncle and tell them everything has calmed. Everyone else, stay here with Caleb. We'll take him to Meridian after this." _And even with all the setbacks_ , the redhead thought as she and the Earth Guardian flew and the blonde started to entrap the Dark Hand's thugs in vines. Her reddish eyes surveyed the area, locating the several artifacts that the Dark Hand had used against them and some others that they hadn't. The redhead couldn't avoid feeling something reminiscent of joy or maybe pride, but somehow a bit more malicious; when thinking that Jade was going to make contact with a group of _friends_ before finding Uncle and Tohru. _Everything's gone according to plan._

* * *

 ** _Another section of the tunnel_**

While Will was more or less right by thinking that in the end everything had gone according to plan in spite of so many mishaps, she was forgetting one loose end. And that loose end was currently catching his breath, leaning against a wall of the tunnel, fur wet with sweat.

Phillip Crane panted again and again, still in his humanoid cat form. For how long had he been running? How long had he been escaping? It didn't matter. He needed to escape! He needed to get away from that thing! But now that primal instinct of survival that had forced him to push his body to the limit seemed to have relaxed and fallen asleep. And that meant that Crane was now exhausted.

 _Join the Dark Hand, they said_ ; Crane thought sarcastically. _It'll grant you protection, they said. It'll be easier than going solo, they said_ …

Well, for most part, those people had been right. The Dark Hand had provided Crane with a lot of advantages that no thief, no matter how good, normally had. For not speaking about the fact that being under Chang's wing had meant that he was practically untouchable. Now that he thought calmly about it, what would he do now? What was the best course of action? Return to Asia and rally behind Tommy Chung? Or perhaps try and join another of the leaders of the Dark Hand? Mrs. Barone seemed to be a woman that liked to do things by herself, and according to Chang and Harold, she only delegated in what entitled administrative matters and criminal activities that weren't of her interest. Bau Farouk, the man in charge of the organization's interests in Africa… Crane doubted the man and he would work well together. Farouk had the fame of being some sort of powerhouse for the Dark Hand. His branch seemed to be primarily focused into militaristic interests. And then there was Theodore Riddle… about whom, befitting his name, no one knew anything about. And of course there was the fact that he was stranded on Heatherfield… damn. Perhaps going solo again in order to gather enough funding to pay a flight wouldn't be such a bad idea.

With renovated spirits, Crane started to walk again. Now, how could he exit this damn tunnel? He could go back and sneak by the hole they had opened in the ceiling, or maybe find some kind of gate.

 _There must be a gate_ , Crane thought. _Those freemason idiots have to get in and out of here somehow…_

"Here, kitty, kitty, kitty…"

Crane froze. The last thing he was expecting to find here was company. And he wasn't exactly in the best of shapes to fight. But he wasn't exactly human anymore, so…

"Yo, jackass!" he heard a voice mere meters behind him. "You look like furry fetish!"

 _Oh no_ , Crane thought, now recognizing the voice. "You? What are you doing here?"

"Gee, can't a girl get a night's walk?" Nyx asked, hands in her hips. The girl looked exactly the same as the first time Crane had met her. But somehow, it struck the handsome (and now feline) thief as being even more confident than that time.

"How the hell did you get in here?!" Crane shrieked, losing his patience. He didn't know who this girl was or what he wanted. But considering how he had ended during their last encounter… she meant problems.

Nyx put a finger over her lips and said very slowly. "It's a s-e-c-r-e-t."

"Rargh!" Crane yelled, leaping forward with his claws extended. Nyx evaded the attack and shot two of her magic bolts in return. One hit Crane, the other hit a pipe that travelled all the way over the wall. The pipe proceeded to explode then, a part of it impacting over Crane's cranium, to which a stream of steam followed, bathing Crane completely in it.

"AH!" the cat-man screamed in pain. "You dirty bi…"

"Language, dude;" Nyx said, arms crossed over her torso. She contemplated in amusement how the ground cracked beneath Crane's feet, making him trip and smash his face against the aforementioned ground. "And… different body, same results, eh?" she joked, remembering how she had disposed of Crane with a similar tactic when they had first seen the other face to face. Nyx approached the broken pipe and, with a bit of help of her powers, took a chunk from it. "Look, I'd have liked getting your boss better, but you're the best option here. So hold still," she said as she used the pipe hit the cat-man over the head until leaving him out cold; "and let me take the wheel."

The purple haired girl searched then in her pockets, until she found and pulled out a folded paper. She unfolded it, looking at the circle of runes all over it. She put the paper over Crane's unconscious form and let the runes to expand from the paper and materialize out of it, forming a circle around the both of them.

"Alright, mission accomplished;" she declared. "Yo, Mr. E! Get me out of here!" she said, just for the runes to illuminate themselves in a dark green light. In the blink of a second, both of them were teleported away.

* * *

 ** _Heatherfield's streets; deep night_**

Pursuing Chang had proven to Jackie way harder than first thought. He had followed the Taiwanese crime lord all the way out of the subway and out to the streets. He was grateful that Heatherfield was so silent and dark at these hours. It meant that there was almost no risk for any citizen to cross either Chang or him.

"You think it's going to be that easy, Chan?" Jackie heard Chang's voice. A bit to his left, maybe? It was hard to see here, only the streetlights to illuminate the place. However, Jackie was sure that the cars were in place. "You think you have won? Ha!"

"And what about you?" Jackie asked back. "Your men have been defeated, Hak Foo is unconscious and without the Oni Mask, you have lost the artifact you came here for! You have lost!"

"Does it matter?" Chang's voice asked again, this time sounding closer. "You think you have won and that I have lost, but you couldn't be more wrong! It doesn't matter who has won here, Mr. Chan! Do you know why I took you in so fast? Because we are the same! You and your precious Section 13… are just like I was back in that ring, before I lost my hand. You think that what matters, what can change things, is the fight you are fighting… when the result was decided out of the ring! You are not making the plans, Mr. Chan! You are just another chess piece over the board, just like me."

Jackie didn't answer to Chang's provocations. Instead, he opted for waiting for the man's strike. "You are probably right about that last one. I was never good to be a man behind the curtains, and I prefer the more direct approach… but there is a key difference between you and me, Bartholomew Chang."

"And what would that be?!" Chang asked angrily, finally perpetrating a sneak attack at Jackie's back. However, as soon as the Taiwanese man was sure of being able to strike his foe down, Jackie turned around with a quick movement, grabbed Chang's remaining arm and tossed him over his shoulders and into the ground.

"I am not," Jackie began, just for the flashlights of two SUVs to turn on and illuminate the scene; "afraid of the law."

From one of the SUVs descended four men in suits, each carrying a gun that they pointed at Chang. From the other vehicle stepped two men that proceeded to do the same, accompanied by a third. It was a tall, Caucasian and bald man dressed in a pair of light brown pants, a reddish sweater and a black coat. Augustus Black, Captain of Section 13, walked confident and slowly, until he positioned himself at Jackie's side. Upon laying eyes over him and feeling how hurt his body was now that he was running low on adrenaline, Chang understood that this time victory couldn't be (and wasn't) his.

"Bartholomew Chang," Captain Black declared. "You are under arrest."

* * *

 _Fury can be either the best of allies or the most poisonous of lovers. Sure, it gives you an advantage over your foes in the battle field in times of war, but if you give yourself too much to it, you become reckless. And in time of peace you stop seeing those little… details that indicate that there are always several men and women behind the curtains, always pulling the strings. My husband… Escanor was the best proof of that_.  Leryn, First Queen of Meridian

* * *

 **A/N: Smaller chapter than the last one, but it serves its purpose as a closing act to this mini-arc's action packed chapters. Since next chapter is going to be just one gigantic reaction chapter, it means that this is the last bit of action that you're getting for a while. However, more plot developments await. After all, Ross is still out there. I was able to get this chapter done sooner than I thought, but I don't surely know when I will be able to write another one, which is sad since chapter 19 is one I have been looking towards to for a long time. Anyway, hope you enjoyed your read; please leave a review with your impressions and until next time.**

 **Bye, bye!**


	19. To Win by Losing

**Disclaimer: I own neither the WITCH cartoon-show nor Jackie Chan Adventures; they are the property of their respective creators, writers, and producers.**

 **Author Notes: Hello, dear readers. First of all, thanks to all the reviewers, old and new that took their time to leave their kind words the previous chapter. Second… chapter 19, eh? You all have no idea how much I have been looking up to this one. There are a lot of important developments in this one, and I would lie if I haven't doubted myself about carrying them out in one way or another… But I think that the overall result has been satisfactory. Prepare yourselves.**

 **Note 2: As of 1-30-2018, I'm re-uploading this since its publication on 1-29-2018, since it's not showing up anymore**

* * *

Guardians, Wizards and Kung-Fu Fighters

Episode Nineteen

To Win by Losing

* * *

 ** _One day after the fight against the Dark Hand_**

 ** _Shadow Realm_**

Floating in the air (if it could really be called air) of the Shadow Realm, Tarakudo, King of all Oni; watched how the Mask imprisoning his best strategist, Ikki; was put in what seemed to be a metallic wallet. The Oni, still maintaining his form of a gigantic, ethereal head; sighed and dispelled the window through which he was spying Earth.

"And another one bites the dust…" the King said in a downbeat tone. He then concentrated and made other three windows to appear. In one of them was Captain Augustus Black, in the other appeared Charles Ludmoore, and in the final one appeared Aldarn. "And my forces are so scattered… Ikki's will soon join the Masks of Uta, Hokori and Sukhosi that the human holds in that vault; Ludmoore still holds Soichiro and Hadosheru's Masks… and Ikazuki is in possession of that meridianite boy… Uhm, uhm…" Tarakudo pondered his options for a few moments. To be fair, none of the latest events affected his main plan in the slightest. In the end, no matter which faction did what, his generals would be freed, and he would emerge victorious…

"But that doesn't mean I must leave myself to indolence," Tarakudo said aloud. "After all," he said as he manifested the images of two Oni Masks in front of him. One was an orange feline visage with a dark purple mane behind, mouth opened in a large grin. The other depicted a yellow and bald face, with a thin orange moustache and orange eyebrows, sporting a serious expression. "Shiryū and Takahiro's Masks are still out there…" Tarakudo grinned as a ploy started to take form in his mind.

"And wouldn't it be terrible if we left some humans without enjoying their gifts…"

* * *

 ** _Japan, Mariko Takeda's flat_**

Mariko Takeda sat in the couch of her flat. The armor had been discarded hours ago; traded for more comfortable attire composed of a pair of tracksuit pants that she had found in her closet, and a sleeveless white shirt that had been just lying over the couch. The half-Japanese, half-child of the Fast World wasn't in the happiest of moods either. Indifferently of how you looked at it, this mission had been a total fiasco. Not only had they lost the Sword of Thanatos, they had put the Guardians' lives at risk, for not speaking indirectly causing the demise of a man. A man that was under the orders of the Dark Hand and that was planning to steal powerful artifacts and then use them in that foul organization's plans… whichever they were. But he had been a man nonetheless. And now the Sword was gone, in the hands of a boy that had been possessed by it in mere minutes. And of course, her actions against Tracker probably meant that the undead wouldn't be their ally anymore.

 _We are even worse than when we started to move_ , Mariko thought broodingly. _Simply fantastic_ , she added sarcastically.

"Are you feeling alright?" she heard behind her. Reclining her head in the couch, the Princess of the Fast World met the face of her boyfriend. Liam was dressed in his own yellowish pajamas. It wasn't the most pleasant of yellows to the eyes, being a too intense and bright one. "Mariko?"

"You look like a giant lemon, you know?" she commented in a purely deadpan tone. Seconds afterwards, both of them proceeded to laugh. Liam gave a couple of steps around the couch and then sat at Mariko's side. "I'm feeling a bit down, that's all."

"Things didn't go as well as we supposed they would," Liam said, understanding what his girlfriend (and Princess) was feeling. Mariko had been an overly empathetic and kind girl since the moment they had met, which was good when things went well… and not so much when they went bad. The dark skinned blonde couldn't avoid comparing this behavior with the one of Mariko's mother, Queen Arkaam. The White Queen of the Fast World was a good ruler with the best intentions at heart, always prioritizing order and peace, alongside the wellbeing of her subjects. However, to the eyes of a stranger, or even a foreigner, she appeared to be mercilessly cold. Liam supposed Mariko's 'warm' behavior was the result of being mainly raised by Foreman Takeda here, in Earth. Then again, it could also be attributed to Arkaam. After all, wasn't Mariko's existence, product of the Queen's love for an earthling, proof of that? "But this was just a gamble to see if the Sword of the Berserker was useful or not," the man continued. "Plans and gambles tend to go out of control, and this was one of those times. These situations happen sometimes. At least you did something to stop the Tracker from causing more harm. I didn't even move a finger."

Mariko tilted her head, putting one hand over Liam's shoulder and patting him a few times. "If you had, there was a huge possibility of the wizards recognizing you." Mariko paused for several moments before speaking again. "What about teacher?"

"She's in the kitchen, with a bottle of red wine;" Liam explained. "I told her we ordered a pizza, but she said that she would wait there. She looked much more serious than usual. I suppose that investing so much time and effort into obtaining that cursed blade and then losing it on top of discovering how useless it was would do that to anyone;" the dark skinned blonde sentenced.

* * *

While the couple talked in the living room, Nimue preferred solitude in the kitchen. There she was sitting at the circular table Mariko and Liam had bought years ago, a bottle of wine in front of her alongside an emptied glass ready to be filled again. Nimue liked wine; its flavor had a strange effect on her, made her mind go faster. Of course, she was never in risk of getting drunk, privileges of being immortal and her body purging toxins practically in the moment they entered her organism. Anyway, now was a moment as good as any other in order to sum up the current situation.

The Sword of the Berserker? Dangerous and now bonded to the Meridianite boy. Ergo, it was useless. The Guardians, the Chi Wizards and that human martial artist? Now they knew she was there, albeit she had been careful enough to not reveal her name, Mariko's or Liam's; which meant that she still held the advantage. But for how long? She hadn't precisely done the best of first impressions into them during their little encounter. And then there was always the possibility of Himerish seeing her as a menace to the Guardians or Kandrakar itself, probably already having perceived her thanks to the Heart of Kandrakar being in her proximity. Not that the sorceress considered Himerish a bad man. She had met him centuries ago, when he was nothing but a simple sage, a young man of Basilíade that had recently entered the Congregation; and the dark haired woman actually liked the fact that he had been chosen as an Oracle. He was nice, he was humble, and he was, above all else, reasonable and responsible with his authority. But Kandrakar had traditions, and sometimes the Congregation of the Fortress of Light, dedicated on paper to the protection of the Known Worlds that formed said Congregation; felt more dedicated to the maintenance of those traditions and the status quo they generated than to do actual good. And despite considering him an improvement over his predecessor, Oracle Himerish was still the Oracle. And no one in Kandrakar must respect their 'Sacred Rules' more than the Oracle. She always thought of that as the reason why Himerish had declined her ideas of having Kandrakar aid her in her quest for getting humanity rid of demon-kind. Not that Kandrakar wanted to get involved with earthlings not related to their Guardians or cared a lot for Earth, anyway.

 _Damn bureaucrats… I will have to be more careful from now on, then. Perhaps waiting until there is no Veil anymore and I can travel to any world that isn't Meridian;_ Nimue thought as she reclined in her chair. She looked at herself and then clasped her fingers, which resulted in her usual robes transforming magically into a long, bluish sleeping gown. _Nah, I'm feeling modern today_ ; she thought, transforming the gown into a bluish pajamas. She then reassumed her previous position in the chair, and proceeded to serve herself another glass of wine. There was something else bothering her, but she couldn't exactly put her finger on it. Closing her eyes as the red liquor touched her lips and travelled down her throat, Cornelia's face flashed through Nimue's mind, alongside a set of blurry images that the witch had problem identifying. Memories that she couldn't remember as well as she would like? Why was the Earth Guardian producing those in her?

 _Strange girl, that one_ ; she thought about Cornelia. _Seems familiar…_

* * *

 ** _Across the Veil; Meridian, Infinite City_**

Breathe in. Breathe out. Breathing… hurt. It hurt a lot, to be sincere; as if every breath of air carried alongside a set of tiny spikes that entered his body and hurt his sides from the inside. That… didn't make much sense, did it? No, but it sounded much better and poetic than admitting that his ribs were broken.

 _Ugh… what happened?_ Caleb thought, trying to not breathe neither very strong nor very fast, in order to reduce the pain at his sides. He tried to remember. Slowly, flashes of memory started to come to his mind. First was the tunnel. Then were the never-ending Shadowkhan, and then that cat-man… and then the blade, the Sword. Thanatos, Abaddon, darkness, pain… hatred and wrath. _Now_ he remembered. However, none of his returning memories did anything to clear the next question that popped in his mind.

 _Where am I?_

As his senses started to return, and with them the notion that not only was breathing which it hurt, but also making the smallest of movements, Caleb looked around himself with his green eyes. He was looking up towards a ceiling composed of stone of a greenish blue color… the Infinite City? How had he ended there? He tried to move a bit, slowly, in order to not cause more pain to his body. Only then did he notice that he was lying over something soft. A bed, he was lying over a bed. A bed in the Infinite City, which meant he was back in the rebel base, or maybe in one of the settlements. His sense of touch, slowly returning to its full capability, informed him that there was something raspy (and yet comfortable) against his skin. And from time to time, that something released something against his body that eased the pain.

 _Bandages, I have bandages all around my body…_ Caleb thought. _Bandages from…_

"This is preposterous!" Caleb heard then, and making a great effort he was able to tilt his head over the bed and look at his left. There, hands moving quickly and mixing boiled herbs with ointments of strange colors and strong odors, was Sephiria, daughter of Sara, back and green hair turned towards him. "Who, in the name of the Light of Meridian, those Guardians think they are? Taking our leader from us and then returning him in this condition! If it wasn't for me and the Mage, he would be dead! And then, everyone has the nerve to say that he has fallen in love with the Earth Guardian! I have been in love with him for years!"

"S-Sephiria…" Caleb whispered. Oh shit! Talking hurt almost as much as breathing!

The fourteen year old turned around and looked to Caleb with her eyes wide opened with happiness. "You are awake!" she said happily before approaching him. She checked in his bandages with care, looking if some of the runes weren't doing their job appropriately. "Light of Meridian, I'm so glad!" she cheered, her face becoming serious when she noticed Caleb's gaze upon her. She then cleared her throat, and when she spoke again she was speaking in the same meek tone she usually used. "I mean… you should rest now. Your body has been put through a lot of strain. I will see that your body heals, don't worry."

Caleb didn't say anything, and decided to stop fighting his body's growing urge to fall asleep. But as the eyes of the scarred boy closed, last thing they perceived was Sephiria's shape; and with it, one last question came to his mind.

 _She loves me?_

* * *

 ** _The Small Council's room_**

The atmosphere in the room designed to host the Small Council's meetings was tense, to say the least. Around the table sat the 'Mage', Vathek, Drake, Aldarn and Gareth. In front of them were the Five Guardians of Kandrakar, all of them in their Guardian forms, with Will sitting in a chair and the other four standing behind her. It had took them more than a night to find a Portal in the Veil in order to cross back to Meridian, and to that the time they had to spend in order to access the Infinity City had to be added. Some other kids their age would have protested expending their free time doing these things. After all, weekends were scarce; even with spring break coming soon. But not them, not now. Of course, Sephiria wasn't present, for obvious reasons. Gareth was a bit surprised that Jade wasn't around, but he didn't give that fact much importance. Drake was the one speaking right now, and he was doing so about an important matter.

"Are we sure there is no way to take that blade from him?" Drake asked the quintet of girls. The fact that they had come carrying an unconscious and badly injured Caleb with them hadn't earned the quintet the most warmed of welcomes.

"In the moment we take it far away enough from him it just… teleports back to his side;" Will informed the rebel. "We tried, even the Mage tried," the Keeper of the Heart said, gesturing to the Ancient One. "But we can't do anything. I doubt the damn thing can be even broken."

"The Keeper speaks true," the 'Mage' corroborated. She had been the first to tend to Caleb's wounded body, treating him with a bit of Quintessence in order to make sure he wasn't in the risk of dying, and then letting Sephiria do her job. _However, can this be useful or not?_ Nerissa Crossnic wondered under her glamour. If the story the young Vandom girl had told was true, then that blade had given Caleb enough strength to content toe to toe with two Guardians of Kandrakar at the same time; only being defeated by that mysterious sorceress the girls had talked about. But, in return it seemed to have a horrible effect over her son's body, transforming him into a mindless beast.

 _And big brother intended to sell it to that partner of ours_ , Cyrus thought as he took his right hand to his cheek and let his head's weight to rest over it. _We should be grateful that he didn't, our_ _partnership would have ended right there._

"Does that mean that Caleb is cursed? Can he lead us in that state?" Aldarn asked then. To the others, his was a question born out of worry and friendship, and despite how much he told himself that he didn't care about Caleb anymore; there was some truth in that. But mostly, it was a question born from pragmatism and planning. To Aldarn's eyes, Caleb had betrayed the trust that the people of this world had put upon him. What had he done, but ally the Rebellion to the same nobles that had been serving Phobos for years? What had he done, but to spit in the graves of the fallen, the friends and family, that had sacrificed themselves so they could come this far? Caleb was a traitor to the Rebellion's ideals and in Aldarn's opinion, traitors must be punished. But could he? According to the Water Guardian's words, that blade, now linked to Caleb, granted him not only astonishing strength and endurance, but also the power to kill anyone with one simple slash. Could his triumph card help him defeat that?

"Isn't there a way to help him, great Mage?" Vathek inquired. Out of the corner of his eye, the bulky blue Galhot noticed how the Earth Guardian's eyes widened and looked in the Mage's way with hope.

 _The bond with the blade doesn't seem to be easy to be severed_ , Nerissa thought. _In fact, I would say only the wielder's death can break it, and that's something that can't be allowed. But there should be a way to... uhm... The late Mage's texts detail several spells in order to either break or contain some curses. This is not exactly a curse per se; it's either a powerfully enchanted blade or something much worse… but perhaps with some modifications, and considering my experience and mastery of Quintessence…_ "I should be able to enchant a sheath in order to contain and seal the blade's curse."

"So… Caleb will be okay?" Hay Lin was the one to ask after the woman's explanation.

"I can't guarantee anything," the 'Mage' declared. "I shall put all my effort into it, and if the task proves successful, the curse of that blade will be sealed as long as it remains in the sheath, but in the moment is unsheathed, it will come back, maybe even stronger than before." _However… if my son became able to control that power…_ "Right now, we should focus on attending to young Caleb's wounds and make sure he is out of peril."

"Sephiria is taking care of that issue," Aldarn said while rising from his seat, an action that earned him curious gazes from his fellow rebels and the Guardians, and a somehow angry one from the 'Mage'. As if noticing this, the rebel boy halted and spoke. "I have to return to Torus Filney, the sooner, the better. The city is now starting to once again function normally under our command." _And I left my Mask there, hidden_. And of course he had other motives to return so fast to their conquered great city. Aldarn had it mostly occupied with his men, and he was taking commoners from the villages of the outer ring of Meridian inside, while the smallfolk that had occupied it beforehand were still imprisoned in the Infinite City, alongside their Viscount. They needed him there, directing and organizing everything so the city could flourish under a new, rebel leadership. And while Aldarn hadn't reached such a point in pursue of his goal in which he would strike down Caleb while he was ill (that would not be honorable, and no rebel would follow him if he did such cowardly act), Aldarn intended to inform some of the oldest rebels under his command, some of the ones that held the most authority amongst the foot soldiers of the Rebellion and who already were upset about allying themselves to that pair of nobles; of what had transpired in Earth. And with that information, he would spread the idea that Caleb wasn't fit to command them anymore. An idea he believed in with the same intensity he was certain the sun would rise another day. "But before I go," Aldarn said, and not even he was so sure if what left his lips was truth or lie; "I would like to see my friend."

"Then I suppose this meeting has ended," the 'Mage' declared, just for all the attendants to rise and start moving.

"Wait," they all heard then. Turning towards the speaker, both rebels and Guardians alike found themselves facing Will. The redhead looked at each one of them, including her friends and fellow Guardians. They were looking at her, expectant for what she had to say. "I… we; Caleb, Jade and I…" she sighed, and then spoke with more confidence and authority. "There's something I haven't tell you," she turned towards the other four Guardians. She flinched a bit upon making eye contact with Cornelia and Taranee, the latter looking at her with shock in her eyes. "None of you."

* * *

 ** _Across the Veil; Earth, Heatherfield_**

"Is this your final report, Captain?" one of four figures, each occupying a quarter of a split computer screen, asked of Captain Augustus Black. The one speaking right now was a woman in her late fifties, with a slightly wrinkled face and dark brown hair tied into a topknot.

"Yes, ma'am;" Black answered respectfully. He was sitting in the back of one of his SUVs, a laptop in front of him in order for him to hold this small meeting with his superiors. From time to time, the Captain of Section 13 passed one of his palms over his bald head, a sign of his nervousness.

"I must say, the way in which you have conducted this mission;" the woman continued in a stern tone; "leaves a lot to be desired."

"I beg to differ, Mrs. Foster;" another figure, this one a man in his forties with grassy, tanned skin, overweight, with a bunch of messy white hair over his head (that looked more like a wig than anything else) and a pair of little eyes that made his face look like the one of a toad, spoke next. "The results speak for themselves. Bartholomew Chang is out of commission and under custody, soon behind bars; his operation and inner circle completely dismantled, and the American branch of the biggest criminal organization in the planet will be soon directed by a man that works for us."

"The end justifies the means then, Mr. Comstock?" Mrs. Foster retorted with a question. "Numerous injured, one fatal casualty, thousands of dollars in property damage done to a city that ignored our presence; for not speaking of how one of Chang's direct subordinates is still in the run, the Captain's reckless use of a completely unpredictable and mentally deranged individual as is Quentin Ross, who has cost us _three_ of twelve Talismans; and how reliant this organization has become of civilians like Jackie Chan and his family during Mr. Black's command."

"Mrs. Foster;" a third individual, an extremely thin and black elderly man with small, round glasses over his eyes; spoke. "I think the Captain should be excused in that last one. Jackie Chan and his family have demonstrated time and time again how necessary they're to this organization's success against any magically powered threat," the old man coughed a bit after that. "If it wasn't for them, and according to the good Captain's reports, Asia would be ashes right now; or the entire planet would too, considering the existence of those… Demon Sorcerers, was it?" the old man saw how Black gave a little nod, and continued. "Frankly, I'm more concerned with the existence of organizations like the one of the freemasons; that possesses access to incredibly powerful magical artifacts without the Government's supervision."

"I concur with Mr. Harris;" Mr. Comstock declared.

Mrs. Foster fought back the urge of rolling her eyes. "Speaking of the freemasons, they are asking for a report on the state of their train and members. They demand that the artifacts must be given back to them. Also, according to them after reading the Captain's report and the testimonies of some of the Dark Hand's thugs, some of the artifacts have apparently disappeared."

"The freemasons have no right to demand _anything_ ," the fourth individual spoke at last. He was a man in the middle of his fifties and bald as Black was; of thin complexion, skin white, eyebrows thick and black, and eyes of an almond tone of brown. Sitting in a bluish chair, his sentence made the other three to shut their mouths. "As Mr. Harris has kindly explained, their organization has had access to these _weapons_ and the knowledge of the existence of magic for decades, perhaps centuries. Leaving them to continue their endeavors without any control would hold the same ethical value as to leave private companies to have access to nuclear warheads. Their artifacts will pass to be under governmental supervision, just like the ones that were retrieved from the Dark Hand. With this, Washington won't be able to keep ignoring the fact that magic threats are real and that more investment in Section 13 is needed."

The bald man made a pause, as if he was meditating something, or perhaps he was just letting this last sentence to linger in the air, as if to enjoy it.

"In the end, Section 13 has achieved its primary goal. Even with these loses, we have won;" he continued. "We have dealt a severe blow to the Dark Hand, not only their American branch, but also the Asian one. And we may have lost three Talismans, but Captain Black has also been retrieving those Oni Masks and storing them in the vault back in the base at San Francisco, to which the one recuperated from Hak Foo will be shortly added. All in all, I say our organization has been able to adapt to these new magic threats and give a large step in dismantling a global-scale crime syndicate."

"And what about Ross, Mr. Folkner?" Mr. Comstock asked of the thin, bald man.

"Isn't that woman…? Viper, was it?" Mrs. Foster interrupted. "Isn't she in Heatherfield already? If she is so interested in working for Section 13, task her and the local authorities with apprehending Ross and finding the lost Talismans."

"Agreed," old Mr. Harris said, coughing afterwards. "All loose ends should be cut."

"Very well," Mr. Folkner said after hearing his companions' declarations. "Captain Black, you have your orders. My assistant and I will meet with you in Heatherfield in order to survey that Mr. Hale's taking over Chang's former position goes smoothly."

"You… will be coming here, sir?" Black asked, a bit surprised by that. Victor Folkner wasn't precisely a man known for involving himself in these affairs.

"I will be taking a plane tonight, and I will be arriving tomorrow," Mr. Folkner said. "And, Captain?"

"Yes, sir?" Black asked of his superior.

Mr. Folkner breathed deeply and his expression changed to a more relaxed one. "Inform Mr. Chan that I have pulled some strings, and that next week he will start working at the Archeology Department in Heatherfield University. Tell him that he has done enough, and that we will take it from here."

"Yes, sir;" Black obeyed with pleasure. "Sirs, ma'am;" the Captain addressed the other three, and seconds after the screen of the laptop went black. Captain Black got out of the SUV afterwards, and putting his hands in the pockets of his jacket, he let out a long sigh. He was sure that this job was somehow shortening his lifespan.

* * *

 ** _Across the Veil; Infinite City_**

Sephiria had exited the room Caleb was in, at Aldarn's own request. This left the young Galhot alone in the room alongside his unconscious leader and friend. Then again, Aldarn didn't respect him as a leader anymore, neither did he considered him exactly a friend. The green-haired faithful had told him that Caleb was still unconscious, and unable to hear anything. Aldarn was counting precisely on that. He took a wooden chair that Sephiria had left around and, after putting it at the bed's side, he sat on it.

"Here you are. Can you even hear me? I suppose not," Aldarn addressed Caleb, the green eyed boy's chest going up and down calmly. At the bed's other side, leaning against the wall, was the Sword of Thanatos. The Mage surely would come sonn in order to put the accursed blade into that magical sheath she had spoken about before. And that meant Aldarn didn't have much time to do this. He wasn't entirely sure of why he was doing this. Bu he was. "Tell me… do you sometimes think about how we met? I do. I have done so a lot during the last month. After Torus Filney, after you… you decided to pact with the scum. I remember it as if it was just yesterday. A boy simply runs into another in the endless halls of the Infinite City, and they start playing. What a surprise was, for the humble blacksmith's son to discover that his new friend was the son of Julian, of the great leader of the Rebellion. Yes, I would lie if I said… that I didn't envy you, even if it was just a little. But, Light of Meridian, Caleb; I followed you, I cared for you. I was your friend, and you never acted as if I was any different or less than you. I told me, when your father died and you took command, that I would protect your back. That I would never let those bastards, those same bastards that took Bessie, and Rolph, and Nadia, and Gormath, and James… I wouldn't let them take you." Aldarn paused for several seconds, his hands, up until then resting opened over his knees, becoming fists. "But I _am_ a rebel!" he practically yelled in his friend's unconscious face. "And that means something. It means I fight for Meridian; I fight for freedom, for returning to the golden days that the elders speak about, when they lived under Queen Weira's rule! And what about those that hurt us? What about the nobles, who have been supporting Phobos and his court over their shoulders?! Now you tell me…" his teeth grinding, Aldarn seemed in the verge of suffering an attack. "Now you tell me that they can be forgiven, that they can be our allies. I won't tolerate it, Caleb. I won't tolerate you shaming what this Rebellion has been fighting for during thirteen years, during _all my life_ ;" Aldarn stopped again and lowered his gaze. "The leader of the Guardians told us what you, the Good Wolf and her planned. I… I understand it; I thank you for taking that risk. But it changes nothing. And I swear, when all this is ended, and you're de… and I'm the one in command, Servantis will be the first one to fall, as he should have done back in his city. Meridian has had enough of Phobos and his followers. There can be no future if there is not a clean slate. I'm just begging you… that when the time comes, you understand."

With those last words, Aldarn rose to his feet and left the room, decided to return to Torus Filney and proceed as how he had planned. Caleb was left behind, still asleep. Of course, he hadn't heard anything.

* * *

 ** _The Castle, alchemical laboratory_**

"You have returned at last;" Daolon Wong said while he brewed a potion in a large cauldron. At his side was Roberta, the silent Shapeshifter playing with her blond hair, now less greenish than before and more abundant than months ago. The Archmage of Phobos' court had talked to none other than Tracker, the undead just having entered the wizard's laboratory. "Where have you been? Neither the Prince, nor any of the Lurdens have talked about you been deployed in the field."

"I was hunting," Tracker said, approaching the wizard, Sniffer following in his steps and directing a quick glance to Roberta. Tracker had taken notice of how the girl was now always standing around Daolon Wong, always quiet, but diligent. The wizard hadn't put her under the thrall of the Horn of Hypnos, in contrast with the other Shapeshifters he had recently created. "On Earth," the undead said in his raspy voice.

"And was the hunt fructiferous, my friend?" Wong asked softly, not even lifting his eyes from the cauldron full with brewing liquid. "I know the waiting until I make my move against Phobos can be tiring."

Tracker snorted, or at least the undead's throat produced a sound that more or less resembled a snort. He then halted mere meters away from Wong and searched inside his robes' pockets. "Not in the way I thought it would be… but you could say so, my friend;" he declared, taking the Rooster Talisman out of his pocket. Tracker was delighted when he noticed how Wong's shoulders grew stiff with surprise.

 _That feeling! This chi!_ the Archmage thought as he turned around and looked at Tracker with the most greedy of looks. In the moment his gaze fell over the Rooster Talisman, Wong's face contorted into an expression of pure joy. "One of the Twelve Powers… how?!"

"I faced a man on Earth that tried to use it against me," Tracker explained, handing it to Wong. "I couldn't kill him, but I was able to take it from him. I suppose it can be more useful to you than to me."

"Indeed," Wong answered happily as he took the Talisman on his hand. Shortly after, the palm of his other one opened, revealing a circular mouth with teeth in it. Muttering something, Wong started to siphon the Rooster Talisman into his very being, the hexagonal rock crumbling into dust afterwards. With a loud yell, Wong's eyes flashed with light and slowly, his body started to rose in the air, until he was looking at both Tracker and Roberta from above. He proceeded to shot a couple of eye beams to a nearby flask using the power he had stolen from the Pig Talisman, and before the shards could fall to the floor, he used the power of the Rooster to lift them in the air with a simple gesture of his hand. Then he clenched his fist, telekinetically smashing the shards against one another, until only a compressed ball of crystal remained.

"Ahahaha…" Wong started to laugh looking at his hands. "AHAHAHAHA! Telekinesis from the Rooster, Heat Vision from the Pig, my own spells and magic, the Horn of Hypnos! I! AM! UNSTOPPABLE!"

* * *

 ** _Across the Veil; Earth, a hospital in Heatherfield; morning_**

"Mr. Black, Captain Black, or whatever you're called, you can't do this to me; entiendes?" a short woman in her thirties, with darkened skin and reddish hair (and one of the biggest busts the Captain had ever seen), and clearly Hispanic; told Black while pointing an accusing finger to his face. Both were standing in a large passageway of the hospital. "Por el amor de Dios! These people are all badly injured, the corpse we've in the morgue seems to have suffered a massive multi-organic failure, and that redheaded man is borderline catatonic! And I don't even know why!"

"Doctor Sanchez…" Captain Black began, trying to sound as diplomatic as possible. "Please, you have to understand…"

"I don't care if they're criminals, or if you're the damn James Bond!" the woman yelled. "Chief Lair was here this morning, and he wanted to know why he has received orders in order to arrest all these patients once they're able to leave! And I don't know! We have several other patients to attend, and you bring here more than twenty injured?!"

"I intend to inform Mr. Lair of why he has received such orders and why and…"

"No, you know what? I have people to attend to;" Doctor Sanchez said, turning around and leaving the Captain behind. "I hope you have a good day, capullo."

 _I don't think she knows that I know what that last one means_ ; Captain Black thought as he left the scene. Not that he was going to protest for being insulted, the woman had every right to protest to him, and after all she was just trying to do her job as best as she could, just like he was. After walking for several minutes around the hospital, he found the people he was searching for. "Jackie," he called softly.

Jackie Chan, dressed in a pair of dark pants and a white shirt, and with him the Chan Clan in its entirety alongside Viper (who had ditched her bodysuit in favor of more mundane clothing, namely a suit very similar to the one she was wearing when arriving on Heatherfield), were all looking through a glass into one of the hospital's rooms. The archeologist noticed him quickly, giving a couple of steps towards him and shaking his hand.

"Captain Black," he said with a smile. "It's good to meet you under… better circumstances."

"Yes, these have been quite the mad months for everyone;" Black admitted. "I'm sorry for keeping involving you all in Section 13's messes."

"You kidding, right?" Jade asked, one hand in her hip. "We're happy to help you."

"Kid's right, it's the least some of us can do;" Viper told the bald man. "By the way," the former thief woman said next, searching inside her suit's jacket's pockets and extracting the Snake Talisman afterwards. "I believe this belongs to you."

"Thank you," Black said sincerely, taking the hexagonal rock in his hand. Four Talismans; that had been the number of them he had sent to Heatherfield. And only one had come back to him.

"Captain Black, about the Rooster…" Jackie started to say, but Captain Black interrupted him before he could say anything else.

"You don't have to apologize, Jackie;" Black told his old-time friend. "Do we exactly know what that… zombie that took the Talisman was?"

"Nope," Jade was quick to answer. "No idea. He's got some grudge against the Oni, that's all we know."

Black nodded slowly, and Jackie felt bad for it. They had had no problems letting Viper know the secret existence of the Guardians, Meridian and the other worlds full of life out there. But, as Uncle and Yan Lin had explained, letting Captain Black know was too risky. So it was better, even if it made him feel bitter, if Section 13 thought that Tracker was an earthling threat and that that the reason why one of Chang's underlings had ended dead was because one of the artifacts had killed him after misusing it and not because Caleb had killed him with a magic sword.

"Speaking of Talismans, do we know something about the other two? The Pig and Dragon?" Black continued to ask.

"Uncle tried to locate the Dragon Talisman with one of his strongest spells," the Chan elder started to explain, he and his enormous apprentice still looking inside the room via the glass; "but he wasn't able to find any trace of its presence."

"What does that mean… auch," Captain Black had tried to ask, but as soon as he had approached Uncle, the old man had dope slapped him in no different way than he slapped his nephew.

"Captain Black should let Uncle end his explanation!" the elder protested. "It means that, either Uncle's spells are not as good as they use to be; or that the Dragon Talisman was destroyed in the avalanche!"

"Wait, wait, wait… You can break a Talisman?" Jade inquired. "What happens then?"

"The Talismans are mere containers for their powers, Jade;" Tohru, who had remained silent just until now, explained. "They are just the result of the spell Lo Pei used in order to seal Shendu in the form of a statue and take the powers from him. According to sensei, if a Talisman is destroyed and the power is not quickly siphoned, it will be transferred to an animal of the sign they represent. Since I doubt there are any dragons left in this world, I suppose the power should be just… floating in the air."

"What about a Komodo dragon?" Jade wondered. "Could one of those get the Dragon Talisman's power? Should we be looking for one?"

"Has Uncle said anything about some reptile becoming the heir to the Power of Combustion?" Uncle slowly asked. "No? Then they aren't! Talisman is most likely not broken. But perhaps it's too deep underground for Uncle's spells to found it!"

And unknown to the old Chinese wizard, the Dragon Talisman was really deeply underground. And in another world. And embedded into the metallic, prosthetic arm of Nerissa Crossnic.

"And the Pig is still in the hands of Daolon Wong," Uncle finished his explanations.

 _Daolon Wong who lives in another world, and whom Section 13 can't go after because they think he lives in this one_ ; Jackie thought. Could it be really _that_ dangerous to let Captain Black and just some others into the secret? Could that really end into the world's governments pursuing his niece and her friends?

"And… how is he?" Black asked his last question of the day, pointing towards the glass. That gesture was enough to take Jackie away from his thoughts and focus in reality once again. "The doctors said he is catatonic, even if they can't exactly discern the motive, but what's your opinion?"

Looking through the glass, Jackie could see none other than Hak Foo, laying over a bed, a nurse checking in him and the machines he was connected to via a bunch of tubes. They were, apparently, feeding him with serum, and Jackie had heard that they had put him in _diapers_. The mighty Black Tiger, who had fought him as an equal countless times, now unable to even use the bathroom by himself. And yet, the eyes still moved and blinked, the only part of his body that still answered to him and that the doctors and nurses used to communicate with him. And right now the eyes were opened wide, looking at them. Jackie could even feel the hatred on that look.

"His chi's a mess;" Jade answered the Captain's question. "Even I can feel that, and my Chi Magic's purely oriented to combat."

"He has been with that Oni Mask on for too long," Tohru intervened. "The chi of the Oni imprisoned inside the Mask… it must have started to eat away Hak Foo's own chi, making his body dependant on the Mask."

"This is the reason humans shouldn't play with demon magic," Uncle said sadly. "His chi will regenerate with time, but until then, he will remain like that. Uncle doubts even something like the Horse Talisman can help him. Chi is not the same as physical wounds. Once scarred, then it will remain like that forever."

"I will transfer him to San Francisco or maybe Washington as soon as possible;" Captain Black said. It could be dangerous to maintain Hak Foo near Jackie when he recuperated, and as soon as he was out of this 'magical-catatonia', Black wanted him standing trial like Chang and all the other people they had arrested. At least Chang hadn't needed any medical attention.

"I think we should be going now," Jackie said. "You have everything under control, right?"

"With all you have done, and all the information Harold has provided, Chang won't be seeing the light of day in a long time," Black stated. "And Taiwan won't risk making any protest, not now that we know the full extent of Chang's operations in American soil. My own superior is coming to this city to oversee that Harold's… _ascension_ to the vacant Chang has left goes smoothly. I doubt that any other of the high-ranked criminals of the American branch will try something, since they are still weak from the war that ensued Valmont's downfall; for not saying anything about how Chang's fall must have affected them. But… I would like you to meet with my superior, Jackie."

"Me?" a surprised Jackie asked as his family, Viper and Captain Black started to walk down the hall. Black stopped himself when they reached its end, since he wouldn't be accompanying them out of the hospital. There was still much paperwork to fill.

"Yes, you have been a great help to us," Black explained; "that I would feel like an idiot if I didn't give Mr. Folkner the opportunity to thank you for all your efforts."

"Hey! What about us?!" Jade asked, gesturing to the rest of the Chan Clan. "We've helped too!"

"I know, but let's say that I have a surprise for your uncle here;" Black said with a small grin while pointing to Jackie with his thumb. The rest of the Chan Clan distanced themselves from the pair, Jade asking Viper if she had somewhere to stay in while in Heatherfield, and the ex-thief answering that she was staying at an hotel. "We will talk soon," Black told Jackie, shaking his hand in the process. "I will be staying in Heatherfield until Mr. Folkner arrives tomorrow and go back to San Francisco only when he departs; there are still things to do."

"Ross?" Jackie asked, Black nodding.

"Amongst others. Crane wasn't with the rest of thugs we arrested. He must have taken advantage of the confusion in order to escape;" Black explained. "And the freemasons are enraged. Apparently, some of the artifacts have disappeared."

"Wait, what?" Jackie uttered in sock. "How?" he asked. It was true that he and Captain Black had delayed themselves a bit after arresting Chang, but that had been in order to let the girls, Uncle and Tohru to get out of the tunnel. And none of them had taken any artifacts, at exception of Hak Foo's Oni Mask.

"According to the few goons we have interrogated, goblins;" Black told him. "That was the only thing all the stories had in common."

"Goblins?" Jackie, each sentence of the conversation making him more and more confused, asked.

"Yes, they all said something among the lines of 'Goblins came, took some artifacts and then disappeared'. And they all smelled horribly, I have been told."

For the blink of an eye, Jackie remained still. Then, after his mind had registered all the information Captain Black had provided him with and connected the dots, his eyes shot towards his niece, laughing after making a joke with Viper while waiting for the elevator with the rest of his family.

Could it be…?

* * *

 ** _Silver Dragon's basement; several hours later_**

"You stole them?!" Jackie shrieked. He had confronted his niece about what Captain Black had told him as soon as they had left the hospital, and to his surprise (and dismay) Jade had suddenly grown serious, and told him 'Not now, not here'. So here they all were now, the Chan Clan and Viper, Yan Lin, and the five Guardians of Kandrakar, back in their human forms. Except that this time, instead of everyone trying to occupy a seat, only Will and Jade were sitting in the couch and Jackie and the other four Guardians else was standing around them. Uncle and Yan Lin maintained themselves near the stairs, one cousin at the side of the other and Tohru behind them, while Viper leaned against a wall of the basement.

"Technically, it was Blunk who stole them, alongside a bunch of other Passlings;" Jade pointed out. "But it was our plan, so… yeah. And Caleb's, but you know that already."

"Jade!" Jackie angrily yelled to his niece, who didn't seem to be taking this issue as seriously as she should. "We… I… We were there to stop Chang precisely from using those artifacts as weapons! And now you just tell me that you are going to use them in Meridian for that very same reason?!"

"What do we do then?" Will was the next to talk, sitting at the side of the Chinese Shapeshifter girl. "We ask Cornelia's father for guns just like the Rebellion did with Chang?" Will asked, gesturing towards the blonde, who evaded the redhead's gaze upon the mention of her father. "Or what? Do Jade and I keep killing people in order to force more nobles to join forces with the rebels? Do we throw the rebels into fights they can't win?"

 _Wait, killing people?_ Viper thought with surprise. Her attention jumped them from Will to Jade and back to Will. They… these girls, these teenagers… had killed?

"And that's a bit hypocritical coming from you, uncle Jackie;" Jade told the martial artist.

"Hypocritical how?" Jackie asked angrily, arms folded over his chest.

"How? _You_. You're calling us out because we want to use the artifacts as weapons?!" Will was the one to shout now, standing up from the couch and approaching Jackie. There were very few times in which the man actually focused in how smaller the teenage girl was compared to him. "Why do you think Section 13 sent Ross here with four Talismans, two clearly meant to fight and the other two for support?! It was a test! What do you think Section 13 will do with the knowledge of magic, or those artifacts, or even the Talismans or the Oni Masks once the Dark Hand's gone?!"

"Captain Black would never…" Jackie began.

"Your Captain Black's just a man!" Will yelled and interrupted him. "If his bosses order him to hand the artifacts or Talismans to the army, or something, he'll have to do it! And you criticize me, us, for doing exactly what they would do?! For trying to take opportunities in our advantage in order to win a war?!"

"That's not the issue here, Will;" Taranee spoke next, giving a couple of steps towards the redhead. "I'm the daughter of a judge, and believe me when I say that I have _a lot_ of respect for rules and the law… but that's not the reason we, or at least I'm, doing this."

 _Is not?_ Jackie thought.

"And what would that be?" Jade asked of the black girl, who had paused herself to adjust her glasses.

"You lied to us."

Will and Jade's expression changed then, from ones showing anger or even indifference to ones showing shock mixed with a bit of shame. It had been Hay Lin the one who had spoken, and looking at her the Ben-Shui Chosen one and the Keeper of the Heart of Kandrakar saw how the Air Guardian looked heartbroken. Hay Lin was an expert into doing that without even trying. Every emotion that a person felt, when Hay Lin did, seemed to be magnified.

"We're friends, right?" Hay Lin said sadly. "Friends… don't lie to each other. You could've told us what you three were doing."

Will didn't let any more shouting out of her throat, instead sitting down in the couch again. There she put her arms over her tights and looked at the ground with eyes half opened. "You would've protested…"

"Or tell us that we shouldn't be doing this, or tell us that this was wrong…" Jade said then, folding her arms over her chest in the very same manner Jackie had done before. "Tch… we were just… trying to do something to minimize the losses and… we didn't want for you to be part of something you wouldn't have liked…"

"We would've understood, believe me;" Irma told the Chan girl. "I would have," Irma remarked, "especially after seeing that guy dying in that tunnel. I understand very well why you two did this, you dummies."

"And that's the thing, Will;" Taranee said, the Fire Guardian approaching the couch and kneeling in order to look at the two girls eye to eye, taking Will's hand between hers. "Ever since Torus Filney… ever since Fallbottom," she said, looking at Jade, who now was the one trying to evade the girl's gaze, to no avail; "or Lannion, she said, noting how Will's hands trembled a bit; "you two have been doing this; taking all the weight of these decisions over your shoulders. But that's not how it works. We're here for you, and even if I don't like it… I can understand that sometimes we have to cross some lines. But you can count on us!"

"Tara's right," Irma stated. "We're the Guardians of Kandrakar, not the ' _Two Girls Who Plan Things and the Other Four Who Obey_ '."

"Ha…" Jade let out a little laughter. "And I thought you were the good one with nicknames."

"Oh, just shut up;" Irma retorted, putting on a playful grin; Hay Lin giggling a bit due to her friends' behavior.

"Alright, alright;" Cornelia said then, clapping her hands a bit. "Things explained. We've got magic weapons now. Care to explain the rest how it's going to benefit us?"

 _Sometimes I'm glad when she puts on that arrogant tone_ , Will thought about Cornelia. Albeit the Earth Guardian could be the most supportive of persons when you needed her, the redhead was also thankful for how the blonde usually was. Her bluntness and prideful demeanor made her to push the people around her onward, and gave Will the (for lack of a better term) will to continue.

"The artifacts made simple thugs into people that could hold their own against us;" Will explained slowly. "If equipped with them, some of the rebel commanders should be able to take on several of Phobos' army's platoons on their own, not to mention how much of an advantage they'll give us in another battle like the one of Torus Filney. Phobos' forces may be expecting guns like the last time, but not magic weapons."

"And that also means," Jade took the reins of the conversation after the redhead had ended her explanation. "That we won't have to be on Meridian all the time," the Chinese girl said with a long sigh; "that we can… be normal girls, even if it's just for a bit. You know, go to school, and maybe go to see a movie… all those non-magical, boring things."

"See?" Hay Lin said then, the face of the Air Guardian returning to show her usual happiness. "Was it really so difficult?"

* * *

 ** _Several minutes later_**

"Can we talk for a bit?" Viper asked to Jackie once everyone else had left. The girls needed to go back to their homes, Uncle and Tohru wanted to take advantage of Captain Black's presence in the city in order to discuss the matters concerning the Oni Masks and Tarakudo, and Yan Lin… well, this _was_ her restaurant. That left Viper alone with Jackie, the archeologist having delayed himself from following the others.

"Of course," Jackie answered.

Viper didn't say anything right away, instead opting for just standing at Jackie's side for a few minutes before speaking. Both of them were looking at the stairs that lead out of the basement, where the six girls had stood moments earlier before leaving. "You know… she was probably right," Viper spoke at last. "That redhead, Will; about Section 13, and Black's superiors."

"We don't know that," Jackie said.

"Neither we know that they won't use things like the Talismans as weapons, or perhaps try to replicate magic spells. And I'm not saying it can be necessarily bad, either. Magic must defeat Magic, and all that;" Viper told him, shrugging a bit. "You are a good man, Tiger. That's what I like about you, honest. And I'm glad that Jade has someone like you around to look up to. But sometimes…"

"Sometimes it doesn't do me any good, I know;" Jackie ended the phrase for her. He then chuckled sadly. "You know, when I first met Caleb, the boy from another world;" he explained, "he was… so full of hatred, and justifying everything he did by telling himself that he was a hero and everyone standing against him was a villain that deserved to be killed. I told him how idiotic that train of thought was. The funny thing is… Harold told _me_ something similar when I first discovered he worked for the Dark Hand. And then appeared Ross, who takes those same beliefs to the extreme, and worked for the same organization my family has been aiding since two years ago. Sometimes I miss the days in which the only thing I fought was a giant demonic dragon."

"Yes, not as complicated as fighting people;" Viper told him. "People do good things in the name of something bad, or do bad things in the name of something good… but at least, Tiger, you take your time to discern them. And maybe it doesn't do you any good sometimes, but normally? You are a good man, Jackie Chan. I would lie if I say it wasn't that goodness what was able to inspire Tohru and I to turn to a better life. Well, that and Jade fangirling all over me."

Jackie chuckled upon that sentence.

"Your niece… Jade;" Viper continued, in a much somber tone than before; "has killed people, eh?"

"Yes," Jackie answered bluntly. How strange, he had thought he would try to evade the question at first, but now he didn't see any reason to do so. "The first one was a man named Tharquin," the way in which Jackie had said that name surprised Viper. She had never heard Jackie talk about someone with so much hatred; "who had been torturing her for hours. That I could understand, but then she killed some guards during one of the girls' missions on Meridian. Nameless guards, probably good people fighting in the wrong side… I don't know. Ones that would have tried to kill her if given the opportunity, yes; but people nonetheless, that were just protecting a little girl. And I know she could have used non-lethal force. What happens… if next time she and Will decide to go a step further? What do I do?"

"You feel responsible;" Viper stated. "And… guilty;" she added after a few seconds.

"Shouldn't I?" Jackie asked, eyes still locked in the staircase that leaded out of the basement. "If I had been just a bit more critical, or perhaps a bit more cautious… maybe some of the disgraces Jade and those thirteen year old girls have passed wouldn't have happened."

Viper put her arm around the archeologist's shoulders. "You can't control everything, Tiger; no one can. And nobody can save everybody. You should stop putting the weight of the world over your shoulders too. Maybe you need to relax a bit. So? Does Mr. Archeologist want to go and have a drink with the ex-super-thief? I bet we could talk about a lot of things."

Jackie dedicated a smile to the beautiful woman. They remained like that for several seconds, and then, step by step; they abandoned the basement of the restaurant.

* * *

 ** _Vandom residence; hours later_**

After having lunch and engaging into a fight with her math homework, Will Vandom sat in her couch, in the verge of taking a nap. Her mother meanwhile, prepared herself for a full-on date with Dean Collins. And there had been no excuses from Susan's part, Will's mother had called it a date. Months ago Jade had told her that Mr. Collins stood no chance into getting into a relationship with her mom, and yet time had proven the black haired girl wrong and the ginger teacher successful in his quest for a relationship. Now that Will thought about it… had her mother something for redheads? Mr. Collins hadn't exactly the same intense tone of red that her father and she shared, but he was technically a redhead too.

 _Hours ago I'm thinking about how to win a war, now about my mother's preferences in men_ ; Will thought. Truth to be told, she had found herself surprised about the fact that she didn't feel as preoccupied as before about her mother getting a… _boyfriend_. Dear lord, it still sounded weird; that at least was consequential. But in comparison with everything going on in her life right now, and of which her mother didn't know anything (and of which she would never know. Susan Vandom had enough with her work and her life to think about the fact that her daughter was fighting a war), her mother going out with one of her teachers felt… small.

"Alright, just to be sure;" Will heard her mother's voice as she entered the living room, dressed in a pair of jeans and a shirt that accentuated her curvaceous body, a jacket over them. "One more time," she said.

Will sighed. "Dinner's in the fridge, I just need to put it in the microwave. You'll be back late, so I must be in bed at ten o'clock. And if I go out with my friends in the afternoon, I've got to phone you before and tell you where we're going."

"That's my girl," Susan said, bending and kissing Will in the cheek. "Wish me fun."

"Okay… Have fun, mom;" Will replied in maybe not the most enthusiastic of voices. Bent into dethroning a tyrant in another world or not, a teenager was still a teenager.

After Susan had crossed the door, Will was left pondering what to do. Perhaps she had over-worried herself with how the girls would react to her and Jade's plan. Agh… they had been right, maybe it wouldn't have hurt anybody to let them in. But what could happen when the mission meant not just Jade sneaking around in the last moment to tell a Passling group headed by Blunk to snitch some magic trinkets away, but more unsavory and unethical things? She let her head to swing backwards and look at the ceiling, after which she took her phone out from her pocket. She decided those were thoughts for another time, and instead her head focused in what she had told to her mother. _Have fun, have fun…_ she thought. _It's not such a bad idea_ ; she decided, and then proceeded to deal a number.

"Matt?" she asked once the phone did its work. "Hey, it's me, it's Will… Hey, so… do you want to hang out this afternoon? Yeah… yes, yes! Sure, at Heatherfield Plaza in an hour, I'll be right there!" she said before hanging the phone.

Jade had been right. It was good to return to all the non-magical, normal things.

* * *

 ** _Lair residence_**

"I got you," Irma Lair, the Water Guardian sharing her living room's couch with her brother Chris, told said brother while the two of them played at a console. In the screen of their TV, two combatants in weirdly colored clothing exchanged punches each time the siblings pressed some buttons in their controllers. Above each of the fighters was a bar depicting how much health the character still had, and considering the difference between them, it was clear Irma hold the advantage. "I got you now!"

"No, no, no, no, no!" Chris protested as the only thing he could do was look hopelessly how his character was defeated by Irma's.

"Yes!" the older sibling proclaimed, jumping from the couch and throwing her arms in the air. "In your face!" she said, pointing to her little brother, who was making pout.

"Another one!" Chris demanded.

"Nope," Irma said, crossing her arms in front of her in the shape of an X. "I've got homework to do, else mom will ground me."

"What?!" Chris shouted, getting off the couch and storming out of the living room, with Irma slowly walking after him. In the kitchen, they found both their parents, sitting around the table where they usually ate. This time, however, what was over the table was a bunch of papers and documents, Tom reading through them with a concerned look. "Mom!" Chris continued, approaching his mother, Anna. "Irma's taking homework over a rematch!"

Anna, a woman in the mid of her thirties to with tanned skin and auburn curled hair to whom Irma held the most resemblance; chuckled and then straight up laughed at her son's behavior. "And don't you have homework to do too?" she asked, and after seeing her son's distressed look, she decided to add another sentence. "Tell you what, sweetheart; whoever ends homework last, gets a handicap."

"Really?" Chris asked, eyes practically shaped like stars. Anna nodded, and next thing Irma knew her little brother was storming out of the kitchen with a grin from ear to ear.

"Hey, how come I never got that kind of incentive?" Irma asked, hands in her trousers' pockets.

Anna chuckled once again. "You didn't have an older sibling you wanted to fight with," she explained. "And how's that you, dear daughter, want to do your homework, or play with your brother? That's not the usual thing you do."

Irma was the one shrugging now. "I don't know, I just did it;" she explained. Of course, she wasn't going to tell her mother that she had done it because she needed to get distracted from the fact that she had seen a man die in front of her not more than a day ago. Irma Lair was a girl that, usually, liked to crack a good joke and have fun. In exactly which moment had the jokes, albeit still being fun, started to be coping mechanisms? Probably in the same moment being a Guardian had stopped being synonymous with being a superhero and more with being a soldier. "So, how're things going on here?"

Anna's gaze jumped from her daughter to her husband. "Well… not very well."

"Really?" Irma said at the same time she walked to the fridge and extracted a bottle full of orange juice, from which she proceeded to serve herself a glass. "What's going on?"

"This city is going crazy, that's ' _what's going on_ ';" Tom Lair told his daughter, strolling through document after document. "Some weird, secret government organization conducts an operation under our noses and trashes some underground tunnel, then gets almost two dozen people in the hospital, and I'm the one that has to ask for explanations… and then!" The chubby cop stopped his rant for a second, rubbing his forehead. "Then this Augustus Black has the nerve to tell me that there is some dangerous man named Quentin Ross in the run in the city, as if he was expecting us to clean his mess! And that's not even counting what happened in the city hall the other day! Seriously, this used to be a safe city!"

"Whoa, dad!" Irma shouted in pure surprise. "Calm down, geez."

"Sorry, sorry…" Tom told his daughter, this time rubbing his eyes. "It's been a rough couple of days."

 _You don't know half of it, dad_ ; Irma thought, exiting the kitchen and heading to her room with the glass of juice.

* * *

 ** _One day later_**

In the terrace of a bar, each having a coffee, Jackie Chan and Augustus Black were having a conversation. Albeit Jackie had come expecting for Captain Black to be there with his superior already, Captain Black had appeared alone, and their conversation had taken on a much different topic than the Dark Hand or anything similar.

"Heatherfield University?!" Jackie shouted, surprising some of the bystanders that were passing by, who quickly ignored the two men and continued their walk, minding their own business. "I-I… I don't what to say;" Jackie stuttered. "But what about my job in San Francisco?"

"It's all taken care of," Black assured him. "Mr. Folkner took matters personally, and that man has people that own him favors everywhere. Sincerely, he scares me sometimes. But he was the man behind the creation of Section 13, and the one who put us in pursue of the Dark Hand. Without him, we might not have learned about Valmont's existence."

 _He really sounds resourceful_ ; Jackie thought, taking a sip from his coffee mug. It didn't take too long for a car to stop and park at the other side of the street. Captain Black was quick to point towards it.

"That's him," Black said, making Jackie to look at the car.

It wasn't a vehicle out of the blue, which stroke Jackie as strange. Or perhaps it was just that he had been expecting a SUV like the ones Captain Black had come to Heatherfield in, or maybe even a limousine for this man. But no, it was a completely normal, utilitarian car, of a light reddish color. From it descended the pilot, a slightly muscled man that must have been in his thirties (certainly, he didn't look older than Jackie) with tanned skin and blond hair, sporting a pair of glasses over his eyes and dressed in a pair of black jeans, a white shirt and a brownish jacket over it. He was quick to open the door of the co-pilot, from where he helped another individual to exit the car. He was a man in the middle of his fifties, bald (Jackie wondered if it was a requisite for being a higher up of Section 13), thin and white; with thick brown eyebrows and dressed in actually quite the casual clothing. Khaki pants and a greenish pullover. The shoes, black and clean, looked expensive. The man was also carrying a cane, the pommel of which was shaped like an eagle, and that he used to lean on. Both men crossed the street in mere seconds, and Jackie and Black rose to greet them.

"Jackie Chan," Captain Black told him. "It's a pleasure to introduce you to my direct superior, Victor Folkner," Captain Black said while making a gesture towards the bald man; "and his assistant and bodyguard, Raphael Silla."

"Hey there, man;" the blonde man, with the glasses, Silla, said in a happy tone, shaking Jackie's hand with enthusiasm. The bald man, Mr. Folkner; did the same in a much more calmed manner.

"Jackie Chan," Mr. Folkner said. His voice was suave and his almond eyes had a cold edge. "It's an honor to finally meet you."

"The honor is mine, Mr. Folkner;" Jackie answered. "I can't express how grateful I am for getting me a job in Heatherfield University. Please, if you would like anything…"

Both men sat in the same table Jackie and Black were occupying. Folkner ordered a simple coffee with a glass of ice, Silla a milkshake. Folkner told Jackie that he shouldn't be so thankful, since it was the least he could do after all the risks he and his family had taken with helping them. After a while, the conversation started to move towards the issue with the Dark Hand, and of course, Harold Hale.

"Mr. Hale's collaboration will be invaluable for us, Mr. Chan. Not only the Asian branch has lost its head, but now the American one will be working with us;" Folkner told Jackie. "But we must proceed with caution now. Albeit I doubt any of the rank-and-file members of the American branch of the Dark Hand will object to Harold taking command, there is always the issue of the leader of any other branch growing suspicious. That's the reason I recommend you to… stay away from Mr. Hale as much as you can. If the new leader of the American branch and the man partially responsible for Chang's downfall acted friendly towards one another, it wouldn't do us any good. And if things grow too complicated, we may find ourselves in the necessity of staging a fake attack over you."

"I… understand;" Jackie said after a few moments, letting the words of Mr. Folkner to sink in his mind. "And about the Asian branch, Crane mentioned that a man named Tommy Chung directs it in Chang's absence."

Folkner nodded, while Silla took a small notebook out of his jacket and made an annotation. Then, the blonde man continued to drink his milkshake.

"Very well then," Folkner continued, sipping his coffee on ice a bit more. "I think that will be all about this. I will make a few calls to China and Taiwan to see if Chang's absence really hurts the Dark Hand in Asia. In order to deal with Europe, Oceania and Africa's branches, we will have to work in coalition with the Interpol."

Jackie didn't say anything else. He ended his coffee and decided it was time to leave. In a handful of days, he would have to start a new job, after all. And to be fair, he felt that there was nothing else he, or his family, could do. After all, Chang was behind bars, and albeit he didn't feel that Hak Foo deserved what had happened to him; Folkner had sworn to him that once out of the hospital every member of the Dark Hand would receive a fair trial. All in all the Dark Hand had lost, and that was the important part.

* * *

 ** _Hale residence; after school_**

"Mom! Mom, I'm back!" Cornelia Hale said as she crossed the door to her home. She didn't find any answer at first, so after leaving her backpack in the living room, she quietly entered the kitchen, where she found a note glued to the fridge's door. The blonde took it and read.

' _Cornelia, kindergarten called. Your sister was feeling sick, so I'm going to get her to the doctor. We'll be back soon. Your father will be working all day. Kisses, mom_.'

 _Working all day, what a surprise_ ; the blond girl thought sarcastically. _Of course, he's got a whole criminal empire to work with now_.

Cornelia didn't know how to feel. A lot of things had happened in the last months, since that fateful afternoon Hay Lin had told them and the new girl at Sheffield to go to her grandma's restaurant. Her life seemed to have turned upside down now, and the only ones who knew were her and her father. At least now she had someone in home with whom she could talk about Meridian and her missions as a Guardian. What could have happened if… if she hadn't turn into a Guardian? Or if Jade and her family hadn't appeared in Heatherfield? Would her father still be in cahoots with Chang? If she hadn't been there to talk him into helping Jackie, could Harold have really done it? She didn't know, and frankly, she had had enough of thinking about plots and plans for the last days. Right now, what she wanted to do was to either see Caleb (which was pretty hard to do, considering there wasn't any Portal available, and if there was one, then only Will could detect it; and she wasn't willing to venture in Meridian alone) or Elyon and Alchemy. Uh! Maybe that wasn't such a bad idea. Yeah, she would text them in a few minutes. She really had been seeing Elyon less and less lately due to her Guardian duties, and she thought she owned the girl an apology.

 _And I should stop asking myself those questions about dad_ , Cornelia thought as she took her phone and started texting her friends. _We won, Chang lost. Dad's on Section 13's side now. End of story._

* * *

 ** _Unknown location_**

"Puagh!"

Someone had thrown water at him. Philip Crane had never understood why cats and other felines had such a dislike for water... until now. It left your fur soaked, and it made you feel as if you weighted a ton more. For not speaking about how it made you smell. If Crane had had any problems with how wet animals smelled before, now that he was a wet animal those problems had just been magnified. And those weren't even related to the fact that he didn't know where he was, at exception of being tied to a chair by a thick rope.

 _Let's see..._ Crane thought, trying to recapitulate on the events that had befallen in their attack over that train. _Where was I? I was in the tunnel, and then I decided to leave the Boss... oh, crap! Did Section 13 catch me? Did the Boss catch me?! No, no... I was caught by... by..._

"Rise and shine, Kitty-Cat!"

"The girl…" Crane whispered with anger, his sentence ending with a feline hiss.

Indeed, it was the exact same girl that had left him unconscious and teleported with him away. Nyx was a few meters away from him, sitting in her own chair. She was grinning at him like a cat to a cornered mouse. The irony didn't pass over Crane's head. He lasted a few more seconds into noticing she wasn't alone.

At her side stood a hulking, astonishingly tall man, beard and long hairs of a silvery white adorning a balding head; eyes sharp and of a grayed blue, with a face of angular and hard features, punctuated by a practically rectangular jaw.. A diagonal scar traversed his visage from the forehead to the chin, and continued all the way down the neck.

"I have a name, you know?" the girl said, tilting her head. "They call me Nyx! And this here's my friend, Mr. E!"

"And I have a real name, as do you;" the man told her. The voice was a bit raspy, and very deep, but amiable nonetheless. The girl answered him with a grin and laughing a bit. Even to Crane, who witnessed this with shock, they seemed close.

"Yeah, but he's here;" she said, gesturing to Crane, who continued to look at the strange pair, dumbstruck. "And secret names are way cooler than…"

"What the hell is going on?!" Crane suddenly shrieked. "Get these things off me, you little…!" Crane demanded, struggling against the rope. Mr. E snapped his fingers before he could finish it, though; and the ropes tightened around his body, especially around the torso, making him choke in his own words.

"I very much prefer if you weren't disrespectful, lad;" Mr. E told him. "Or next time, I'll put you into a bathtub full of iced water."

"W-Wha…" crane tried to say, to no avail.

"I think the rope's too strong, Mr. E;" Nyx addressed the old, hulking man. "He can't talk like that."

The man snapped his fingers again, and the rope lessened its hold's strength, but didn't let him go. Oh, Crane wanted to nail his claws into their throats and… whoa, whoa, stop there! He was a thief, not a killer! From where had that come from?

"Listen now," Mr. E continued while Crane thought that maybe transforming himself into a man-cat hadn't been the best of ideas. "I want to ask you a few questions, and if you answer properly, I'll considerer letting you go, alright?"

 _Yes, and I'm the Queen of Sheba_ ; Crane thought, considering the unlikeness of that last part. However, thinking with far more calmness, he didn't have any better options… "Ask your questions."

Mr. E walked out of Crane's vision range, and when he appeared in the man-cat's sights again, he was carrying a paper. No… that was no paper, it was a photograph. It was an old photograph, still in black and white, its borders yellowish. The so-called Mr. E held the photograph in front of Crane's face, letting the handsome thief to see that in it was what seemed to be a company of seven English soldiers, all of them in uniforms that, if Crane's knowledge didn't fail him, dated back to World War I.

"What's this?" a genuinely confused Crane asked. Mr. E's answer was to point at one of the men in the photograph, the one standing on the center and seemed to have a rank superior to the others', judging by his uniform.

"This man;" Mr. E said. "Do you recognize him?"

"Why should I…?" Crane started to say, but then he stopped. He had thought for him impossible to discern who the man was. After all, how could he? The image was of a man that should be either a corpse or an incredibly elderly man by now. However, as he started to focus on his image, he started to recognize some features. The form of the nose, the jaw, the cheekbones… the moustache was far larger. But all in all, even in black and white, here he was. "Hale?" Crane asked, tilting his feline head. No, that would be ridiculous. "Who's this? Hale's father or something?"

Mr. E took the photograph from in front of him. "You don't know," he muttered, turning back. Nyx's expression had changed too, from an amused to a serious one. "I thought you could've been a Knight, or even a Rook. You're nothing but a pawn."

"What do you mean I'm a pawn, you old man?!" the handsome thief asked.

Mr. E turned towards him again. "You know nothing, do you, lad? About the people you've been serving."

* * *

 ** _That night, Heatherfield, the Dark Hand's building_**

 _Why does this seem to have no end?_ ; Harold Hale, dressed in his usual, dark amber suit, thought as he sat behind the same desk Bartholomew Chang used to sit at. The blond man felt strange, sitting there instead of standing at its side, filling paper after paper. Who would have thought that assuming control of the branch of an international crime syndicate would be so troublesome in what entitled paperwork? It was even more bureaucratic than his work in the bank! Now that he thought about it, how much free time was going him to have now? _Mere hours in the new position, and already feeling stressed,_ the man thought; _and already having unwanted guests…_ "I know you are there, why not come in already?"

The doors to the office in the last floor of the skyscraper opened then, and a man walked into the room. A man with red, scruffy hair, dressed in a trench coat that covered almost his entire body. Quentin Ross, ex-agent of Section 13, now a rogue.

"You knew I was coming?" Ross asked, stopping his walk by the center of the room.

"This building has cameras in almost every corner; you know that, don't you?" Harold asked as he stopped writing and put his pen down. "You wanted me to know you were coming." The blonde man said as he rose from his seat and put himself in front of the desk. "I have a meeting in half an hour, a very important one for that matter. Can we deal with this as fast as we can, Mr. Ross?"

Quentin Ross wasn't accustomed to this. He wasn't accustomed for his targets to act so… so… "Why are you so calm?"

"Shouldn't I?"

"No," Ross told him. "No, you shouldn't;" the redheaded man told Harold, walking a bit around his office, with the hands at his back. "Good office, this one. Good to work in. Good views. Been in one very similar the other day, in the city hall. I'm pretty good with computers, bet you didn't know that. Other day, when Chan and the others were dealing with the scum, I was taking some documents. Making a bit of detective work. Turns out," Ross said, delighting himself into how Harold's calmed expression was transforming into an uncomfortable one; "that the birth certificates of both you and your parents, your family, the family photos, the newspaper articles, school reports… if you follow the thread enough generations back there is nothing else. It stops. They don't exist. Which means… Harold Hale doesn't exist either. Which means that I was right. A is A. A liar is a liar, and scum is scum;" Ross said, taking his trench coat and letting it fall to the ground. Under it he was wearing a pair of light purple trousers and a dirtied yellowish shirt. He then started to approach Harold, rolling up his sleeves. "I wonder… does the Captain know this? If we pull enough from that thread… will it turn out that it was the Dark Hand the one who made that identity for you? The people at the city hall… will they turn out to be corrupt? Who're you really?"

"I see," Harold commented, his expression returned to the calm one before. "You have done your homework then, and now you plan to… what exactly? Hit me until your arm is feeble, I'm a bloody mess, and then deliver me to Captain Black even when those are clearly not your orders? You aren't even an agent anymore. You can't harm me, Ross."

"Of course I can. And it doesn't matter if I'm an agent or not," Ross said, raising both arms and preparing a punch. "What matters, is that scumbags like you should be disposed of."

"Well, that would be a very good point;" Harold said in a casual tone, hands at his back. Oh, Ross was going to enjoy breaking that attitude from this bastard. He was going to hit him until he was begging for mercy, and then he would deliver him to those idiots of Section 13. How many of them had called him paranoid? Who was the paranoid idiot now?! So Ross threw his punch, with all his strength. And yet, then; something unexpected happened.

When Ross threw his first punch, and fast as lightning, Harold's left hand moved and caught the fist in his palm with a minimal effort; a smug grin appearing on his face. The movement caught Ross with such surprise that he didn't have time to react. "Except nothing you have said is true," Harold continued his previous phrase. "Allow me to correct you."

Moving his other hand at the same speed as he had moved the previous one, Harold hit Ross in the side with the same gesture a person swats a fly. The blow impacted with Ross' other arm, and sent him flying across the room, colliding with one of the bookshelves that Chang had previously owned. Books fell to the ground and over the injured Ross, who restrained his desire to scream. His left arm was hurting a lot, as was his side. He couldn't move it either. _Did… did he just broke my arm and ribs so easily?_ "W-What the fuck…?"

"Language now, Mr. Ross;" Harold said, approaching him and lifting the rogue agent by the neck with just one hand. He then proceeded to slap Ross across the face with his opened palm. Harold didn't even seem to be making any effort. A gesture that wouldn't have hurt anyone had it come from a normal person, it felt like bullets impacting over his cranium when done by Harold Hale. "You know, I think I should thank you for this;" Harold told him, still employing the same casual tone as before, then throwing him across the room, making him to impact with the desk, which shattered due to the strength of the impact. Ross tried to incorporate, to no avail. "Normally, I have to be very careful with my strength. I'm always afraid about breaking something or hurting someone, and then be obliged to explain how in the bloody hell I did it. You have no idea how much trouble I have while being intimate with my wife;" Harold walked towards Ross, lifting him again, this time by the collar of his shirt. The papers around him were trashed. "Ah, look at what we have done. Those were pretty important things, you know?" he said, gesturing towards the documents.

"DIE!" Ross shrieked, moving his healthy arm and impaling Harold's left eye with the same pen the banker had been using earlier. Blood poured out of the wound… for a few seconds, before Harold took the pen out of his eye socket and threw it away. Then, to Ross horror, the eye healed itself in mere seconds, the blood that had spilled out of it returning to its previous place before the wound closed. "W-Wha… I-I don…" the man stuttered.

"I know, I know;" Harold said, grinning. "Fighting immortals is not fair;" he laughed a bit after that. "An old friend of mine used to say that."

Harold proceeded to lift Ross over his head and slam him against the floor, with enough strength that the wood under the rogue agent broke, the force of the impact making the rest of the floor to crack. Ross was sure some important bones had broken there, as he couldn't feel his own legs anymore.

"Now, let me give you a lesson about the Dark Hand, Mr. Ross;" Harold said, adjusting his suit's jacket and walking a few steps away from him. "Tell me something, do you really believe that this world's countries and governments would completely _ignore_ the existence of magic, demons and wizards and sorcerers when there is enough proof of their existence? That they would ignore the existence of the Guardians of Kandrakar; of worlds like Meridian, Zamballa, Arkhanta, Basilíade and the rest of dozens, hundreds of populated worlds that are out there? No, they aren't as stupid as to say… you or even our dutiful Captain Black, who believed all those tales about Changelings that Jackie told you. How incredibly pathetic. At least Black has the insight to let his own personal ideas aside in order to achieve a greater goal."

Harold made a pause and walked around Ross, taking the chair that had previously been behind the desk and sitting on it. "So how exactly does the world react to magic? How does it take advantage of it?" the blond man continued. "How do some people of the governments; or let's say, how does a single man with very interesting ideas… make the world understand that magic is real, and that it needs to be controlled? That there are worlds out there that have enough power to destroy us? How do we do that without the public opinion and the population going insane with fear?" Harold crossed his legs and looked at Ross from above. With the look on his face, it was easy to see from which parent Cornelia had learned her arrogant mannerisms. "It's simple. You work slowly. You band together some powerful people that share those ideas or desire to make a profit out of them. You made them form a criminal organization that extends over the whole planet… and you make them use magic in their operations, creating a problem. Then, you just have to create a solution to that problem. Let's name that solution Section 13, which would stumble upon a branch of said criminal organization, discover magic, take down its leader, inform the government and the public opinion in due time, and…" Harold clapped his hands, "the trick is done. Not only that, thanks to the Dark Hand employing criminals, no one will miss any if some artifact turns out to be dangerous and… I don't know, blows them up;" Harold stood up from the chair and walked around Ross and the trashed desk again. "Of course, there is always the risk of someone like Valmont deciding to make deals with a demon in exchange of riches at the backs of the other leaders. However, what better opportunity to test the efficacy of Section 13? And if that man tries speaking more than he should, he won't be able to speak _anymore_ ," Harold said, his tone of voice darkening. "Do you really believe that the fact that the person selected to lead Section 13 being a close friend of Jackie Chan, who in turn is the nephew of one of the greatest Chi Wizards of this planet, was a coincidence?"

"But…" Ross tried to speak, coughing a bit of blood. "But that… means…"

"It means you were right, you paranoid man;" Harold said in a mocking voice. "Just in the what, not in the how, or the why. But that's farther than any other has come in decades… so, congratulations, conspiracy buff. The Dark Hand and Section 13 are exactly the same thing, even when most of their respective operatives don't know it. In fact, you could considerer the conflict between the Dark Hand and Section 13 as a test ground for magic weapons and spells. Now…" Harold said in the dark tone again, as he loomed over Ross, his hands gripping his shirt again in order to lift him a bit. As Harold's face lowered and approached Ross' his smug grin disappeared and left way for an angry scowl.

"About that information on me you spoke about…"

* * *

 ** _Half an hour later; undisclosed location_**

 _Am I the first one arriving?_ Harold thought as he stood in a well lighted room with five armchairs that formed a circle around a small, square table. Still wondering if he had been too punctual and how much he would have to wait, Harold sat in one of the armchairs. Once he had done so, he noticed something at his left, touching his leg. Extracting it, he found himself with a tablet computer in his hands. Turning the device on, he started to navigate on it finding several images and videos of the fight the Guardians and Chan Clan had fought against the Dark Hand in that tunnel. _Very good, enough proof of the artifacts being able to contend with Guardians…_ he stopped by an image of Cornelia throwing large chunks of rock at Chang, and another showing her wrapping several thugs in vines. He let a small smile to come to his lips and a warm and proud look to his eyes. _That's my girl_.

"Well, look who finally decided to join the party!" he heard from the entrance to the room. Looking up from the tablet, Harold's gaze met with Vanessa Barone, the leader of the Dark Hand's European branch walking into the room. Following in her steps appeared a middle aged, imposing, more than a head taller than Harold and heavily muscled black man with curled brownish hair over his head, alongside a thin moustache over his upper lip. His eyes were of a dark amber tone, nose sharp yet not pointy, and the edge of some tattoo could be seen on his neck. The man was dressed in a pair of jeans and a black t-shirt with an opened greenish vest over them. On his feet, there were boots of a dark color.

The tall black man, Bau Farouk, head of the Dark Hand's branch in Africa; sat in one of the armchairs while the dark skinned woman did the same. While Vanessa reclined her back in the seat, legs extended and moved a bit until she found a position in which she was completely comfortable, Farouk sat with his back straightened and legs bent. It was a posture that denoted martial training in the past. But that anyone that was going to be there that day knew, Farouk had been a soldier once, a fighter on a guerrilla. War had shaped him since childhood, and he had grown to hate it with all his might.

"You're too punctual, Harold;" Farouk told him into an amiable tone and his dry, deep voice, making Harold to shrug.

"Punctuality is a virtue;" Harold answered in a sly tone, making the African man to chuckle.

"There are a few moments in which it can be a liability;" a new voice proclaimed. "Can you imagine what could have happened, had Chan and Crane arrived that day a few minutes before, and found myself changing my clothes while my clone assumed my position while still sour over us cutting his hand?"

Slowly, adjusting a black prosthetic hand to his lump, Bartholomew Chang walked into the circle of chairs and sat in one of them, one leg crossed over the other, and still dressed in his usual Asian silky robes. "That would have been problematic."

"I'm still a little curious about why that wizard you enlisted can't replicate wounds, Bartholomew;" Farouk told the Taiwanese man, who raised both his flesh and prosthetic hand, indicating he didn't know.

"What I'm curious about is… will it last?" Vanessa asked. "What happens if Black discovers that we gave him the wrong Chang?"

"He has no reason to do so," Harold intervened. After thinking a bit, he added; "Are we sure we can't trust him with our goals? Black seems dutiful enough to be trustworthy."

"While I have no doubt about Augustus Black's commanding abilities;" a fifth voice announced. "He is far too… idealistic, to be informed about our real motivations."

Walking slowly, leaning on his cane, Victor Folkner, or as he was known to the Dark Hand and the global underworld, Theodore Riddle, sat on the first and last empty chair.

"Anyway, this operation has proven successful in a hundred percent;" Chang raised his voice again. "The United States have now access and control of magical artifacts, Chan and his family have been removed from the board and our Hand has five Fingers again. Albeit now I should be far more careful with my own movements, leaving Tommy to act as de facto leader of my branch, isn't that right Theodore?"

"Indeed," Riddle said nonchalantly. He then looked at Harold. "I will leave Raphael in Heatherfield to help you with anything you need. Farouk, what about your operation?"

"I've already hired many scientists to work in tandem with the few wizards we've been able to find. It'll be hard, but they'll find a way to apply magic to regular weaponry and mundane technology. Some of the guerrilla armies I'm tied to will start using them after a few months. Also, I've made contact with some members of the Egyptian, Libyan and Moroccan governments that are interested in making deals with us;" the black man informed. "It won't be long until they reach the same conclusions as the USA, and then I'll turn my attention to the south of Mother Africa."

"Same could be said about countries like England, Spain, Portugal, Germany or France for my part. I even left Kasahara in Paris;" Vanessa said, scratching her right cheek. "And I suppose Oceania's countries are following a similar process."

Riddle nodded in affirmation. "Karl and Tecla Ibsen are taking care of our businesses there; and Japan, China and Russia agreed long ago to help us, thanks to Bartholomew's efforts. However, we should refrain from waging open opposition to Kandrakar or any other world until we are able to reveal their and magic's existence to the global public without risks. Finally," the old bald man said with relief; "after more than three decades of planning, my little dream is coming into place."

"Even so, Kandrakar shouldn't be underestimated, neither Meridian, nor any other of those planets;" Harold stated. "Any Heart, at the peak of its power and in the hands of a skilled wielder, could bring mass extinction to any world, and that's not having the Oracle's own power into account, for not speaking the Guardians'."

"Here comes the proud dad…" Vanessa deadpanned, crossing her arms over her chest and grinning, making the men besides Harold to laugh a bit.

"Yes, because you are the most appropriate to talk about that," the man retorted in a friendly tone to which the woman chuckled. "But I'm not saying that only because Cornelia is my daughter," Harold said, albeit he was sporting an amused grin himself. "With enough time, she will be able to create country wide earthquakes, and that's not counting her four friends. Especially Will. In the moment she starts having access to Quintessence…"

"Speaking about unknown factors, what about Ludmoore or that Oni head?" Chang wondered, interrupting Harold. "I know that we have our own arrangements with the… King Smuggler, as they call Charles; but what about the Oni?"

"Tarakudo could be a powerful ally in the future, and even so, right now he has little power besides his;" Harold informed. "I'm more worried about Nimue."

"The sorceress?" Farouk said, cracking his neck. "The one you told us about? She doesn't seem to mind us. Valmont is the loose end that worries me the most."

"Valmont can't do a thing without risking his own life, which he is too cowardly and selfish to risk. The sorceress, however, destroyed the Gauntlet of Indra that my clone was using with relative ease," Chang pointed up. "A tool that was supposedly more durable than reinforced steel, not counting its magical properties."

"That's the reason we should be careful," Harold continued. "Nimue was mighty back then, after finishing training with Merlin, and she must have grown if not mightier, then more skilled and resourceful during the centuries. On top of that, she is far more unpredictable that the other players at this board."

"But we have you," Riddle said, tapping the floor with his cane a few times. "Shouldn't that give us an advantage, King of Kings? That was the reason I contacted you, so many years ago."

Harold flinched, frowning at those words. "You promised that you wouldn't call me that anymore, Theodore."

"But that was your title, right?" Vanessa asked him. "That's what they called you. Or was that something the books got wrong too?"

"No, my titles are one of the few things they got right;" Harold said in a tired tone. After a long sight, he looked down. For a second, he looked way older than any of the present could judge. "King of Kings, the Great Unifier, the Dragon King, Champion of Avalon…"

"Pendragon"

* * *

 _And who, in so many centuries, has been able to defeat me? No one, no one at all. Not the eleven Kings of Britannia's north with their hosts, not the manipulator I once thought a mentor, not my traitorous best friend… not even my own son_.  Harold Hale, also known as Arthur Pendragon

* * *

 **Author's Notes: What? What's that? You thought Nimue was the only character from the Arthurian Mythos I was including in this thing? Foolishness! So, remember how the Hearts of many other worlds are tied to royal lines (sans the one of Zamaballa)? Yup, Earth's Heart is also tied to one. I would lie if I said I had this thought from the start (albeit Harold being part of the Dark Hand was something I had in mind since the beginning, I even thought of making him the leader, while Riddle/Folkner ended filling that role), but once fellow FF author Vanessa Masters presented me with her OC, which would develop into the Nimue of this story, I thought… why not? And albeit you will have to wait a long time to know how this whole thing works out… that's right! The King's here! And there have been little clues all over the place until now!**

 **On that note, yep, the Dark Hand is far more complex than what first seemed, and they have… won. To be fair, there was no risk of losing in the first place. And while this may look like a very hard kick to our protagonists after how much effort they had put on it, it takes on one of the themes of this story. You can't win or even act appropriately if you don't have all the information. It happened with Torus Filney, and it happens here. That's the reason your enemies keep their secrets. Ross learns this the hard way, and albeit my personal dislike for people with his kind of ideology, he was partially right, and he has left countermeasures.**

 **And for whoever was able to actually see that the Dark Hand wasn't going down so easily, that Chang was a clone, that there was something weird with Harold or that I loosely based this version of the Dark Hand in The Light of Young Justice; Kudos! Next chapter we finally start to completely focus on Meridian's plot thread, and Elyon enters central stage.**

 **Good bye, and until next time!**


	20. Psychological Warfare

**Disclaimer: I own neither the WITCH cartoon-show nor Jackie Chan Adventures; they are the property of their respective creators, writers, and producers.**

 **A/N: It's me! I'm alive, do not worry! Phew… so, last chapter was a pretty big bomb, eh? Thank to all of you for reading and reviewing, and thanks for liking it! Even now I'm a bit doubtful that I proceeded well by basically negating an earned victory to our heroines and heroes… but what the heck, I like challenges. And sorry if you all are expecting for me to deepen into the whole 'Dark Hand plot' because from now on, and up to chapter thirty (maybe), we're going to focus into the whole Meridian mess. Oh! This chapter contains graphic depictions of violence at its beginning and its middle… so warned you are! Having said that; enjoy your read, and please leave a review.**

* * *

Guardians, Wizards and Kung-Fu Fighters

Episode Twenty

Psychological Warfare

* * *

 ** _Two weeks after the battle with the Dark Hand_**

 ** _Across the Veil; Meridian's middle ring_**

Albeit not as fortified as Torus Filney, as architectonically remarkable as Fallbottom, or as historically important to the population of Meridian as Lannion were; there was something oddly beautiful about the great city of Kelliwic, also in the middle ring of the kingdom. Maybe it was the fact that almost the entire structure, from the walls, to the moderately large keep of the noble house that ruled over it; passing over the streets and some of the structures that weren't made out of wood (like the houses of the commoners) were made out of purely red bricks; which made the city to appear as a purely crimson structure from the appropriate distance. Of course some of the bricks had lost their luster and had darkened with the years, but all in all, the city still held certain magnificence. However, just because her odd beauty was able to inspire emotion in those who set eyes upon her, it didn't mean that the city of Kelliwic was free from suffering any attack, which of course she was suffering just now.

And it was thanks to being part of that attack that Taranee Cook, Guardian of Fire; couldn't enjoy the view of the great city, which would have marveled her curious mind in any other occasion. No, the Fire Guardian's attention was currently completely focused into overseeing and protecting the left flank of a rebel host, while flying up in the sky; evading rain of arrows after rain of arrows and turning most of them into ashes with her powers. Said rebel host, the principal one from the Rebellion's army and more or less of a similar wingspan as the one that had taken over Torus Filney, probably even bigger; was the one perpetrating the attack over the great city.

However, their (for lack of a better term) operations against this city had started way before; even before Will and Jade's plan of bringing magical artifacts to the rebels in order to strengthen their forces even more had succeeded. Caravans leaded by merchants, commoners from the nearby villages that worked the land and harvested fruit and vegetable alike, or raised or hunted animals; products that then were sold to the merchants and that in turn were sold to the city… and all of them, one way or another, either by offering them better deals or by using coercion; had been stopped of doing so. Their goods, especially the food, were now in possession of the Rebellion. As such, the rebels had more from which feed themselves, the merchants and commoners had guaranteed that the Rebellion would protect them, and the city… well, the city was, sooner or later, condemned to starve. Taranee hated the small part of herself that was thinking the same thing Will and Jade had openly voiced. It was a good plan, it was a good strategy. And at least this time everyone knew about the plan. You would be surprised how little time is needed in order for such a big city to consume their food supplies in times of war. How much would a city under attack endure, if their population was hungry? How hard would their loyal soldiers fight if there was no guarantee their families would be fed? How long until some forgot about said loyalty and turned their blades around, pointing them towards their commanders and the noble house that leaded them?

Now finally approaching the city, the rebels were met not only with arrows from the top of the walls but also by the city's own defenses, their own soldiers and even cavalry. The latter was the first one to emerge from the city's gates, composed of horses and Hoogongs. The Fire Guardian noted how, aside from the cavalry of the Capital, there was no other in the Prince's army that rode over rhinoceros. Behind Kelliwic's cavalry came the infantry, the first two lines with long spears, and the rest that marched behind did so with blades, axes, and other melee weapons in hands. She spotted Galhots, Lurdens, even some half-breeds composing the forces of the enemy; all lined up, all organized. In comparison, the rebels (composed mostly of Galhots and half-breeds) weren't exactly the most organized of armies and didn't have the advantage of a cavalry, at least not in this occasion. However, the rebels had their own way of evening the odds. That was, after all, the reason why Taranee had been put practically in command here. More arrows were shot, now focusing more into being directed towards the rebels bellow than towards her. She dispatched them by unleashing a wave of flames that consumed the arrows, shooting afterwards a quick series of fireballs towards the archers atop the wall, guaranteeing that none of them would be able to shoot at her for at least some time, if some hadn't ended heavily burned and incapacitated.

"Tara!" she heard as the two hosts started to charge towards one another bellow her. Unintelligible yells and proclaims reached her ears, not different than the sounds produced by rabid animals. Irma was now flying at her side. Where was Hay Lin? Ah yes, now she remembered. She had instructed her to remain in their side's rearguard and advance only after the two hosts had collided. "Ready?" the Water Guardian asked, charging water into her fists.

Taranee looked down. So it was finally here, the moment of truth, the moment to implement their tactic just like they had planned. She proceeded to do with her flames what Irma had done with water, putting all her effort in the next attack. "Ready," the Fire Guardian said.

* * *

Vathek hadn't been in a battle for too long, or at least that's the impression he had now that he again marched alongside his fellow rebels. He could spot Drake at the front of the host, while he had decided to remain alongside the men composing the middle. They were all ready, eager even, to sink their weapons in whoever came to attack them. And yet he could feel in their eyes and movements that they were also scared. Scared of not seeing another day, of not seeing their families and friends anymore, of the certainty that, if they died here, they would have wasted their lives fighting for a future they would not see. His large hands tightened around his flail's chains, gripping them strongly. He felt those emotions too. He had felt them each time he sneaked around the castle's halls in order to send Salazar with a message for the rebels, he had felt them when he had escaped Tynar… and he felt them now. Now, as arrows had finally stopped raining upon them thanks to the Fire Guardian's efforts, now, as Kelliwic's cavalry charged towards them, each one of the knights with a spear pointed towards the rebels with the intention of impaling as much of them as they could; now that the rebels answered the enemy's charge and yells with their own… now he felt them in his heart. The turmoil gave birth to rage and bravery, and the bulky blue Galhot charged alongside his comrades.

Any other, looking at this incoming clash, would have thought about the rebels as idiots. Kelliwic had sent the cavalry first for a reason, the organization and pattern of their troops was due to a strategy designed to first break and then crush the enemy lines. That was the reason why the strong and fast cavalry was going first, spear-wielding infantry second and the rest of the infantry third. However, the rebels were far from an army of idiots, a lesson many of their enemies (and their Prince in particular) had yet to fully understand. As such, when the cavalry charged, confident in their own superiority as they were, they weren't ready for the stream of flames coming from above and that created a wall of fire between them and the rebels. Some of the horses, scared and shocked, stopped themselves in their tracks; their riders being sent flying due to sheer inertia. Other horses didn't have time to stop, and smashed themselves and their riders into the flames. After said flames came a stream of water of the same magnitude, colliding with the fire and giving birth to a large amount of steam that temporally blinded Kelliwic's forces. The Rebellion, of course, was expecting this. So they continued to charge, passing through the steam with their weapons in high, taking the cavalry on when they were blinded and in shock.

"The mounts!" Drake yelled strongly enough for everyone near him to listen and repeat his commands. "Kill the horses and the Hoogongs first! Kill the soldiers then!"

Everyone proceeded to do as they were told, piercing with spears, cutting with axes and swords and smashing with maces and clubs every living creature fighting in the other side. By the moment the first line of Kelliwic's infantry reached the Rebellion's forces, their cavalry was in complete chaos. The mounts had lost all the will to fight or act coordinately; some of them were running away, dragging their riders over the ground. Dust, product of the chaos the cavalry had unleashed, now mixed with the decreasing steam, making some to find breathing harder. The ground was now colored in red thanks to the blood and the guts spilled over it, and each step both armies gave was like walking on a rainy day over a muddy and slimy area. Many fell to the ground due to giving a bad step. But both armies continued their charge. In the end, they met one another. And then hell ensued.

* * *

The Air Guardian flew over the battlefield as Irma and Taranee had done before. As she advanced, she could see her two friends flying over the top of the city's walls, blasting with fire and water any archer who was determined to keep shooting more arrows at the rebels. Right, that issue was being taken care of, which meant she had to focus into helping their forces. Without any warning, Hay Lin stopped in midair and unleashed a gust of wind into the middle of the enemy's forces, either knocking them aside or disorienting the ones that were able to maintain themselves in their feet. Afterwards she flew a bit more and repeated the process with the enemy's rearguard. Then she did the same with one of their flanks. And meanwhile the rebels continued their attack. Their forces were matched, or so it seemed. Then Hay Lin's eyes caught a glimpse of a bright, bluish flash; and a chill ran through the air. Flapping her wings, Hay Lin stopped in midair to give a better look. Ah, perfect. Drake and his men had started making their move.

* * *

"Freezing, I'm free-ahgk!" a soldier of Kelliwic, one of the spearmen, said as his body was completely covered in ice. His face contorted into an expression of terror that the ice would preserve, looking at him and realizing what had happened made his companions around him to freeze in fear. And in front of them, a smirk from ear to ear, was Drake; sword in one hand and the same ice shooting stick the female Dark Hand goon had used against Hay Lin and Uncle in the freemasons' tunnel in the other. He pointed the trinket at the other enemy soldiers, four of them Galhot and a fifth one a Lurden; shooting a concentrated blizzard towards them. They ended in the same way their companion had done, transformed into ice cubes. And all around him, other rebels had started to put to good use the magic artifacts the Keeper of the Heart and the Good Wolf's scheme had granted them.

A rebel dressed in a robe became instantly coated in an impenetrable armor, another carrying a short sword had his limbs suddenly become enlarged, as if they were rubber, thanks to the scepter he was carrying. Another one saw how a ring around his right hand's middle finger flashed in whitish light and then there were five of him. Another rebel touched a collar around his neck, and suddenly a screeching and deafening sound escaped his mouth with enough strength to make the eardrums of the enemies it was directed towards to feel so much pain that the soldiers dropped their weapons and clutched their ears in the hopes of blocking the sound. It did them no good, since they soon found themselves with either spears or blades piercing their throats.

And meanwhile, Hay Lin continued her attacks over their forces, hitting them from multiple angles. Taranee and Irma were still taking care of the archers, meaning the soldiers in the battle itself have no support from above. All had been nothing but simple bait for Kelliwic, even since the first caravan had been stopped. The army assembling at their gates… it had all been a ploy to bring their soldiers out of the city in the hopes of defeating the Rebellion… and be the ones crushed, instead. And make no mistake, the rebels were practically humiliating them. How ironic it was, for the soldiers fighting for the Prince to find themselves at this situation. During the last decade they have been the ones to hold the advantage over the rebels in what entitled manpower and might alone. Their war machines, lord Cedric, Tracker, Archmage Wong… they all gave their side a power with which the Rebellion couldn't compete directly. That was the reason the rebels had favored guerrilla tactics over more direct ones during their war. But now not only did these soldiers from Kelliwic find themselves matched in numbers, but outmatched in power. After all…

"Magic! They've magic!" a soldier shouted in fear, trying to evade Drake's next attack. This time, the concentrated blizzard hit only his arm, which froze instantly.

That kind of power wasn't something your usual platoon had access to.

"Fall back!" some commander yelled. "Return to the city, hold the gates! Help those archers!"

The enemy was falling back, which made the rebels' morale to rise up. Cheering and yelling, even making japes at the enemy's expense, calling them cowards! Yes! It was a s clear as water, the first round of this battle was their victory! Some rebels decided to pursue them, high in their victory and wanting to tear them apart. The wounded soldiers the rebels found in their way were quickly executed. However, that had been enough slaughter for now. The ground was still painted in red, as if the field wanted to emulate the scarlet appearance of the city of Kelliwic. It was time to let the macabre piece of art to dry.

"Stop! Retire yourselves from the walls! Fall back! Stop!" Drake ordered, some men repeating his command, to which Vathek ended joining. After all, there were few things more commanding than the voice of such an imposing Galhot. "Those who can, take our injured! Don't let any living one behind!"

* * *

While the rebels regrouped and put enough distance between them and the walls of Kelliwic, Taranee and Irma had ended taking care of the archers, who were now being rescued from them by their fellow soldiers. Some were unconscious over a puddle of water; others had burns that ranged from simple to severe. Before any more fighting could ensue, the two Guardians flew away from the walls too and joined Hay Lin in the sky before they started descending.

Once in the ground they started to walk amongst the rebel army, searching for Vathek and Drake. As they did so, the three girls were greeted by many a diverse sight. A group of rebel soldiers just cheering and celebrating their recent victory, followed by a group of somber looking ones that must had lost their friend in battle. The last group was the one Drake and Vathek were nearest to, the one mainly composed of the injured.

A man, a large Galhot not very different from Vathek, albeit with dark reddish scales; had had his torso poorly treated, blood dirtying the rags that had been used instead of real bandages. There was also another that had bloody rags applied to one half of his head and that covered his left eye. Plucked out? Just wounded? It didn't matter, it was useless now. There were many others that the rebels had carried out of the battlefield and all the way into the last of their lines. They would remain there until the battle had ended, then quickly transferred to the Infinity City, or perhaps Sephiria and some of her Faithful would come here… the girls didn't know. They found Vathek and Drake standing near a man that was lying in the ground, head over a rock that served as an improvised pillow. There were other two rebels, one human and the other a half-breed, if his yellowish skin was any indication, attending to him. The injured man had a bleeding hole in his left tight, surely product of a spear or an arrow; but most likely a spear, considering the wideness of the wound. The rebels were using rags to cover that wound too.

"You sure that Sephiria chick can't be here?" Irma asked the rebel duo. "Or some of those healers she's got with her?"

Vathek shook his head as he looked at brunette Guardian. "The Faithful are too valuable to risk them in a battle like this. If some lucky arrow or some soldier was able to strike them down, we would be left without healers."

"This battle won't last too long, anyway;" Drake answered, arms folded. "They can't possibly engage in any more attacks, they will have to wait inside the walls. Either they start starving and then surrender or they surrender once they see the surprise we have for them."

"How much time until Will and the others arrive?" Hay Lin asked. The air had started to carry a foul stench around the zone. Probably due to the many wounded being poorly treated, or perhaps due to the fact that the corpses that had resulted from the battle had been left behind in the open field. A field that continued to be painted in red.

"No more than a few hours," Drake answered, shrugging a bit. "The key to any of these battles, to any siege; is patience. We hold the advantage in manpower, weaponry and resources. For each of our injured or dead, we have injured or killed four of theirs. It's just a matter of time until they realize they can't win."

"He doesn't have that luxury," Vathek muttered, making a gesture to the man with the injured leg. "I have seen wounds like that before. Once it gets infected, he will lose the leg."

Taranee shivered at that thought. She knew the wound would get infected, the conditions of this place, this battlefield, weren't the best for healing, or even tending to injuries. It frustrated her. Couldn't they do anything but wait now? It was infuriating. She glanced at the man in the ground, who winced in pain as his companions treated his injure poorly. It was more than infuriating! And yet, what could she do? She had heard that you can close wounds and stop hemorrhages by using fire, by burning them… but she wasn't so sure of that last one, and she doubted she had enough experience to do so.

"Let's go," Drake declared, starting to walk. "We are doing nothing but be bothersome here."

Vathek followed in tow, and after a while, the three girls did the same. Before abandoning the scene, Hay Lin gave one last look at the injured man. Burn a forest, flood a town, give birth to a tornado… all those and more these three girls could do. And yet, none were able to heal a simple spear wound.

* * *

 ** _Kelliwic's Keep; several hours later_**

The Rebellion wasn't the only side of this conflict measuring their losses and earnings, for Kelliwic was doing the very same thing. And as soldier ran from one corner to the other, and commoners yelled and cried on the streets, afraid that they would meet the same fate as Torus Filney, the noble in charge of this city; Earl Domeric Ghiscar looked at his people from the safety of one of the balconies of his keep. From here, he could even watch even over the walls of the city, contemplate the battlefield that had been painted in red with his soldiers' blood.

Old Earl Ghiscar was a man in his late seventies, completely bald, and without any trace of ever having a beard. His eyes were greenish, and albeit they didn't betray him to see in the long distance, he had found himself troubled to read scrolls or any other form of written word. His skin without any scales (but yes multiple freckles and even warts), denoting a completely human ancestry. He had once been a highly decorated knight, a man that had earned fame and glory in tourneys and leading small military campaigns against Lurdens in the borders of the Kingdom during the first years of the rule of Queen Arianne, the mother of Queen Weira. But he had become old and frail as the years passed, and that glory won on tourneys became a sour memory now that Meridian was at war with itself and his body, pained and defective, couldn't take him to the field. His legs had lost strength with every day that passed, and now he couldn't even give a few steps without leaning on a thick cane, or having to sit down after a while. How pathetically shameful, for a nobleman to remain behind and sent his underlings to die in his place! He should be the one fighting, leading them to glory! Sometimes he punched the walls or the furniture of his home, frustrated over his impossibility to cross swords one last time! And to top it all, his youthful idiocy had made him to despise the courtesies of the nobility's ladies, and now he found himself with no heir, the last man of the meridianite noble house of Ghiscar. Hadn't Lady Galiene called him a fool in one of their meetings during Arianne's rule? Now he found himself agreeing with the Archduchess with the same fervor he had denied her statement then.

"My lord?" he heard a voice behind him, and turning around slowly, leaning on his thick cane; Ghiscar spotted the man who leaded the forces defending his city. A tall half-breed man in the prime of youth, the only thing that differentiated him from the rest of his soldiers was the Hoogong feather over the helmet. A long-sword hanged from his belt.

"Ah yes, the battle's report;" Ghiscar said, voice dry, words coming slowly from his mouth. "We… lost, didn't we?"

"Just the first clash, my lord;" the man answered with respect. "They took us by surprise; they had some kind of magic on their side, not just the Guardians. The cavalry was the part of our forces that got out of it worst."

"Uhm… Uhm…" Ghiscar muttered. "With the cavalry gone… I saw the archers being completely ineffectual against two Guardians… Uhm… Uhm… The people, the soldiers, they are hungry, aren't they?"

"Yes, yes they are;" the soldier answered with sincerity. "My lord Earl, perhaps, surrendering…"

"Uhm… Uhm… s-surrender?" the old nobleman asked. "Surrender?!" Ghiscar shrieked then, rage making its way to his old and damaged visage. "Never, never has Ghiscar of Kelliwic surrendered! He won't do now!"

"But my lord, you said it yourself, the commoners, the soldiers!" the man protested as Ghiscar tried to walk away from him as best as he could with his poor body. "They can't continue like this! In a few weeks we will run out of food, we will be forced to eat the horses, the dogs, the cats!"

"And that is terrible, I assure you;" Earl Ghiscar declared in a somber tone from which the soldier knew he was talking with his heart. "But my honor as a noble," _as a former warrior_ , "demands that we fight these scoundrels, these upstarts until the end!" he approached the soldier while breathing heavily. Once he reached him, he put one reassuring hand over his shoulder. "We will endure. Kelliwic has always been strong. We will prepare a counterattack, sent our men again after designing a good strategy. And if that fails, do not worry yourself; someone will come to our aid." His interlocutor, however, didn't have so much faith.

 _You would rather see this city eat itself and die than see it under a rebel's control then_ ; the soldier thought with anger towards his liege. _And I didn't even see the rebel leader during the battle, others were giving the orders. I don't like it…_

"My lord!" a servant, running down the hall, exclaimed as he approached the pair. He stopped once he reached them, bending over himself and panting. It was one of the boys that worked in the nobleman's kitchens, one of the few that still hadn't abandoned their jobs after grabbing hold of every piece of food they could take on their arms. He was young, very much so; perhaps not even a ten year old. What was he doing here?

"Easy lad, breathe and speak to me;" the Earl told the boy.

"Yes… my lord," the boy answered. "But, my lord! You've to see it! From the other balcony! Come and see!"

The nobleman followed the servant boy with the help of his soldier, tiring himself after a few steps and having to make periodical stops to regain his strength. Oh! How much he hated it, how much he hated this body and whatever sickness had taken hold of him! Alas, he was able to arrive to another of his home's balconies. Wait; wait… why was the servant boy here to begin with? Hiding, in fear that the rebels would cut through their defenses and enter the city? Or perhaps just so he could evade his responsibilities? None of those questions mattered once the nobleman and the soldier saw what the boy had to show them.

Something was approaching Kelliwic, something that perhaps had looked like lines of tiny dots in the horizon before, but that now was clearly unmistakable for what it was.

It was infantry. Soldiers, dozens, no... Hundreds of them! All were marching on foot, on organized and firm lines. And the direction they were moving towards… they were marching directly towards where the Rebellion was positioned! Albeit the three of them couldn't yet see their banners due to the distance, a common thought passed over the three men's minds.

 _Those are not rebels_.

"They… they have come to help us?" the soldier asked, still not believing what his own eyes were witnessing. His eyes were widening, regaining thanks to hope the brightness they had lost during the last weeks and the recent attack.

"Uhm? Uhm!" Ghiscar murmured. "Who?! Who are they?!" he gestured towards the servant boy. "Find me a spyglass! To the other balcony, now!"

The servant and the soldier ran, just for the soldier to return shortly after in order to help the old nobleman to the other balcony, putting one of Ghiscar's arms over his shoulders and letting him lean on his body as much as he leaned in his cane.

"My apologies, my lord;" the soldier told his liege.

"Just bring me there," the Earl said between grinded teeth.

It took the same amount of time it had taken before, but by the time the Earl arrived to the balcony, the young servant had already brought the spyglass and was looking through it towards the forces that had arrived. The young boy had a somehow amazed look on his face, as if the sight of the army marching towards the rebels was the most beautiful thing he had seen in his life. Over the walls of Kelliwic, many of his own underlings (the ones that hadn't been wounded in the battle, that's it) were energetically cheering, thanking their saviors.

"If you could give me that…" the Earl said, extending his hand and being handed the spyglass. Walking a few steps away from his commander, the nobleman looked at the newcomers. It wasn't so long until he was able to recognize who they were.

"Fallbottom soldiers?" the Earl wondered aloud. Yes, that was the conclusion he had arrived at now that he could see them with clarity. Not only infantry, but also a few lines of cavalry, composed mainly of Hoogongs. It made sense, though. Fallbottom was the nearest city to Kelliwic. It shouldn't be surprising for them to come to their aid sooner than anyone else. Even better! The rebels couldn't be expecting this! They wouldn't have time to react! But it was strange… he didn't remember sending any message in order to ask for the Baroness' help. And how had they been able to be here so soon if they couldn't possibly know that the Rebellion was attacking them? _Unless… no, it cannot be!_ Domeric thought with shock, his face paling once he realized what was going on.

"T-They really came!" the servant boy cheered with energy. "Someone came! They're going to save us! They…!"

And then, the miracle broke.

The Fallbottom host wasn't attacking the Rebellion. The rebels weren't reacting, because there wasn't anything to react. The Fallbottom soldiers were _joining_ the rebel ones, the two forces merging into one. Then two figures rose in the air and a howl cut the cheers of his soldiers. Looking through the spyglass, the nobleman spotted not only the two remaining Guardians, but also the Black Wolf of the Rebellion. And then, looking a bit better…ah, there he was! Mounting over a Hoogong, there was the rebel leader, two swords hanging from his belt. And at his side, over a horse and dressed in armor, was a woman he recognized as Miriam, Mergo's younger sister. Closing his and lowering the spyglass, Ghiscar frowned, and tightened his fists.

"It's ridiculous…" he heard his soldiers' commander behind him. His voice was dripping with despair. "I… We… We can't win," there was no emotion coloring that sentence, however. It had been said as what it was; a simple fact. "It's useless. We are doomed."

"Enough. We will endure;" Ghiscar said, still looking at the army in front of him. Fallbottom had betrayed them. And now their enemy had doubled its strength. They would endure? Ghiscar of Kelliwic never surrendered? What were those now? Words devoid of any sense or usefulness. The Earl found himself listening to his city, were the cries of the smallfolk were now being intensified by the fact all his soldiers seemed to have suddenly grown mute. This was a battle that couldn't be won. Surrender, then? But his honor, his loyalty to the throne, to Servantis' memory! And what had honor given him? Nothing but a twisted, sick body and no heirs to take his mantle. And wasn't a noble's first priority to care about the men and women, the young and old; that were under his care?

 _Yes, it is the best course of action_. _In order to save as much innocent lives as possible_ ; Earl Domeric Ghiscar thought, his fits losing strength and becoming opened palms again. _Yes, for the first time… I shall surren…_

Before he had time to finish that thought, a long-sword was piercing through his throat.

* * *

 ** _The rebels, an hour later_**

"Are you feeling alright?" Cornelia asked to Caleb.

The Fallbottom army was now almost completely mixed with the Rebellion's. The girls had been expecting tensions to flourish, but for now both armies seemed to be containing themselves. Then again, Fallbottom had never clashed with the Rebellion, so maybe their expectations were unfounded. Albeit relaxing, the soldiers were still ready and fresh to enter battle, the newly arrived one joining with the first lines, their cavalry putting itself behind a line of archers. For some of the combatants, looking expectantly at the gates of the city, this was worse than the battle itself. The waiting… it could drive some people mad.

However, for six girls from Earth and the Rebellion's commanders it was the most appropriate of moments to join and discuss how the situation was developing; and for a certain blonde to check if the young leader of the rebels had everything under control.

"Everything is alright, Cornelia;" the scarred, green eyed boy answered sweetly. From his belt hanged two blades, one a common sword, not very different from the ones Drake and other rebels used. The other one, however; was the Sword of the Berserker, the black blade resting inside a strange looking sheath that was, for starters, of a silvery tone. Over it were engraved numerous runes that Caleb had told them were in an old meridianite tongue, and from time to time, black sparks could be seen flashing near the hilt of the sword. The sheath had been enchanted by the 'Mage', and supposedly it nullified the effects that the sword had over Caleb; as long as the blade remained sheathed, that's it. Caleb had been trained with it for the last weeks, but he was still uncertain if he would ever be able to control the curse. _Work your hate so it will work for you_ , those had been Thanatos' words. _Easier said than done_ , Caleb thought as an answer.

Not wanting to waste more time, Caleb directed himself to the rest of people that had been assembled there. Standing in a small circle were the Guardians of Kandrakar (all five of them again), Jade Chan in her human form, dressed in a pair of black jeans and a whitish hoodie with long sleeves, Vathek and Drake, and finally the new Baroness of Fallbottom, Miriam. "Any news?" the rebel leader asked.

"Not any we weren't expecting," Drake said nonchalantly. "The magic artifacts you provided had given us a large advantage over them, for not speaking of how their soldiers must feel now that our forces have doubled in quantity."

"And that's not having into account how useful having more men on our ranks is;" Vathek continued. "I was worried that leaving Aldarn in Torus Filney with so many of us would be a problem, but with Fallbottom and Lannion in our side, we can allow ourselves to leave enough forces behind to control the conquered territory."

"Lannion's forces won't be joining ours for now," Will corrected the blue Galhot in that regard. "They're better were they're now, acting as our spies within Phobos' forces. However, Fallbottom…"

"My city," Miriam told the redhead. 'My city', that's how she called it most of the time now; "can be surprisingly good resisting attacks. Fallbottom it's basically a natural bastion and I left enough soldiers there to hold the defenses, under your boys' command;" she said, smirking towards Jade.

"How's your sister, by the way?" the Chinese Shapeshifter girl asked of the noblewoman.

"Oh, she is doing alright. So is my adorable niece," Miriam answered alongside a chuckle.

"If we could return to the subject," Will told the pair of women. "The psychological tactics worked then? What about their defenses?"

 _Empty their bellies, crush them in the battlefield, then give them a false sense of hope to crush it afterwards_ ; Taranee thought. _An enemy without morale doesn't fight as hard as one with high spirits_. The thought felt bitter inside her head. It felt even bitterer that, once again, she couldn't disagree. _It's a good plan_ ; she thought, this time the sentence being accompanied by a soft tune that sounded behind it. Taranee supposed it was the sound of the screams of the soldiers that had been burnt by the flames she had created over the battlefield. God, God; she hadn't wanted for that to happen. And it had happened, hadn't it? Had they died then? Or had they just being burned? She didn't know, and those were questions that a part of her wanted to leave unanswered. "The archers were the ones that could give us more problems, but Irma and I took care of them."

"Well done," Will complimented the Fire Guardian along an understanding smile, noticing that she wasn't feeling very well. "And their losses? Can they perpetuate a counterattack?"

"Not likely," Drake said again. "The Fire and Water Guardians took their archery down, as you have been told; and their cavalry is almost completely gone, their infantry crippled."

"We've some losses too," Taranee spoke again. "And we've got many wounded. With Fallbottom's forces here, shouldn't we take them to the Infinite City to be treated?"

"It's a good idea," Hay Lin agreed with her friend. "I could go with and protect them until we find a tunnel."

Will pondered this for a few seconds. "You're right; those people won't do anything here but get worse. Hay Lin, gather a few soldiers and tell them to help you carry the injured back to the Infinite City;" the Chinese Guardian nodded and started to fly. "How long until this city surrenders?" the redhead asked after the Air Guardian had left.

Drake shrugged. "That could be a day, a week, a month… if they surrender at all. There always exists that possibility. Just because you would surrender in a situation, doesn't mean your enemy must act the same way as you."

"So it's the waiting game now?" Jade wondered. "I didn't even get to be in the fight;" she protested in a joking tone of voice, trying to ease the mood of the people around her.

"It wasn't all that great, believe me;" Irma told the girl, elbowing her arm.

"Then we don't know how much longer…?" Cornelia started to say, but then they heard a yell from one from the soldiers. Everyone turned around to see how the gates of Kelliwic were opening again. From it came a solitary man over a horse, holding in his hands a large stick to which a white cloth had been tied. A white flag, it was an improvised white flag.

"Shortest siege ever;" Jade commented into a deadpan tone.

* * *

Caleb rode over a Hoogong towards more or less the middle point in the field between Kelliwic and the rebel forces. There, he met with the rider that had exited the city. It was the same soldier, the same commanding officer that leaded the forces of the great city.

For a few seconds none of them exchanged words. For Caleb, the man seemed troubled and confused, as if he didn't know what to say. To the soldier, Caleb looked like someone that wasn't so sure about him wanting to parlay. The fact that the green eyed boy's hand was gripping the hilt of one of his swords was proof of that. Caleb found a little troubling that, instinctively, his hand had moved to take the Sword of Thanatos instead of the normal blade.

"Are you the rebel leader?" the soldier asked with a hint of surprise. Then again, everyone got surprised after seeing how the rebel leader was a fifteen year old boy. Not that Caleb felt insulted by it anymore. For his part, Caleb noted that, aside from the improvised white flag and… _something_ wrapped in cloths resting over the man's lap, the soldier carried no weapons.

"I am," the son of Julian answered. "I suppose you are here to discuss the terms of your surrender."

"I am," the soldier answered. "My name is Narsus, son of Nastir. I'm the commander of the… _army_ of Kelliwic;" _if it can be considered an army anymore. This is what happens when we follow the ideas of Viscount Servantis without fortifying our city like he did with Torus Filney. When it comes the time to fight, we are at a clear disadvantage. And the rebels have very little to lose, and so much to win_. "We wish to surrender; our men do not wish to continue fighting. I was able to convince them to lay down their weapons and pledge loyalty to your Rebellion."

"And in return, you ask for our attack to be stopped and the income of food and other goods to return to Kelliwic;" Caleb said, deducing the man's demands. He didn't stroke him as a liar, and this didn't seem any kind of scheme to lure them into the city and kill them. Anyway, he would proceed with precaution.

"Amongst other things," Narsus answered. "I would like to… ask for another request, if you would listen to it."

"And what about the noble that leads your city?" Caleb asked then. "Earl Ghiscar, isn't he called that? Shouldn't he be here?"

"He is," Narsus answered, throwing the bundle he was carrying to the ground after unwrapping it from the clothes. The thing rolled over the ground until it reached the talons of Caleb's Hoogong; letting the rebel leader to contemplate with an stoic expression the severed head of the Earl. It felt as if it was still warm, and even in death one could appreciate the betrayed expression in his face.

"I hope," Narsus said; "that this is enough to prove where my city's loyalties lie now."

"Indeed," Caleb whispered in a sour tone, his eyes slowly moving away from the nobleman's severed head and stopping once they reached the soldier. "I suppose it's time to discuss the terms of your surrender. I have my own request for you too…"

* * *

 ** _Hours later; the Infinite City_**

Caleb didn't know who had built the prison of the Infinite City or with which intention it had been built aside from the obvious one, but he was sure it must have been designed with the idea that, once inside a cell, nobody would leave. As such, moving prisoners was a rather difficult task, especially when the ones you had to move from the prison were almost the entire smallfolk population of a great city like Torus Filney. There were almost two dozens of rebel soldiers overseeing the operation, making sure no commoner tried anything funny during their transfer. None of them were yelling or protesting, they had run tired of that after the first weeks of their imprisonment. Once out of the prison, they would be blindfolded and mounted into carts and moved out of the Infinite City. All of them were being moved, all but one.

"W-Where are you taking my people?"

The dry and tired question didn't take Caleb by surprise. After all, he had deliberately chosen to stand in front of this particular cell precisely expecting this outcome. Peeking inside the cell, behind the bars of energy that the Mage had once created, Caleb spotted Viscount Servantis. The last month and weeks hadn't been kind with the nobleman. He looked way thinner than before, poorly dressed in rags, and the smell that was coming from him was quite unbearable. His beard and hair had grown wildly, the only part of the nobleman that looked clean was the stump his arm had been reduced to once it had been cut; newly bandaged and treated. At least some of Sephiria's healers had done their job properly this time. Sephiria… he had barely spoken to her as of lately. He had yet to find a moment in which he could do so without interruptions. But now, his attention needed to be focused in this.

"To Kelliwic, and the villages and settlements around it;" Caleb told the nobleman.

"Kelliwic?" the nobleman's voice came again. Slowly, he approached the energy bars of his prison, letting Caleb to see completely. Light of Meridian, he looked more like a beggar than a noble now, and his body seemed to the one a man a decade older than what the Viscount really was. "Old Ghiscar's city… Did you do to them what you did to me?"

"Ghiscar is dead," Caleb informed him. The Viscount's expression grew sadder, if that was even possible. Had Ghiscar been his friend? Caleb ignored that, and frankly, he judged it as unimportant now. "One of his men killed him, turning Kelliwic's loyalty to the Rebellion." _Because we deprived them of food,_ he added in his thoughts. "He requested that the control of the great city should be transferred to him, and in return they would support the rebels from now on. Of course, I left some men of my confidence with him…"

"And you told him that in order to make that deal, he would have to take my people under his care;" Servantis ended the phrase for him. Then the Viscount let out a bitter, sinister laugh. "Clever… the increase of the city's and nearby villages' population would force him to obey you, else he could risk an attack from you while being too occupied maintaining so much people. And yet, I have been left behind."

"You must understand by now that you are more valuable as a prisoner than any of them;" _and they consume food and water; it's better if it's another who takes care of them_. His original plan had been for the Earl to be captured alive too, but that hadn't turned out as it had been planned.

"Now isn't that simply ironic?" the Viscount said bitterly, turning around and heading back to the dark end of his cell. "Most of the rebels that I have met during these years of war claimed that they were fighting for the commoners. And here you are, getting rid of them, ones that had been your prisoners, even! They lived better under my care…"

"This Rebellion cares for the people," Caleb retorted. "It's easy to talk about how much you help them when the only thing you have been doing for the last thirteen years is hide behind walls and maintain them in a waking dream. What about the commoners of the Capital, or of the outer ring of Meridian? What about the ones that are forced to endure the worst parts of Phobos' regime, the ones that have to fight tooth and nail to get food for the day, who see their homes transformed into working camps, or the forces of the Prince deployed against them because they can't pay the taxes?"

Servantis didn't say anything else until he reached his destination. Only then did he spoke. "Carhaiz was supposed to be a remedy to that. And you burned it down."

Caleb's fists tightened, or at least so did one of them. The other hand was busy gripping the hilt of the Sword of the Berserker. Breathing deeply a couple of times, the rebel leader was able to calm down and let go of the cursed blade. He turned around and decided it was time to leave.

"I won't try to deny that what this Rebellion did at Carhaiz," _what my father did there_ , "was horrible and dishonorable. I'm done to turning a blind eye to my own side's failures. However, isn't that what you are doing too? Of what serves saving most of the smallfolk from Phobos, if at the end he will try to take over other worlds? Of what serves getting people out of the Capital, protecting the commoners and giving them a safe place to live, when it's supported over the suffering of others?"

"The same could be said about your Rebellion, boy;" Servantis told him from the darkness. "Of what serves defeating and dethroning Phobos, if in the way you have left monsters like the one whom… r-raped my wife…" the Viscount's voice almost broke at the moment of uttering those words. Now with his anger long gone, nothing was left to distract him of how powerless he really was; "to roam free over this world? Of what serves deposing Phobos, if at the end there is nothing but ashes to rule over?"

"I know that, Viscount. And I know it serves nothing, but I will always regret what Rhouglar did to Lady Ishol," _and who knows how many other women_ , "and being unable to prevent it. This Rebellion is changing, evolving towards something better. But… it will mean nothing if once the Usurper is gone, then the rest of the nobles decide to continue the fighting. If we are able to defeat Phobos, find the Princess and put a better ruler in that throne…" Caleb said before leaving; "will the nobles cooperate?"

"I don't know," Servantis said. Galiene wouldn't, that the Viscount knew for sure. Considering how fast news travelled in this realm, he doubted that she would continue to stay in the sidelines for too long. "Where is my wife?"

"Under the care of someone I trust;" Caleb declared, leaving the Viscount behind. "She will be safe, I promise."

* * *

 ** _Some minutes later; the Small Council's room_**

While Caleb talked with the Viscount and Sephiria tended to the injured during the battle, the girls had joined Drake and the Mage in the Small Council's room. Vathek had decided to not attend this meeting, instead dedicating himself to oversee the transfer of some of the Torus Filney prisoners, or perhaps to maintain an eye over Caleb.

"And so, Kelliwic has joined us too," the 'Mage' declared in her raspy and whispering tone of voice. Over the table the Small Council usually used in their meetings, a map depicting Meridian had been laid. The enormous land of mass that was mainly occupied by the Escanors' realm (baring the desert of the south and the frozen tundra of the far north) had numerous points in it marked with tiny Xs, mainly in the outer ring, but there were some in the middle ring of the kingdom too, over the great cities of Torus Filney, Kelliwic, Fallbottom and Lannion; and their areas of influence. Nerissa Crossnic couldn't avoid forming a devilish smirk behind her glamour as the 'Mage'. Thirteen years, thirteen long years! And that wasn't counting the previous ones dedicated to planning, plotting, and moving in the shadows; or the more than two decades expended in that prison at Mount Thanos! And finally, slowly, all her efforts were starting to bear fruit; everything was starting to fall in place! Oh, this meeting needed to end, better sooner than later. She needed to go to the Castle and slip into her Trill persona, see if Cedric had made any progress into persuading the Princess into joining her big brother's side. Then it would be a matter of time before Phobos took the Heart of Meridian from Elyon, and taking it from the fool would be a child's play. Then the only thing left to do would be to dispose of Phobos, and win the war for the rebels. Ah… wouldn't things have turned out better and easier if the Princess hadn't been able to escape her brother's grasp that night of the coup? But no… someone had to take the Princess to another world, and then Himerish had to raise a Veil around this planet! Then again, Nerissa Crossnic was a woman that prided herself into being able to adapt to any situation, and she did love challenges…

"So we've got enough strength to make an attack over the Capital and the Princey's castle?" Jade wondered, looking at the map; and getting the Fallen Guardian's attention back into reality. _I thought we were gonna take over the middle ring first, but this does it too, I suppose_.

"Isn't that a bit risky?" Taranee asked, not sure if delivering a blow to the core of the Prince's forces was the best of ideas if it meant turning a blind eye to all the noble houses that were left, building their power.

"Not yet, and not exactly;" Drake declared, answering both their questions. "First we would have to move through the Meridian Plains before reaching the Capital. Attacking it with all our might may look like a risky move, but if Phobos falls now that the nobles lack Servantis' lead and some of them have joined us; the spider will lose its head, and it won't have enough legs to keep standing. That doesn't mean we are going to act like hotheaded idiots. We should proceed with patience now, see if the Count of Lannion, who has yet to reveal himself as our ally; can provide some information on the enemy's plans or make a movement that will cause chaos amongst their forces."

"Plans?" Irma wondered, crossing her arms under her bust. "What plans? Those guys have done nothing but sit down during the last weeks."

"And doesn't that bother you a bit?" Will told her companion. "Ever since we took over Torus Filney, no noble's made an attempt of retaking it; but Kelliwic wasn't prepared to fight in the defense for too long. That's the reason we won so fast. I don't know what it is… call it a gut feeling, but I don't like it;" the redhead tilted her head and let it rest over her hand, arm leaning over the table. "Something's wrong."

"We will gather information then," Drake declared, rising from his seat. "I will see if I can get someone trustworthy into Lannion and have a talk with the newly named Count." _And see if big brother needs something else for me to do here;_ Cyrus Ludmoore thought _. This waiting is starting to get into my nerves! God damn it Cedric, how much time do you need to convince a teenage girl of trusting you? You didn't have many problems with the one that can transform into a spider! Then again, Miranda is in love with you…_

"I shall contact Trill, a sympathizer of the Rebellion inside the palace and see if she has some valuable information;" the 'Mage' declared. "Until then, we should start moving our forces towards the Capital through the insides of the Infinite City."

"Very well," Will said, rubbing her eyes afterwards. As she rose from her chair, her wings flapped for a few seconds, slightly moving the map. "Then it's time to go home," she told her friends.

* * *

 ** _Across the Veil, Heatherfield; Cook residence_**

Taranee sat in her living room's couch, a book in her hands. Even from there she could hear the noises coming from the kitchen as her father and brother cleaning the dishes and the kitchen after being used. By the time the girls have arrived back on Heatherfield, having asked Blunk to sniff a Portal for them; the afternoon had already passed and it was time for dinner. Talk about enjoying a Sunday's afternoon; even if it was the Sunday preceding the last week before Spring Break. She had arrived a bit late, and that had earned herself a bit of a scold from her mother. The Fire Guardian had had to think quickly about an excuse good enough to convince her mother. In the end, she had opted for the classic ' _I lost track of time_ ' instead of ' _You see, mom. I was in another world since the moment I finished lunch_ '.

 _I was in another world, and people died. Because of me_ ; Taranee thought. Will had told her that it wasn't her fault; Jade that those very same people would have killed her if given the opportunity. Irma that if she hadn't raised that wall of fire the plan would have failed and more people would have died. She was still telling herself that she hadn't done what she had done with the intention to kill. And Hay Lin, for her part, had raised an interesting question. Had she really killed anyone? Irma had transformed the flames into steam with her water almost instantaneously, and the Air Guardian had said that Taranee didn't know if her flames had burned anyone to death, instead the rebel attack having finished them; which was a much more likely possibility. And yet she still felt shameful; just like she had felt with that crocodile Shapeshifter back at Torus Filney, even when she hadn't been the one to kill him. Just because it wasn't technically her fault or just because some would judge it as necessary... that didn't mean that Taranee felt it was right.

"Is there something wrong?" she heard over her shoulder.

Looking up from her book, Taranee's bespectacled eyes met the ones of her mother, Judge Theresa Cook. An Asian-American woman in her late thirties, or maybe the start of her forties; with white skin and black hair with a somehow dark bluish tonality that fell from her head up until half her neck, dressed in the usual clothing she used when she was at home, a pair of lavender pants and a shirt of the same color; a pair of house slippers on her feet. In her right hand was a smoky cup of hot milk mixed with honey; something that Theresa usually drank every night. Well, Taranee was unable to sleep without at least reading a chapter of a book, so who was her to judge the habits of others?

Jade had once joked with them that all their mothers looked considerably better than their fathers (at exception of Will's, whom none of them knew) and all of them had laughed. Now, however; she actually had to give her friend a point. Theresa was an attractive woman, and if one really thought about it so were Susan Vandom, Elizabeth Hale, Anna Lair and Joan Lin. Focusing a little more, one could appreciate that her children shared a lot of facial features with Theresa, from the shape of the chin to the nose, passing over the cheekbones, both of them looked a lot like her; albeit their skin color had been clearly inherited from the friendly Lionel Cook.

"Yes mom, everything's fine;" Taranee said, and immediately regretted using those words. Do you know what can be worse than being a teenager that has an overprotective mom that doesn't know about your secret life as a Guardian? That, on top of all those, that mother is a judge. You know them, those people that stay in court all day hearing attorneys and that have probably been attorneys at some point in the past; those people to whom lying is incredibly hard. Theresa Cook was one of them, and that meant she had quite an advantage at the moment of talking with her children. However, that didn't mean she was a harsh mother. In fact, she was far more comprehensive and patient than many other adults, as long as you could make a good argument.

"Why do I not believe that?" Theresa said, sitting at Taranee's side, her daughter leaving the book aside.

Taranee sighed. "I've a lot of things in the head right now, mom;" Taranee told her mother, who continued to be there, sitting with her back straight, sipping from time to time from her milk-with-honey cup. "It's just… the girls and I had a talk today, and it makes me question… things."

"Things," Theresa repeated. She didn't seem to believe her, but reading Theresa Cook when she didn't want to be read was nigh impossible.

"Yes, things;" Taranee told her. "Things about… everything;" the girl continued, wanting to lie without lying. Or was it telling the truth without telling the truth? Or both? Or none? She didn't know. In fact, she didn't know if she should be having this conversation with her mother, of all people.

"I think I know what you are talking about," Theresa said, emptying her cup and proceeding to let it aside. "I went over something similar at your age."

"I… think not, mom;" Taranee told her. After all, she doubted that her mother had been fighting a war in another world when she was young. _I hope this doesn't transform into another talk about my period…_

"I beg to differ. It's clear you feel confused. You have doubts; you ask yourself questions about you, your friends, the world…" Theresa started to say. "You are starting to become the woman one day you will be. It's okay to be doubtful, especially when you are a teenager." Theresa made a pause before continuing. "But you know you can be open about those doubts with me. If you don't want to, then it's alright."

Taranee sighed again. Her mind had been thinking a lot of things lately. The war they were fighting, the fact they had helped a secret organization to oust a criminal organization, Will and Jade stealing magic weapons, how the war in Meridian was advancing… but in the end, the thing she thought about with more intensity was about the man with the spear wound.

"Hey mom," Taranee said after a while. "Do you think I'd make a good doctor?"

* * *

 ** _Across the Veil; Meridian's outer ring; a day later_**

Blunk the Passling had never had what you would call an easy life. Life under a tyranny was hard if you were a small, greenish dwarf out to survive day by day, and whose main source of income was trading with things some people valued and others thought of as trash. However, he didn't think that he had had a horrible one either. He was a Passling, and a Passling lived like any other of his brethren; walking from one corner of Meridian to another in order to find the best materials that could be bought or sold, sometimes travelling to other worlds in order to find more exotic ones; and then finding customers in order to trade with. Many despised Passlings due to their antics and procedures, labeling them as smugglers, thieves or overestimated beggars (and partially due to their strong smell and obsession with shinny objects); but in truth, a lot of meridianites used their services and valued them. For example, there was no false jewel, gold or silver that could fool a Passling. If there was a necklace made of gold than in reality was made of simple iron and then bathed in gold, then a Passling's nose could smell the iron underneath, or a Passling's hands could detect that there was something wrong with the metal's texture or weight. And there were very few creatures that could make better trackers or smugglers than Passlings, and in times of war, thieves and smugglers were highly valued by any side participating on it. So in reality, a Passling's life wasn't all that bad. But of course, these were still times of war, the time of Prince Phobos and his cells. The times of Daolon Wong, the wizard having earned quite the reputation amongst Passling-folk for his experiments on their race. And the Underwater Mines, oh, any Passling feared those.

But none of those had been able to beat down Blunk's high spirits. Not even when he had been captured and sent to that oubliette had he let desperation to defeat him. And in the end he had been able to escape and make new friends with the nice girls, and even get connections with the Rebellion for him and his fellow Passlings. Oh, how many shinny jewels had the rebels paid them for taking those magic toys from Earth! How grateful had his fellow Passlings been to Blunk, how much had they thanked him! How much had they cheered for him! Yes, there was very little that could make Blunk the Passling despair, as he was accustomed to face life with a smile and thinking that the glass was always half-filled. Now, however… things were a bit different.

After his successful job for the Rebellion and he nice girls, Blunk had decided to spend some of his time travelling the rebel settlements of Meridian's outer ring. Each of them he walked in stroke him as odd looking, since they were results of the rebels building barricades and fortifications around the already present architecture. Using wood and to be fair whatever other material they had at their disposal, the rebels had transformed some already damaged houses from small villages into small (and sincerely, very asymmetrical) watchtowers, and the mines that had once served as the working camps in which prisoners of every nature had been held captive, had been transformed into fortified bases that could be directed by small groups of rebels.

Right now, Blunk was in one of the latter ones. To be precise, he was in a cave composed of a large, natural stone chamber that had been reinforced with beams and which's only exit to the exterior was a large hole that had been transformed into a wooden gate. A gate that had been broken, numerous arrows now nailed onto it. When Blunk had arrived to this settlement he could have sworn that there were more than two hundred rebels here, no matter if they were warriors, blacksmiths or even farmers. Now only five remained, not counting Blunk. Two women and three men; all of them sitting at different spots of the chamber, all of them looking defeated and solemn. Each was at least slightly wounded; one of them, one of the women, still had the remnants of an arrow in her shoulder. Each of them was either carrying a melee weapon or had one nearby, and the intention of fighting had yet to completely disappear from their souls. But all of them knew it wasn't going to save them.

Outside, a figure in white armor and with a white cape and a bit more than a thousand soldiers stood still and silent, bows tensed and swords ready. All of the soldiers were dressed in armor of black platting with three golden waves painted in their breastplates, each of them with at least ten kills at their backs, even the youngest ones. These weren't your average soldiers, or your average guards. Each of these men and women was a dedicated and hardened warrior; a talking, walking _weapon_ that was so used to kill as it was to breathe. Not that any of them were monsters. They were just doing their jobs. It was just that they took them very seriously, and they were extraordinarily good at them.

They had appeared practically out of nowhere, and by the moment the rebels had been able to react, they had been crushed. Arrows had flown fast and precisely, striking many rebels down; and those who had tried to counterattack had met a quick end at the hands of the melee soldiers. Outnumbered and outmatched, the rebels had started to recede towards the insides of the chamber, and by the moment they had reached it only these five and Blunk remained alive. The enemy had judged then the appropriate time to stop their onslaught, and the ceaseless rain of arrows had halted. That had left the five rebels and Blunk room to breathe.

"She's unstoppable… unstoppable…" a tall, thin, middle aged man said in a tired tone.

"I still can't believe it," one of the women, sitting near the entrance and always keeping an eye at the enemy. "How can a host so big move so easily? How didn't we see it coming? Why weren't we alerted?"

"The others," the other woman said, wincing in pain a bit as she took her hand to her arrow wound. "Ah… maybe they didn't have time."

Yes, that was probably true, wasn't it? The nearest settlements would probably have been crushed too, with the same efficiency this one had. This army probably travelled by night, attacked with the sun high and then rested, not having to preoccupy itself with any witnesses since they left no survivors. This was madness! Not even the most efficient of the Prince's soldiers, under Raythor's command, and in their best day were this competent! And why weren't they attacking?! Why weren't they even talking?! It gave them all a nightmarish appearance, as if they weren't even mortal beings! Perhaps… was that the effect they were searching for? Well, they were succeeding at it!

"What do we do now?" a weak question from another rebel.

Die. That would be the most natural answer. However, the last one of them, and the calmest by a big margin was the one who approached Blunk. Kneeling to look at the Passling in the eye, the young Galhot pointed towards one of the ends of the chamber, where a small hole at the ground's level had opened in the wall.

"I need you to hide there," the rebel told Blunk.

The Passling, frowning after that sentence, retorted. "But… But Blunk can fight! Blunk warrior, he can help!"

"You'll help. We're all gonna die here," the man said. Strange, he didn't struck Blunk as being as scared as his companions. He had accepted it, hadn't he? His fate, the certainty that he was going to meet his end now, that he wouldn't be here anymore to eat, drink, love, laugh, cry… "But that doesn't mean we won't fight until the end. And we'll give you time, you'll survive and then tell Caleb what's going on here."

"But…" Blunk tried to complain, yet the rebel picked him from the ground and carried him towards the hole.

"I need you. To hide. Here;" the rebel slowly said as he deposited Blunk in the ground again. "I need you to stay there, in silence. Luckily, none of them will notice you. When we're done, you just need to get out and…"

"Members of the Rebellion!" they all heard from outside. It was the voice of a woman; commanding, calm and yet fearsome at the same time. Like a thin still blade; elegant and deadly. The shout made the rebel talking to Blunk to force the Passling inside the hole using his foot and then rush to his companions' aid as quick as he could. Against all the odds, the five rebels were now standing up, all of them with their weapons ready.

"Those pathetic excuses of soldiers you had are dead!" the female voice continued from outside. "You are tired! There is no hope for you! But I shall show a bit of compassion! I, Archduchess Galiene Sebille, shall give you a death befitting warriors! Make peace with your ancestors and pray to the Light of Meridian, because here I come!"

The five rebels stood where they were, and Blunk remained in his little hole, even if he didn't want to. The only thing he could hear in the cave was the sound produced by the breathing of the rebels and the Passling. To which then joined another sound, at first being weak, but that then growing stronger. Paft, Paft, Paft… each of them sounded stronger than the previous one. It was nearer and nearer. It was the sound of… steps? The sound of steps given by armored feet against the ground.

"What's… happening?" one of the women, the injured one, asked.

"She's coming," the rebel that had pushed Blunk into the hole whispered, narrowing his eyes. "Alone."

"Is she crazy?" the fifth rebel asked in the same weak voice as before. "We're f-five! She can't…!"

"That's Archduchess Galiene Sebille who's coming to kill us;" the tall, thin, middle aged rebel said then. "Haven't you heard the stories? She's the Blade of Meridian, boy."

Either by instinct or mere fear, the five rebels started to move towards one another, forming a semicircle, their weapons pointed towards the entrance. Blunk continued to look from his hole, the waiting feeling more tormenting than what was about to come. Paft, Paft, Paft…

And finally, she appeared! Standing casually at the entrance to the cave, there she was! Cape waving in the wind, the rays of the sun of the morning making the white platted armor to shine like the one of a chivalrous and noble hero of a long forgotten story, a long-sword and a dagger hanging from her belt; there stood Archduchess Galiene. Her hair was wavy and of a silvery grey color, falling over her shoulders with grace. Her wrinkled face had a very sharp chin and equally sharp cheekbones, eyes of a bright grayish dark green and an analytic gleam in them. Her body, even if it was hard to tell with the armor on, seemed to be slender and well toned, product of a lifetime of training and honing of skills. How old was she? The features and wrinkles denoted a woman not younger than seventy years, if Blunk's eyes didn't deceive him.

She remained there for several moments, surveying the group of five. Her eyes travelled over all of them, and one by one each of the rebels felt as if those eyes were rendering them naked. Then she smirked, and unsheathed her sword. The blade was as brilliant as her armor. "Shall we begin?" the old noblewoman said in a taunting and haughty voice.

What followed wasn't a fight that you would call epic, or clean, or fair.

The five rebels didn't utter a single word; neither did they charge one by one nor all at once. Instead, they let her walk into the cave. And slowly, they walked, one man staying where he had been up until now, the two women putting themselves at her left, and the other two men taking positions at her right. The most basic of strategies, then. When you outnumber an enemy, you take advantage of that in order to overpower them. However, you don't charge blindly into a fight against an enemy you know nothing about. You wait for them to make the first move. Combining both strategies, then the most logical plan to follow would be to lure the enemy into attacking a section of your forces, and attack with the rest while the enemy is distracted. In a five-on-one battle, that translated into putting enough distance between you and your four companions and let your sole adversary focus into one of them and then attack her back. However, this strategy wasn't foolproof. After all, it relied too much into thinking that you knew how your enemy was going to proceed. And you never knew when your enemy would do something… _unexpected_.

Galiene moved her left hand quickly while holding her blade down with the other, extracting her dagger from its sheath and throwing it fast and strong towards one of the women at her left; all in the blink of an eye. The dagger nailed itself on the leg of the already injured woman, who screamed due to the sudden pain. Galiene rushed towards her, while the other four rebels started to attack the Archduchess. The noblewoman closed distances between her and the injured rebel woman, and holding her sword with both hands and using a quick, strong and precise strike the rebel woman's head found itself detached from her body. The shinning white of the sword and armor was now tainted on red.

The other four rebels started to yell as they reached the old noblewoman and started attacking her. It was all fruitless. Galiene proved to be way faster than any of them, blocking each of their attacks with ease and delivering strong and precise counterattacks. Every time that the noblewoman was able to parry one of their blows, she took the opportunity to attack either their legs or arms, producing deep lashes over them. The four remaining rebels shortly found themselves in the defense, while the Archduchess was now opting for a much more aggressive approach. As the other rebel woman tried one last desperate attack, Galiene held her blade with one hand again, using the other to take her cape of her shoulders and toss it at the woman. The cloth blinded and distracted her, and she failed to notice the Archduchess' sword piercing through the cape and impaling her through the stomach. Feeling how her strength started to fade, the woman fell to the ground, and there she bled to death.

 _Two down, only three remaining_ ; the Archduchess thought as she shifted her attention to the three remaining men.

One of them, trembling so much that he couldn't even keep holding his sword straight, decided this wasn't worth the effort. As such, he started to run towards the exit of the chamber they were in with the intention to escape. He must have forgotten about the army outside, because as soon as he set foot out of the cave he was shot to death by the archers.

 _Make that two_ , Galiene thought again, dedicating a terrible smile towards her two last opponents; both of them panting, their wounds bleeding. Both men shared a look. Yes, their predictions had been right; they were going to die here. So both of them charged at the same time, perhaps with the futile hope that one of them could injure or even kill the Blade of Meridian before embracing death. How foolish. Both of them met the same end, both lying in the ground, both of them headless.

And Blunk, Blunk the Passling, the one that faced life with a smile and always seeing the glass half-filled; contemplated this with horror. He looked at the corpses of the rebels lying around and felt how his heart was beating faster than ever; he fought back the tears as the Archduchess walked towards the two dead women, retrieving her dagger and cape.

"I will need a new one," she said, inspecting the cape. Sheathing both blade and dagger, she approached the gate and halted. Turning around, she surveyed the four corpses she had left behind. "You all fought valiant and honorably. Be proud of that, even in death."

She left then, leaving Blunk alone. Only then the Passling, clutching his own legs and noticing how tears that he knew were more product of fear than of true sadness started to roll down his cheeks, noticed that he had been holding his breath during the whole fight. He didn't exit the hole he had been hiding in. He would wait until night arrived and he could move safely.

 _Rebels need to know this!_ The Passling, still terrified, thought. _Caleb and nice girls need to know about this!_

* * *

 ** _Several hours later_**

Captain Lothar had seen, in his days as a Lieutenant or even as a mere soldier; a lot of battles. From skirmishes that were resolved with little effort to harsh battles that were lost before they even began; passing from the ones in which the two sides were evenly matched. And yet, in none of those battles had the young Captain seen any band of soldiers as efficient as these. The infantry of Blackrock Island, all of them dressed in fully black armors at exception of the three golden waves over the breastplate, the emblem of the Sebille noble house. He had practically frozen when; nearly a month ago, the message had arrived from Heliosport to the Capital, handed by a lone guard over a Hoogong. He had left the Guard under Frost and the sergeants command and rode here as soon as he could, meeting and joining the army. He… He had to see her! The famed Blade of Meridian, in the company of a thousand of soldiers. Archduchess Galiene… for five decades she had been the Archduchess of Meridian serving under first Queen Arianne, then Queen Weira and now Prince Phobos; holding the highest position amongst the nobility barring Princesses and Queens; or Prince, in the current case. And now that he thought about it, didn't Cedric's title of Lord hold a similar authority? Anyway, her nobility wasn't what had earned her the amount of fame she possessed. Blade of Meridian, Blade of Meridian… she had earned that moniker during the rule of Queen Arianne. The best swordsman (or swordswoman in this case) of Meridian, that's what she was called even now, when she was seventy years old. And it wasn't just bravado, it was the truth. The Captain of the Guard had seen it perfectly, not only her and her soldiers' skill with their blades, spears and bows; but also her manner of commanding, of directing the thousand soldiers with not only efficiency but ease. And then of course was the show of skill and boldness when she had entered the cave and defeated, singlehandedly, five rebels, each far younger than her.

Now, the soldiers of Blackrock, their enemy finally defeated and their corpses burning in a hole that had been dig in the ground, had an opportunity to relax and behave like humans. They would do as they had done with all previous six rebel settlements they had conquered ever since they had departed from Heliosport. Settle down and camp for a few days in order to organize, and then leave by night, moving onto their next target. As he moved between them, Lothar was greeted by laughs and cheers, the soldiers displaying a camaraderie that reminded Lothar of his own men, of how they had helped him once he had decided to stop supporting the Prince. He found the Archduchess shortly after near a table that had been laid over the grass, her and four of her soldiers standing around it.

"Ah, Captain Lothar;" the old noblewoman said. While the quartet of soldiers was still fully armored, she had discarded the breastplate, and also the armor of the arms and shoulders, and the gauntlets; exchanging them for a white shirt very similar to the one that young noblemen wore in casual occasions. However, her dagger still handged from her waist. Looking at her from this short distance and ignoring the wrinkles, it was clear to the Captain of the Guard how similar this woman must have looked, in her youth, to how her daughter looked now. However, Lothar suspected that Lady Ishol's graying auburn hair hadn't been inherited from this woman. From her husband, perhaps? The Archduke had died of an illness more than two decades ago, or at least that was what everyone said. "We were waiting for you."

With a small reverence, Lothar gave a couple of steps, he himself dressed in the armor he usually donned before entering battle, the edges of his cape brushing against the tall grass of the ground. One of the soldiers moved a bit in order to give him enough space at the table, the Captain finally seeing what was over it. It was a map of Meridian, with several annotations made over it. Scratching a bit the grayish-green hair over his head and touching the armband around his wrist, Lothar focused in what the Archduchess had to say.

"I was explaining to my soldiers how we shall proceed now," Galiene explaining, bending a bit and pointing to the outer ring of the realm. "Me and my thousand men shall remain here, in the outer ring;" she said, gesturing to the zone of the land they were currently in; "while you return to the Capital and wait until the remaining nobles, whom I already called for, assemble their armies in the Meridian Plains. You will take command of that host and dedicate yourself to push the Rebellion out of the middle ring and back into the outer one. I will crush the rebel cells around the outer ring, and when the Rebellion's main force is pushed back here, I will destroy them too."

Lothar took a hand to his chin, looking at the map. "Wouldn't that leave the great cities without protection?"

"The great cities can be rebuilt and conquered once again;" Galiene said, standing straight and folding her arms. "The Rebellion won't risk harming the commoners; they are their main source of support in this war."

"Especially in this part of the kingdom," Lothar retorted. "Forgive my boldness, my lady; but the commoners of the outer ring idolize the rebels, and not without reason. I doubt they would take kindly to a thousand soldiers under a noble's banner stomping their feet around their villages in order to kill rebels, when the Rebellion is the only reason they are able to live day by day."

Against what Lothar had supposed would happen, the Blade of Meridian smiled with a hint of… pride? Unfolding her arms, she directed herself to her four soldiers, ordering them to return with the rest of the army. That left the Archduchess and the Captain alone.

"Some say that you took the Guard out of the Palace, in the Capital;" Galiene said after a while. "May I ask why? As Captain of the Guard, isn't your duty to protect the Prince?"

"Isn't a Prince's, a King's; any royalty's duty to care for their people?" Lothar declared. "The rebels need to pay for what they have done. For Carhaiz, for Torus Filney, for all they had done over these thirteen years of war. But I'm done with turning a blind eye to my own side's failures. I'm done ignoring what Prince Phobos has done, what monsters like Tracker, the Archmage and Lord Cedric do in his behalf. The Guard will protect the people of this kingdom from the Rebellion, but as long as it remains under my care, it will find no honor into serving a dishonorable excuse of a man."

 _Respectful, dutiful, and yet not afraid of speaking his mind… let's find if he really isn't a hypocrite_ ; Galiene thought. "And Sonder Hill?"

Lothar shivered, his fingers travelling quickly to the armband he was carrying in Tynar's memory. "Sonder Hill… was my fault. I was too blinded by rage, obsessed with avenging Captain Raythor. What that cursed Mask did to me was proof of that. However, and despite Sonder Hill being rebel sympathizers and their mayor a man decided to abandon his own people for a bunch of gold… that doesn't justify what I did to their home. The village should be rebuilt as soon as we can."

 _And also able to recognize his own failures_ , Galiene thought. _What a splendid commander you crafted, Raythor_. "Then what would you suggest, for my operations on the outer ring?" the noblewoman asked with genuine interest.

Lothar was the one to bend and point to several locations on the outer ring now. "I suggest that instead of completely focusing into destroying these settlements," he said, describing circles with his index finger, "you take this army into a straight line, towards the middle ring and then through the zones surrounding Cavigor and in the Capital's direction; towards the Meridian Plains, where the other noble houses will assemble their soldiers. Some rebels may detect you, but that will play on our advantage," he said, now pointing to the middle ring. Galiene had moved from one side of the table towards the one Lothar was in, standing at his side; "since it will force their main army to divide its focus between your forces and the ones on the Meridian Plains. If we do that, the Rebellion would be beaten and forced back into hiding. And then we won't commit the same mistakes as before, it will be a matter of…"

"Finding their remnants and getting rid of them;" Galiene said. "Then we can focus into pursuing Servantis' dream. Very good, Captain Lothar."

Lothar raised an eyebrow and looked at the noblewoman after incorporating. "This was the plan, right?"

"Of course," Galiene told him. "But you can't blame someone like me for wanting to know if the person she must share duties with is up to the task. I needed to know if you could see what the better option was and if you would voice your opinion. I'm in no need or more sycophants; I have enough of those already in my own fortress in Blackrock;" she declared as she circled around the table again. "But I still maintain that you should return to the Capital as soon as possible."

Lothar nodded and dedicated another reverence as a farewell. Turning around and starting to walk, he halted before leaving the scene. "My lady Archduchess," Lothar said with respect. "It has been an honor meeting you. I apologize for not being able to protect Viscount Servantis and Lady Ishol. I won't let Torus Filney's sacrifice to be in vain."

Galiene watched at him go. Chuckling a bit, she shook her head a few times, letting her gray hair to swing in the air. The young Captain had really been trained by Raythor; that was clear from the way he moved, he talked; and for how much value he placed in honor. He was somehow a bit different than the previous Captain in that regard, though. Raythor believed that honor was founded over how strongly you adhered to your bows, hence his complete loyalty towards Phobos. Lothar seemed to have started to believe that his honor was founded into protecting the innocent from the Rebellion… and perhaps from the Prince and his abominations too? Prince Phobos…

 _We can control him, rule through him, transform Meridian into something better, and repair the damage Weira did with her good intentions! Weira and the baby won't be harmed, we swear!_ Those had been Servantis and Ishol's words, when they had asked her to side with them and the rest of the nobility into supporting Phobos' coup. But then Weira had died, and so had her husband. And the Princess? Lost to that world named Earth. All because Phobos had proven uncontrollable, too unpredictable. Arianne's daughter had died, because they had decided to support a mad boy with delusions of grandeur and that they couldn't hope to openly oppose because he (and his Lord, his Archmage and the rest of his monsters) was more powerful than all of them combined. That was the reason she had remained out of the conflict, back in Blackrock Island. She had had hope in Servantis' actions; she had had hope in his intellect and skills for times of relative peace. That was the reason she had let her daughter marry him. She had once fantasized about a granddaughter or a grandson, whom she would take to Blackrock and train personally as a new Archduchess or Archduke. When news of the Guardians' arrival and involvement in the war had reached her, she had hoped that Kandrakar had finally decided to send someone to kill the mad Prince, and that maybe then the Rebellion would dissolve, and perhaps Arianne's granddaughter would somehow return and bring order back to Meridian. But the Guardians and that wolf Shapeshifter of theirs had sided with the Rebellion, and they had destroyed Servantis' dream. Not only that, but they had captured her daughter. Her daughter! Her Ishol! Archduchess Galiene still held hope that, even if captured, the rebels had maintained Ishol alive. But in spite of that hope she had to be prepared for the worst case scenario too; which ended with her daughter dead.

 _Monsters, barbarians and idiots, just like Phobos_ ; Archduchess Galiene thought with fury. She unsheathed her dagger and nailed it in the map of Meridian over the table. "I will destroy you. I shall paint this kingdom red with your blood, rebels."

* * *

 ** _The Infinite City_**

Someone (she didn't remember whom exactly) had once told her that routine was like a poison; that it was the most dangerous poison of them all. It tempted you with the promises of a controlled and peaceful life, something that was, of course, an illusion. Routine trapped you, and in the moment you felt secure and protected, it was the most likely time for something to come crashing into your perfect little world, ruining everything. Lady Ishol, albeit not exactly denying that belief, had a very different opinion. Routine wasn't a poison… it was a _weakness_. A weakness every living being had, and of which other living beings could take advantage of; especially when said living beings were believed to be mentally handicapped by their captors.

Ever since the fall of Torus Filney, Lady Ishol had been here, under the care of these whores, waiting patiently, imitating the behavior of a child, acting like a fool so she could trick the real fools. Currently, she was sitting in the ground, legs uncrossed, dressed in a commoner's ragged clothes and playing with a ball made out of rope. She never spoke, and she put every inch of her will into imitating to perfection the behavior of an idiotic suckling babe. She had casted down her dignity and accepted being fed, cleaned and dressed by others, and in return she had started to take advantage of the weakness that routine was for these people. Everyone followed a pattern. The soldiers, the children, the whores in whose care she was in… even the men that came to this gentle Vera's girls and then went away, pockets emptied and dumb smiles on their faces. Those men…

She still had dreams about him; about that monster, laying over her, hitting her, defiling her; tainting her with his touch, his spittle. The reeking blood that dripped from the eye she had injured with one of her knives. Smashing her head against the floor… then she remembered a blur that spoke to her, called her name with the voice of her husband. When she had come back to her senses, however; she had found herself here, in the Infinite City, a place that didn't, supposedly, exist out of the tales parents told their children; which meant that she was in the famed secret base the Rebellion used. Why had the rebels spared her?

As she stopped playing with the ball made out of rope, Ishol looked around. These women rarely left her alone; she supposed a noblewoman was still a valuable hostage even if her captors thought she didn't have a mind anymore. She returned to play with the ball, making it bounce in the ground. Mere minutes; that was the time that lasted for Vera or some other to appear and feed her. Routines, routines…

The knives she had stolen were still hidden, nobody suspected her. Who was going to suspect her? They were all too dumb, too haughty, or perhaps too guilty to focus on her beyond showing some compassion. Fools. She just had to wait, and keep listening. She saw Vera approaching her with a bowl of… whatever there was to eat today. Great. And she had been as punctual and predictable as ever. Just as predictable as every rebel changing guard duty over this group every day.

Routines… Routines…

* * *

 ** _Across the Veil; Heatherfield University_**

Heatherfield's campus was, like many of the city's biggest structures (like the airport or old Villa Ludmoore); in the outskirts of the city. It wasn't a campus as big as, let us say, Harvard's; but to be fair, it's not that it needed to be bigger. And for Jackie Chan, the campus composed solely of six buildings was the most magnificent sight he had seen in months.

Just like it had happened months ago, when he had started to work undercover in the Dark Hand, Jackie Chan found himself into a normal-looking and average office once again. A half-filled bookshelf was at the right of an average desk, and behind it was a reddish chair in which Jackie was currently sitting; two bluish ones in front of it for visits. A phosphorescent lamp at the ceiling casted a steady and artificial white light over the whole room. It was clearly not an improvement over his office at Chang's building, but for Jackie it was perfect. It had taken some time to adjust to his new life, but now he found himself like a fish swimming in the right pond. Some people had even talked to him about the possibility of giving classes! Wasn't it just delightful?

"Knock, knock;" the voice of a woman called from the door, taking the archeologist out of his thoughts and forcing him to look up from the huge amount of paperwork over it. Viper was leaning on the doorframe, dressed in a businesswoman's suit. The ex-thief was looking at him with a funny expression, lips forming a smirk, eyes slightly narrowed. "I see you're busy, Tiger."

"How did you…?" Jackie started to ask while Viper walked towards his desk.

"It's a university, not a government facility or a museum;" Viper told him, sitting in one of the bluish chairs and crossing one leg over the other. "I just walked in, it's not so hard. You should tell you higher ups to strengthen security around here."

"Ha, ha; very funny;" Jackie said, reclining on his own seat. "Why are you here?"

"What? Can't a woman come to pay a visit to a friend, congratulate him for his new job?" Viper asked, tilting her head a bit. "Seriously, you should loosen up; even if it's just a little. It'll make you look cuter." Jackie breathed a bit nervously upon that sentence, something that didn't go unnoticed for the woman, whose smirk widened. "Alright, you got me," she said at last, shrugging a bit. Her expression changed then to a serious one. "Captain Black and I spoke early on."

"Ross?" Jackie asked with concern. For all that Jackie knew, the rogue agent was still at large, still lurking around Heatherfield, and he could strike at any moment, harm anyone. He knew Captain Black had assigned Viper the task of finding him, even if the local police had been also alerted of Ross' presence and how unstable he could be now that Section 13 wasn't there to pull at his leash.

"More or less," the woman told him. "The guy seems to have disappeared in thin air, that's all. No matter what thread the police or me follow, it just gets cut when I think I'm finally getting to something."

"Do you think he has left Heatherfield?" Jackie asked.

"Or he's just biding his time," Viper told him. "I have met people like him before, Tiger. They are not likely to give up."

"Well, I suppose it's good to know that at least he isn't harming anyone…" Jackie said in a soft voice. He drummed his fingers against the desk for a few seconds. "You… came here just to tell me this?"

"To be sincere, there aren't a lot of things to do in this town;" Viper told him, rising from her chair. "Don't tell your niece, but it's pretty mundane. Hey, you give me a ride around the campus and I treat you to a drink later. And your niece's birthday is in a week or so, right? We could plan something. What do you say?"

Jackie thought about this for a few seconds. He still had a lot of paperwork to fill, but it wasn't anything that couldn't wait. "I would love to," he told her, rising from his own seat.

* * *

 ** _Sheffield Institute_**

"Elyon! I told you I'm sorry!"

Cornelia's shout didn't exactly beat the incessant loud murmur that was produced by the swarms of teenage students at Sheffield slowly reentering school. The blonde walked with an angry expression, Alchemy Ethel walking at her side with a guitar case at her back. And in front of them both, putting more and more distance with each step she gave, was Elyon Brown. The straw blonde was holding her head down, shoulders slightly hunched, lips pouting and an angry frown in her forehead. It was the perfect mix of anger and sadness.

"Elyon, please…" Alchemy tried to plead to her friend. At first she thought she had made Elyon see reasons, since the petite girl dressed in purple turned around. However, once she did, Elyon's face had lost every trace of sadness and was now showing just complete rage.

"I'm sorry?! I'm sorry?!" Elyon snapped at Cornelia. "You forgot!"

What had Cornelia Hale forgotten? Not very much... just the fact that last Sunday Elyon was going to attend a little painting contest. Okay, that was actually pretty big. Considering how much the girl loved to paint, it was understandable that she had been repeating again and again how hyped she was for it during the last weeks. She had been working very hard to paint something worth presenting to the contest. She had insisted to Alchemy to come over, and the redhead had pleaded Elyon to tell Cornelia to come over too, in order to make things up. A bit reluctantly, but Elyon had accepted, telling the Hale girl when and where she should be. When Sunday had arrived, however; Alchemy had been there but Cornelia… hadn't.

"Elyon…" the Earth Guardian muttered. "Look, I can explain…"

"No!" the straw blonde replied. "You know what? You can keep all those excuses to yourself. I'm done with it. I'm done with you." And with those words, Elyon turned around once again, leaving the other two girls behind.

Cornelia watched at her friend go, a sad expression on her face. She heard Alchemy sighing at her side. Without even looking at each other, the redhead spoke.

"What's the explanation?" Alchemy wondered.

"I…" Cornelia began, but no coherent sentence was able to leave her mouth. _I spent the whole Sunday in Meridian, helping a group of rebels fight a tyranny_. Of course, she wasn't able to say that. Could she say that? Was she allowed to tell that to a pair of completely normal girls?

"You know, Cornelia;" Alchemy said as she walked past her and started to walk away in the same vein Elyon had done. "I'm trying. I'm really, really trying hard to keep you two together. But I can't if you don't put on any effort yourself."

* * *

 ** _Brown family's house; hours later_**

Elyon sat at the desk in her room, trying to draw something simple in her sketchbook in order to relax herself. Class had passed as it always did in your usual high school, and now the straw blonde found herself back in her home, killing some time before the moment to go to ' _Ye Olde Book Shop_ ' for her part time job arrived.

Elyon sighed as she gave the final details to a little sketch of Cornelia drawn with a thin pencil. Once she finished it, she ripped the paper in two. Then in four. Then she regretted doing it. Then she ripped the paper in eight. Then more regret. Then she threw the little pieces of paper into the trash can that lied at her desk's side. Why had she done that? Did it matter? Was there a problem with her doing it?

Elyon glanced at the tiny bookshelf in her room, in which a silver medal from Sunday's contest was resting. Silver, the metal for second best. Always second best. When Cornelia participated into ice scatting competitions, she usually won the gold medal. Cornelia was always the one everyone looked up to, the one boys turned around to look at. She was the most popular one, she was the special one. Cornelia was the gold medal, while Elyon was always silver. And she had never protested, had she? No she hadn't, not since she and Alchemy had met and befriended Cornelia in kindergarten; because she had thought that they were the closest of friends. That there would be no secrets between them, that there would be no lies and that they would always be there for the other. Well, Elyon had been there for Cornelia, but now Cornelia was proving time and time again that she wasn't going to be there for Elyon. Fine! She didn't need her! Cornelia could spend all her time with Will and Jade for what she cared!

And yet, it hurt. But more than the thought of losing her best friend, what hurt the most was a realization. The realization that Rick Hoffman had been right, that Elyon had been spending all her life in Cornelia's shadow. Now Cornelia distanced herself and Elyon found herself out of that shadow… and it made her realize that Cornelia Hale, with her gold medals, her haughty remarks, her comments about others; had never thought about her and Alchemy as her equals.

"Elyon!" she heard a voice by her doorstep. There stood a woman with shoulder length light auburn hair. Elanor Brown, her mother. "You are going to be late."

The girl looked at her watch and, realizing that she had killed more time than intended, she practically jumped from her chair, put on her shoes, and ran towards her house's entrance. Before leaving, however; she approached her mother, stood on her tiptoes and delivered a kiss in her mother's cheek. "Bye mom!" she told her; afterwards approaching the entrance to her kitchen, where her father was sitting at the dining table, pressing keys in his laptop's keyboard. "Bye dad!" she told the middle aged man with short brown hair that was Thomas Brown, currently writing down an article.

"Bye, sweetie," both of them answered to their daughter, whom left moments later. This action left the couple alone in their homes, Elanor entering the kitchen and sitting in front of Thomas, whom stopped writing down and put his laptop aside.

"What?" the man asked, tilting his head a bit.

"Haven't you noticed that she was a bit… upset today?" Elanor asked of her husband.

"I did," Thomas answered. "Do you have any idea why?"

Elanor didn't answer right away, instead evading her husband's gaze. "Galgheita called me a couple of days ago."

"Oh, did she?" Thomas said, returning to his laptop and writing that article. "And did she say what she wanted this…?"

"Alborn," the woman told him in a serious tone. The man stopped writing far more abruptly than before. Yes, Alborn. That was his name. His real name, the one he had left behind almost fourteen years ago. Just like she had left her own name behind, ditching Miriael for Elanor, one that befitted an earthling much more than her meridianite birth name. "When are we going to tell her?"

The man sighed and, leaving his laptop aside one more time, he leaned against the table with both his arms. "I don't know, Miriael. Do you want to tell her?"

"It shouldn't be about what we want, Alborn," the woman told him. "It should be about what she needs." Miriael paused for several seconds before continuing. "Galgheita told me… that Cornelia Hale is a Guardian of the Veil. A Guardian of Kandrakar, of the current generation. Can we keep Elyon in the shadows of who she really is, when her best friend is fighting her brother practically every day? Shouldn't she know who she is, shouldn't she know…" Miriael extended her hand and touched her husband's; "who we really are?"

Alborn took his wife's fingers between his as sparks started to flicker around them, their current and human appearances fading away and revealing two Galhots underneath. The auburn hair of Elanor had left place to the greenish locks characteristic of some meridianites like Miriael, while Thomas hair had disappeared, replaced by Alborn's bald head. Both had bluish green skin, scales not very different from Vathek's over it. The two of them shared a look.

"Should she?" Alborn wondered as the glamour started to come back. Galgheita had really surpassed herself with this one, hadn't she? A glamour spell for both of them that not only simulated the appearance of a human being, but that also aged with them and if broken quickly put itself back together? That was something unheard of. "Do we really want her there, on Meridian, fighting a war against her brother? Do you really want to tell her that she isn't really our daughter?"

Both of them didn't say anything else. None could bring themselves to answer the questions of the other. Could anyone blame them, though? If you had a daughter, would you want to tell her that all her life was based on a lie? Even if telling her was the solution to a thirteen year old war?

* * *

 ** _Across the Veil, the Castle's throne room; at the same time_**

If some of the people around her knew that Trill, one of the dutiful and respectful servants that patrolled the palace's halls, worked in the kitchens and carried food and wine around for the Prince and many of his court members; was in reality Nerissa Crossnic disguising her real appearance through a glamour, then they would probably ask why, of all the possibilities, Trill.

Well, if Nerissa had to pick an answer to that question; that would be that her Trill persona provided something very important for any spy: Anonymity. While it lacked the advantages of her Mage persona, Trill could go from one corner of the castle to another, and very few would mind her. No one paid attention to a servant, or thought about any of them as a threat. Then again, the fact that 'Trill' had been the most fervent, efficient and closest servant of Queen Weira in the past may have had something to do with it. That left Nerissa free to gather as much information as she needed.

Take this very same moment as an example. She, disguised as Trill, was carrying a tray full of fruits and a huge pitcher of wine into the throne room, where Cedric and Wong stood in its center, Phobos sitting on his throne. She left the tray and pitcher over a nearby table, and waited at its side in silence and with a frightened expression. After all, a servant should act scared when in presence of these so-called monsters. Uhm, Phobos was clutching that tiara he always had in his hands now. Ah yes! The Ritual of Amalgamation! She had almost forgotten that Phobos had performed that. Well, that was a good method of bringing the Princess to this world. The ritual should have left her mind defenseless, and with the appropriate words anyone should be able to convince her of doing anything. And Cedric had a talent for using the most appropriate of words, didn't he? And that tiara would let Phobos to steal the Heart of Meridian from his sister even if she hadn't given it to him freely. For what Nerissa could see through Trill's eyes, however; Phobos wasn't content with just that.

"How much longer, Lord Cedric?" the Prince asked from his throne with his usual bored expression. "I'm starting to grow impatient. My sister must be brought here!"

"My liege," Cedric said alongside a bow. The Lord was dressed again in the usual robes he used in Meridian, his clothes of the same green as the scales of his beast form. "The Princesssssss," his tongue had transformed into its serpentine form for a moment; "trusts me more now than she trusts her closest friends. I promise that she will be here in less than a week."

"I really hope you are right, Cedric;" Phobos told his second in command, his eyes flashing with magic, the thorny vines connected to his throne starting to carry more energy than before and at a faster pace. "For your own good;" his gaze shifted then to Wong. "What about my new Shapeshifters?"

"They need a few more weeks in order to be ready, my Prince;" Daolon Wong said, giving a couple of steps forward, garbed I his usual black and dark blue attire that highlighted the pale white of his skin and hair. Of course, the old and wrinkled Dark Chi Wizard was lying through his teeth. "You shall have an army of Shapeshifters at your disposal, as I promised you."

"At last," Phobos said in a demeaning and condescending tone. You two are dismissed." Rising from his throne, he enjoyed how the pair of men bowed and left. He looked into 'Trill's' direction next. "You too, servant. I wish to be left alone."

 _No problem with that for me_ , Nerissa thought as she walked out of the throne room without making any noise. Everything was going according to plan. The Princess would be here, Phobos would steal the Heart of Meridian from her, and Nerissa would take it from Phobos, just like she had planned into doing with Weira. She even had the same jewel ready, after all these years. She followed into Cedric and Wong's footsteps, the pair calmly strolling down a hall. Uhm… those two had been spending a lot of time together lately. It wouldn't hurt anyone if she decided to eavesdrop into their conversation, right? Fortunately for her, both of them stopped after turning around a corner, and she only had to wait at the other side of said corner, listening.

"And how exactly do you plan into bringing the Princess here?" she caught Wong's most recent sentence.

"Leave that task to me, Archmage;" Cedric answered. "I'm more concerned with how you plan to take the Heart of Meridian from her once you have disposed of Phobos. A Heart must be given out of free will, even I know that truth."

 _Wait, what?!_ Nerissa thought, her real face twisting in shock behind her Trill glamour. What had Cedric said just now?

"That doesn't mean there aren't ways to go around that rule, Cedric;" Wong assured his most recent ally. "Phobos prepared the Ritual of Amalgamation precisely for that, and I shall take advantage of it. It is a matter of draining Phobos of his own chi until I can take control of the ritual from him. Then I should be able to take the Heart of Meridian with the same ease he was planning to. I may even use the Horn of Hypnos on him in order to turn the Prince into an obedient puppet."

"If you say so," the Snake of Cavigor said in a cold tone of voice. "Then I will depart to Earth once again. The Princess should not be kept waiting."

After that both men parted ways, each with their own destinations. And Nerissa Crossnic, still under her Trill disguise, turned around and walked as fast as she could in the opposite direction. While her glamour didn't betray any emotion, her mind was in turmoil right now.

 _Blast!_ she thought. _Blast! Blast!_

This could ruin everything! She had to get back to the Infinity City! This put the whole plan in peril! Years of preparation would be for nothing! She needed to adapt quickly, she…

"Trill! I finally found you!" she heard a voice from her right. It was one of Trill's fellow servants, a chubby Galhot woman from the kitchens, carrying a tray. This one, in comparison to the one she had left for Phobos, contained a small plate with a roasted fish and a few slices of tomatoes, alongside a pitcher of water. Accompanying the food and drink, was a thick book that must have come from the library. Its cover read 'Meridian's legendary artifacts'. Perhaps the Spider wanted something to read while eating? Anyway, the servant put the tray into her hands. "Lady Miranda asked for this to be delivered to her chambers. Move, move!" the servant repeated, making quick movements with her hands and then leaving Trill alone with the tray.

 _Blast…_ Nerissa cursed internally once more.

* * *

 ** _Across the Veil; Ludmoore manor; one day later_**

Charles Ludmoore was walking in his manor's library, hands at his back, the jacket of his black suit and the tie discarded and dressing only in his black pants and a shirt. The man ran a hand over his black locks of hair, stopping by a nearby bookshelf. Since there wasn't anybody around, he could drop his usual and faked cold demeanor and act naturally. However, his expression wasn't one of happiness or awe, but of nervousness.

Everything was going as planned. The second third of Phase One would soon be completed, and he supposed that accomplishing the last fraction of said plan wouldn't be very complicated considering the circumstances. On top of that, Wong would soon make his move, without suspecting of the ties between Charles and Cedric. But now… now was a delicate moment. One single movement in the wrong direction and everything would go to hell. Well, let's not be said that Charles Ludmoore wasn't a man that didn't care for the details, or that wasn't supportive of his little brother.

He walked out of the library where his desk and his stabilized Portal were located and into one of the three dining halls that the manor had. There were times in which Charles wondered why Jonathan, his ancestor, had arranged for the manor to be built with three dining halls; but then again those were other times, and a manor like this would have, without a doubt, been used for parties. Shaking his head a bit in order to get rid of those thoughts, Charles opened a window. His eyes looked at the horizon, until two stone gargoyles, looking no different than the ones that supposedly protected gothic churches from evil spirits, entered via the opened window. The pair of magically animated stone creatures, each one head taller than a fully grown man, looked at their master in expectation of orders.

 _I think we never give enough credit to grandfather Barnabas for creating these things_ , Ludmoore thought as he extended his hand and, calling his Raw Magic, projected an image of Elyon in his opened palm.

"Find this girl," he instructed. "My brother Cedric will be with her. Attack them both, but don't use lethal force. Harming any innocent civilian that is misfortune enough to be around is also completely forbidden. The girl is a Heart-wielder. Force her to use her powers against you. When that has been done, if you have survived, come back here."

The pair of stone gargoyles let out a growl each, and then both of them exited the manor using the same window they had accessed it by. Ludmoore watched at them go, flapping their stone wings in order to fly.

 _Yes, definitely not giving old Barnabas enough credit_ ; he thought. Making creatures made of stone able to fly just by imbuing them with the smallest portion of the magic that ran through the manor? That was just brilliant.

Charles walked out of the dining hall and started to march towards the library once again. _Everything is in your hands now, Cedric_ ; he thought.

* * *

 ** _Across the Veil; Infinite City_**

Breathe in, breathe out. Concentrate, and deliver a diagonal cut to the training dummy. Let your mind stay clear and…

 _Boring! Kill something! Kill everything! Kill that blue big guy! He seemed like a challenge!_

Ignore it. Breathe in, breathe out. Hold the sword high and deliver a descending blow. Perhaps having someone against who spar wouldn't be such a bad idea…

 _Yes! Bring someone here! Then gut him! Crush them all and stand alone atop a mountain of corpses, stand alone atop the soldiers!_

And… he was done. Breathing a bit more in order to calm down, he decided it was time to sheath the black blade that the Sword of the Berserker was. Black sparks of electricity ran through the sheath and handle as he started to do so.

 _Would it be that bad? To just let it go? No more concerns, no more preoccupations. No more 'Oh, am I doing the right thing? Is it bad I still care about my dad? Would I ever tell Sephiria that I don't feel anything for her? Oh, would I ever tell Cornelia that she's the prettiest thing in the universe?' Think about it, you could be freed of all this… ethical nonsense, human. You just have to let it go. Just like…_

An image took shape in his mind. It was the image of the tall, green skinned, wrinkled and corpse-like of the Tracker; looking at him with his blood red eyes.

 _He did_.

 _Shut your mouth, Abaddon_ ; Caleb thought as he sheathed his blade completely. He was standing in one of the chambers of the Infinite City that the Rebellion usually used as training grounds, alone. Around him, training dummies had been split and torn apart by the strength of his blows. The catch? Normally, the training dummies were made out of stuffing straw together. These one were made out of rock and metal that the Mage had provided him with. And he had cut them as if they were butter.

Shirtless and drops of sweat falling from his hair to his chest and then descending over his abs; Caleb stretched his limbs and let out another deep breath, this one far more relived. Covering almost his entire body until now, black marks started to recede and disappear as soon as he sheathed the Sword of Thanatos. Alright, everything was progressing fine. Now he was able to control himself at that stage, but he feared what would happen if he let the Sword to take complete control of him again and transform him back into that jet-black monster the girls had talked to him about.

I need to wash myself, he said, sniffing the air and taking notice of a growing stench. Seriously, I'm starting to smell like…

"Caleb! Caleb! Caleb!"

"Blunk?" the shirtless rebel leader asked, the stench growing stronger. Indeed, it was the little greenish dwarf, running towards him. "Blunk, what are you doing here? Nobody should be here when I'm training with this sword, it could be dangerous. I left clear instructions…"

"Caleb doesn't understand!" the Passling said, pulling from his trousers. "Very big news! Blunk brings very bid and bad news! All dead! All the rebels!"

"Whoa, whoa; alright;" Caleb told him, kneeling down and patting his shoulder. The Passling was trembling, and the rebel leader could see that he was in shock. "Tell me everything that happened."

* * *

 ** _An explanation later_**

Caleb hadn't had time to wash himself up. He would not complain, for this took priority over feeling refreshed and clean. He, now fully dressed, practically ran into the Mage's workshop, looking for the Ancient One. The place was as it always had been, a collection of strange looking creatures (or said creatures' body parts) floating in some kind of liquid inside numerous flasks, books lying on the most disparate of places, some opened and with annotations.

"Great Mage!" Caleb called. He didn't obtain any answer. Damn it, this wasn't the moment for this! She would do this from time to time, disappearing and then appearing again just as it was convenient for her. But not now! Not after what Blunk had told him.

"Yes, young Caleb?" he heard the soft voice, always verging on a whisper. He felt as if a ton of iron had been lifted from his shoulders upon hearing it.

The 'Mage' had appeared seemingly out of nowhere, albeit the rebel leader suspected she had entered the workshop after him. Perhaps, maybe. Maybe not. Keeping track of a woman that made seemingly not noise upon walking wasn't the easiest task in the world.

"Thank the Light of Meridian I found you," Caleb told the hooded woman, who proceeded to look at him with interest in her eyes. "I have received very bad news concerning our forces in the outer ring."

The 'Mage's' expression changed then, something that Caleb wasn't accustomed to see. Oh, he could recognize the feelings behind it very well. He didn't like them. He didn't like them at all.

"Then it is unfortunate," the 'Mage' said in her soft, whispering voice. "I spoke with my spy within the palace, Trill. I too am bearer of bad news."

* * *

 ** _Across the Veil; Heatherfield's streets; afternoon_**

"You don't need to do this, Elyon;" Cedric, once again under the glasses-wearing and polite guise of Rick Hoffman; told the petite girl dressed in purple walking at his left; each of them carrying a box in the direction of ' _Ye Olde Book Shop_ '. "I could have taken them by myself."

"Don't worry, Rick;" the girl told him as she gripped the box more strongly. While Cedric could carry his under one arm, the girl had to use both. "I'd be a bad helper if I didn't help, right?" she said alongside a small chuckle, but then she settled her eyes in the road ahead. He had told her that she could go home now, that there was no need for her to spend more time here, much less helping him to bring some new books into the store.

"Are you feeling alright?" Cedric asked, taking notice of the girl's sudden change of mood. Seeing how Elyon didn't answer right away, instead opting for continuing her walk in silence; he added another sentence. "You know you can tell me."

Elyon evaded his gaze for a few moments before directly looking at him. "Remember when I told you about my… _friend_ , Cornelia?"

 _I like how that 'friend' sounded just right now_ ; Cedric thought. "The friend that you felt forgot about you?" he asked.

"Yes, that one;" Elyon said on a bitter tone.

"I take something went wrong with her," Cedric stated as the two of them turned around a corner and entered an alley that served as a shortcut towards his bookstore, accessing then a building lot not very different than the one in which he and Wong had fought the Guardians and the Mammal Shapeshifter months ago, albeit clearly not the same one. It seemed that they were just preparing the terrain to start building a big building, judging by the beams that were piled up all over the place.

"She… she completely forgot about… something really important for me;" Elyon told the man, whose ears caught the smallest hint of a sob in the girl's voice. "I just don't get her!" she added with rage. "Before, I thought I could tell Cornelia everything! But now… now I feel as if she's just lying to me all the time. That's something I don't feel with you, Rick."

An effect of the Ritual of Amalgamation, no doubt, even if his own skills as a liar had helped; not having the power of luck in account, of course. Oh, poor Princess. She would not understand how wrong she was until it was too late. And even then, she would not be able to see the next deception. Cedric had met many men and women

Before the Snake could make any witty retort, however, a sound cut the air. Both of them halted in the middle of the building lot, Elyon surprised, Cedric thankful that his family's artificially made underlings had finally arrived. Alright, time to put on his best acting skills, and…

"Elyon, get down!" Cedric yelled, throwing his box aside and forcing Elyon to get to the ground and drop her box as well; just in time to evade the incoming attack of the two stone gargoyles that Charles had released into the city. The creatures flew low, landing shortly after. Meanwhile, Elyon and Cedric came to their feet, the Shapeshifter putting himself in front of the girl with a serious expression on his face, while the girl behind him was more afraid than she had ever been before.

"M-Monsters!" Elyon screeched in fear.

"Stay behind me!" Cedric told her with faked concern. _Come on, you over valued pieces of furniture. Come at me!_

The gargoyles seemed to have read his thoughts, as the two of them launched themselves towards them with ill intent. In any other circumstance that was similar to this, Cedric would have gladly accepted the challenge, transformed and tore each stone automaton as if they were toys. However, now he had to keep an act, and in said act he was just a normal man. So when one of the two creatures reached him and made a diagonal attack towards his head, he took the blow as best as he could, the hit sending him away.

"Rick!" Elyon yelled, still afraid to her bones. "Oh my God… Oh my God…" she started to say as the two gargoyles loomed over her, wings extended. "Stay away from me!"

Landing a few meters away from Elyon, glasses broken, Cedric watched as the pair of gargoyles was mere inches away from the girl now. "Elyon, run away!" he told her, faking caring once again.

Elyon's breathing speed had increased considerably; her eyes were quickly jumping from the blonde man in the ground to the pair of monsters in front of her. Oh God, what was going on? This was impossible! These things couldn't be real! That's right, this was just a dream. She would just close her eyes, and then she would wake up in her bed…

One of the monsters roared, forcing her to accept the fact that this wasn't a dream. Her heart was beating so fast she thought it was going to burst out of her chest! "Leave me alone… leave us alone…"

"Elyon, for the love of god, run away!" she heard 'Rick's' voice once more.

"I said…" Elyon said, her hands becoming fists. " **Leave me alone!** " she yelled, her voice echoing and reverberating with strength and power.

What followed made the most triumphant of smiles to be formed by Cedric's lips. As Elyon had pronounced those words, a wave of pure, brilliant energy was shot from her body in an almost instinctive and feral manner, the wave of energy making the earth beneath them to tremble, hitting the pair of gargoyles with such strength that both of them cracked, crumbled and were reduced to dust.

When everything passed, Elyon found herself trembling and looking at her hands in disbelief. Around them both the beams, previously perfectly organized, were now scattered around the area; and one of the trucks had been flipped. "W-What just… happened?" she asked, half confused, half afraid. _Not this again, please_ ; she thought. It had happened before, but never with such intensity. She didn't know what it was, or why it happened. Why?! Why was all of this happening to her all at once?! Cornelia, these super-powers that she had developed from night to day and now monsters?! What was her life turning into.

"Elyon?" she heard Rick Hoffman's voice. The blonde man, ponytail now untied and glasses broken and discarded had approached her.

"I… I don't know…" the girl said alongside a small sob. She was confused, she was afraid. She just wanted to run away from this. And Cedric took advantage of it by giving the final step.

"Elyon, this… this was…" Cedric said, feigning shock and surprise. "Magic…"

"W-What?" Elyon asked, not sure if she had really heard correctly. Had he said magic? But Magic wasn't real, everyone knew that!

"We need to get to my shop, now!" he said, taking her by her wrist.

"But the books…" she retorted, gesturing towards the fallen boxes.

"The books are not important!" Cedric told her with, once again, faked emotions. And they did great into making Elyon to focus on him. Rick Hoffman saying that books weren't important? Now that was just madness! "We have to move! I… I can't believe it's you! After so much time, I finally found you!"

"R-Rick, you're scaring me;" Elyon told the man, who kept pulling from her arm in order to make her move towards ' _Ye Olde Book Shop_ '.

"My name isn't Rick," the man told her, both of them stopping. "I'm sorry I lied to you, but I had to. My real name is Cedric. And you…" he said, looking at her with an expression full of joy. Looking at him Elyon felt like she could trust anything the man would say; that there was no deception in those blue eyes. If the source of that trust was the magical tiara currently in other world or her naivety, that wasn't easy to tell; "you have no idea how important you are."

And with those words, the Snake won the girl over. When he pulled from her wrist again, she let herself to be guided.

* * *

 ** _A rooftop_**

"Hiyah!" Jade Chan exclaimed as she delivered a kick to an imaginary foe. Sweating, dressed in a pair of yoga pants and a sleeveless shirt, the girl continued her training exercises. She hadn't participated in a fight since their clash with the Dark Hand in that tunnel, and she would lie if she said she didn't feel the wolf inside of her being hungry for battle. And she knew how dangerous it was. The scars on her back itched then, as if wanting to hammer the point even more. Báthory had been right, throwing herself into a fight without thinking had been the reason she had ended in that situation with Tharquin. She and her stupid desire to emulate a cartoon hero, look at how that had ended.

"Hiyah!" she exclaimed once more, this time after ending a series of punches. Breathing very slowly, she stopped and returned to the stance in which she started all of her exercises; one foot next to the other, body stiff and firm. Like a soldier. Then again, they were called _martial_ arts.

"You should try lowering your pace," she heard a familiar male voice behind her. Not even turning her head around, she waited until her uncle Jackie positioned himself at her side. "Feel every movement, enjoy the flow."

"Enjoy the… you just sounded like Uncle back there," she mocked him friendly, which earned her a slap on her back. "Hey!"

"And you aren't keeping your back as straight as you should…" Jackie said as his voice lowered, realizing what he was saying. "Oh no, I _am_ becoming Uncle!"

Both of them shared a big laugh after that sentence. Yeah, this was it. No tension, no bad blood, no bad moods; just the two of them sharing a joke. The moment was short-lived, however. They didn't have any chance of saying anything else before Uncle appeared through the door that connected the stairs of the building to the rooftop.

"Jackieeeee!" the elder yelled, only stopping to pant. The archeologist approached the old man, who proceeded to dope slap his nephew. "Why does Jackie have to train up here?! Climbing stairs is very bad for Uncle's health!"

"Sorry Uncle," Jackie said, rubbing his forehead, not failing to notice how his niece contained a giggle with her hand against her mouth. Yes, yes; very funny.

"Cousin Yan called," the elder informed them both. "She needs all of us in the Silver Dragon for emergency."

"Emergency?" Jackie asked. "What emergency?"

Uncle shrugged. "She didn't say. Now, let's go! Uncle wants to be back in home for dinner!"

"Can I get a shower first?" Jade inquired. "I stink to sweat!"

* * *

 ** _Heatherfield's mall_**

Pizza was awesome. Every teenager believed in that statement with the same fervor a Pontiff believes in God Almighty. Perhaps that notion was a little farfetched, yet it was a good approximation to the truth. Pizza was cool, it was cheap (which meant you almost always could afford it), it tasted good, and it could be shared with your friends… or boyfriend, in this case.

Will sat at a small, rectangular table at one of the actually many pizza stores at Heatherfield's mall. Across the table, just in front of her and sharing her pizza was Matt Olsen, the boy of whom Will Vandom had accepted to think about as her boyfriend. Boyfriend… it still sounded strange too her. A part of her was still reluctant to believe that he had accepted going with her to that trip to the mountains, or that they had kissed, or that they were going out on dates… that was somehow funny. Look at her! Will Vandom, Keeper of the Heart of Kandrakar, schemer in the making, and leader of the Guardians! And still an awkward, nervous teenage girl, at least in what entitled dealing with the usual problems of a normal teenage girl. Christ, she even took every opportunity to have a look at Matt's butt every time she could, like when he rose up and went to pay for their pizza. Thank everything that none of the girls had caught her doing that during their classes at Sheffield.

The redhead focused in the conversation once the boy returned to his seat. They had been talking about the pet store Matt's grandfather owned for a time, the boy asking Will if she would be interested into a part time job there.

"Gramps doesn't pay a lot…" Matt told her; "but he's a great company! And since me and the boys started with the band, he's got very little help…"

"Are there frogs?" Will asked without giving the question enough thinking.

Matt thought for a few seconds. "I think… yes? Do you like frogs?"

Will shrugged. "I like animals. But I've had this obsession with frogs since I was a kid. I just like them."

"Then I think I'd love to work with your… grandpa… excuse me for a second;" Will said as she extracted her phone from her pocket and she got up from her chair. The letters 'Hay Lin' were on the screen alongside a photograph of the Air Guardian, smiling happily. "What?!" Will said in a whispering voice. "I'm in the middle of a date! What's going on now, the sky's falling?"

"Will!" came Hay Lin's voice from the phone. "Caleb's here, at the Silver Dragon's basement. You've got to come here! There's very big news!"

"Okay, okay… just let me," Will said as she hanged, turning around and looking at Matt; "get over this…. Eh, Matt!"

"Yes?" the boy asked, standing up too.

"Look, I'm sorry, but…" the redhead began, but the boy got ahead of her.

"You've to go;" Matt told her with a smile. Crap, had she really done this so many times already that she had become this predictable? Herself smiling, Will landed a kiss over his lips and then started to run away and out of the pizza store.

"I'll compensate you, I promise! Byeeeeeee!" the redhead told him as she waved her hand and lost herself into the crowd that was on the mall.

Matt waved his own hand awkwardly even when Will had gotten out of his sight. _C'mon Olsen. What the heck are you doing wrong?_

* * *

 ** _The Silver Dragon's basement, sometime later_**

The basement of the Silver Dragon was as crowded as it was every time the Guardians and Chan Clan hoisted reunions here. Now with Viper added to them, there was even less space. One had to wonder how Joan and Chen Lin didn't ever protest about this. Had they even noticed?

Viper wondered why exactly she was here. Captain Black had assigned her with finding Ross, not with helping with a war in another dimension, world, or whatever it was. It wasn't that she wasn't eager to help these girls, but she hadn't been to this Meridian in… ever. So now here she was, sitting in a couch while a bunch of teenagers arrived at the basement to discuss war strategies of which she had no idea of. The world was really going mad. That boy from another world had been here before she even arrived (a sword that gave her the creeps hanging from his belt), Jackie and his family arriving moments later. The five girls arrived at different rates, until all Guardians and members of the Chan Clan were there.

"What's the problem now?" Irma wondered as she entered the basement, she the last Guardian arriving. "You know, I'm gonna make a suggestion. Guardian vacations! Seriously, even my dad's got time to relax."

"Irma, this is important;" Will told her friend. "Caleb wouldn't have called all of us at this hour if it wasn't. Caleb?" the redhead asked the green eyed boy.

Sighing, the rebel leader, clad in his usual attire, rubbed his head. "We… may have a few problems."

It didn't take the rebel long to explain to them the same that Blunk and the Mage had explained to him. When he finished speaking, the room burst into questions and shouting.

"Aiyah!" Uncle shrieked with all the power of his lungs. "Daolon Wong is planning to take the Heart of Meridian?! These are very bad news! We must stop him!"

"Can we stop him after he's taken care of the Princey?" Jade wondered.

"What's a Horn of Hypnos?!" Hay Lin's voice was heard.

"Who the heck's Galiene Sebille?" Irma said next.

"We finally know who the Princess is?!" Cornelia was the next one to speak.

"Wait, wait, wait…" Taranee said, rising her hands in the air, trying to put a stop to the shouting. "Stop!" she yelled, unleashing a couple of flames from her fingertips.

"Thanks, Taranee;" Will said, rubbing her temples. Ugh! This wasn't the best moment of the day to do these things. "Alright, to summarize. The highest rank of the nobility, who's an unstoppable granny, apparently; is out for our blood. And she's the mother of the woman Rhouglar rapped and that we have in our power."

"Could we use her against this woman?" Jade suggested. Then, catching a small look from her uncle Jackie, she added; "exchange her for peace, or something?"

"I don't know," Caleb told her. "The Blade of Meridian isn't famous for her compassion. If we returned a broken daughter to her… we could just be adding fuel to the fire."

"And Daolon Wong's planning to betray Phobos? With a magical horn that hypnotizes people?" Will asked then, still not very sure about that part.

"According to the Mage's spy inside the castle, yes;" Caleb assured her.

"Let them fight and take the other out;" Irma said. "One less problem."

"Is Water Guardian stupid?!" Uncle shrieked once again. "Daolon Wong is a formidable wizard already! He doesn't just plan to kill Prince Phobos! He plans to take the Heart of Meridian for himself! With that he would be as strong as all Guardians combined in one!"

"Which brings us to the next point," Yan Lin was the next one to speak, the old Chinese lady approaching the main group. "The identity of the Princess. A Heart must be freely given, and I feel curious about how Phobos plans to take it if his sister doesn't trust him enough."

"Cedric has been in this world for months, working undercover while in human form;" Caleb told them both. "I was such an idiot! I should have known when he disappeared from the battlefields."

"Blaming oneself won't help anyone," Will told the boy. "We still can save her from getting caught."

"Yeah, so who's she?" Cornelia asked the rebel leader, who, after surveying all the people there, gave the lost Princess' name.

"Her name is Elyon Brown."

For several moments, the only thing that could be heard in the basement was the combination of the breathing of all the attendants. Then there was a loud sound, and Viper hopped in the couch. Jackie moved as fast as he could and extended his arms just in time to catch the fainted body of Cornelia Hale before it hit the floor.

* * *

 ** _Ye Olde Book Shop; dusk_**

Night was starting to fall and take over Heatherfield. Cedric had taken Elyon back into his bookstore and quickly turned the sign on the door around so the word 'CLOSED' could be read from the streets. Since the moment they had set foot inside, Cedric had been searching on his bookshelves like a crazed man, searching for a book in particular. Elyon, meanwhile, remained standing at the door's side. Truth to be told, she was even more scared now that when she had been facing against the pair of stone monsters. But she was also confused to the extreme, even more than she was frightened. And Rick… no, that wasn't his name, was it?

"Rick… Cedric," Elyon called.

"What?" the blond man asked in return, still searching among his books, making sure he evaded the one that activated the intersection point between this place and the castle's library. Where the hell had he put it? Ah, there it was!

"I… what's going on?!" the girl inquired, still frightened, eyes widening a bit more with each question she made. "What were those things from before?! What… what did I do to them?!"

"Enchanted statues, that's what they were;" Cedric explained as he approached her with a large, thick golden book with strange runes all over its cover. "Someone must have sent them to attack you."

"W-Why?" Elyon asked of the blonde man. "Why would anyone want…?"

"Because of your importance, Elyon;" Cedric told her. "I was sent to this world precisely because of you too, to search for you, find you, and bring you back."

"I don't understand…" the girl whimpered, but then Cedric opened the book he had brought in front of her. She had expected the book to contain words, maybe some images, but she hadn't expected for the book to project images in front of her, as if it were one of those holograms of a sci-fi film.

"You will understand," Cedric told her as several planets started to take form in the book's projection. "But in order to explain, I need you to trust me." Cedric put one of his hands over Elyon's shoulder while holding the opened book with the other. "Do you trust me, Elyon?"

The girl looked at Cedric's face. In it, she saw nothing but comprehension and care, she saw only the face of a trusted friend that had done nothing to her, and that could give an explanation to all the bizarre incidents that had transpired into her life lately. The face of a friend, unlike another blonde she knew and for whom she was unable to harbor any feeling that wasn't negative.

Meanwhile, across the Veil; a mad Prince held with animalistic fervor to a crown tailored for a Queen or a Princess, while in the floor of his throne room sand swirled in circles, letting him see the scene that was developing in the bookstore. So close, so close…

"Alright Cedric," she said, employing his real name without any hint of resentment in her voice. "I trust you."

With a warm and happy grin, Cedric held the book in front of her. Elyon contemplated the swirling worlds in the projection with awe, the light emanating from them coloring her face and straw blond hair in multiple colors. "First, you need to know that magic is real, and so are magical creatures. I myself am a Shapeshifter, a distant relative of the so-called Fair Folk…"

"You're a fairy?" Elyon asked alongside a chuckle. A part of her seemed to still be refusing to accept this.

 _Yes; and your species has forgotten how dangerous those can be. Personally, I blame Disney_ ; he thought with disdain. "More or less," Cedric said kindly. "And there are other worlds, each with its own population and government. Each world has a Heart, the embodiment of the planet's mystical energy, which grants any who wield them enormous power. My home is a world called Meridian, ruled by the Queens of the royal family of Escanor. Thirteen years ago, civil war broke in my world due to the Queen's sudden death. Her daughter, her heir and holder of the Heart of Meridian, was kidnapped and sent to this world." Cedric made a pause then. "And you are that girl."

Silence took hold of the bookstore after that. Then, slowly, a soft sound cut said silence. At first weak, the sound grew stronger with every second. It was laughter. Elyon was laughing.

"That's ridiculous," Elyon told Cedric. "I… I can't be a Princess. I've family here. My mom, my dad…"

"And?" Cedric interrupted her. "Who else? Have you ever met any of your uncles? Your aunts? Grandfathers, grandmothers? Cousins, perhaps?"

To those questions, Elyon didn't have an answer. "They… they told me my grandparents are dead. They don't have siblings…"

"How convenient," Cedric told her. "What else? The registers of your family ancestry burned in a mysterious fire? I bet that every time you ask about their family, they evade the questions."

"I…"

"Tell me, Elyon;" Cedric told her, the image of the planets disappearing from the book's projection. "Do you even look like them?"

Elyon didn't laugh this time. This time she looked nervously at the floor, shock and sadness in her face. This… was this real? Had… had all her life been a lie? But… but that was impossible! Her parents would have told her! Her parents loved her! Cared for her! But… they did not look like her at all. Elanor had told Elyon that she looked like her grandma, but now…

"You are Elyon Escanor," Cedric told her. Escanor… the name had something to it, or maybe it was the reverence Cedric pronounced it alongside her own. "You are the lost Princess of Meridian and wielder of its Heart. That explains how you destroyed those monsters; that explains how you posses such power. Our meeting was meant to be. Your _brother_ sent me here in order to find you and bring you back to your home."

Brother. The word made Elyon to raise her head once again. Looking up, eyes teary, she contained a sob. "My… my brother? I have a brother?"

The projection on the book showed a new image. This one wasn't a planet, but a man in his late twenties, dressed in a red and black regal robe, his head covered by a hat of the same colors. Or was it a crown? What gathered most of Elyon's attention, however; were his eyes, his nose, and the color of his long and radiant hair. All of them… the same as hers.

Tears ran down her cheeks. She couldn't look away from the projection. "My brother…"

"Your brother, yes;" Cedric continued. Ah, he surely enjoyed these things, didn't he? Months of hard work finally paying off. He would miss this bookstore… "Prince Phobos Escanor, who has been ruling during these past thirteen years, in your behalf. But now, now you must return to Meridian. You are the only one that can put a stop to a senseless war! Please, Princess. Your world needs you." And with that last sentence Cedric knelt and lowered his head in a reverence, extending one hand towards Elyon while leaving the book aside. Pleading, begging, for her to have faith.

Need her. They needed her. _He_ needed her. Elyon looked at the man in front of her. Her friend, her confident… the only one who had been able to tell her how things really were, the only one whom in the end, had told her the truth. Who else had done that? Liars! Liars all of them! She was a Princess! A Princess! A real one, with magic powers! As such, in the end, the decision was clear for her.

She took his hand.

* * *

 _During my youth, I had this… fantasy. Someday, some people would arrive at my doorstep and they would tell me that I was… especial. That I was the chosen heroine of some ancient goddess, that I was destined to greatness, that I was developing superpowers. That my parents weren't my parents; that my life wasn't all that was for me. It's not that I hated my life, or my parents; but they felt so… mundane. Deep down, I wanted a fairy to appear and take me away, telling me that they had changed me in my crib and that I was someone else. Someone better, someone stronger, smarter… someone different than boring, normal Elyon Brown. You want to know the worst part of it? The most horrifying part? It happened._ Elyon Escanor

* * *

 **Author Notes: One of the biggest problems people have with WITCH during its first season (and I honestly count myself inside that group), it's that the whole plotline with Elyon being taken by Cedric feels… weak. The basic argument is that Elyon is acting in quite the idiotic manner trusting the Snake (which can be justified with that whole ritual of Amalgamation thing destroying her mind's defenses, whatever that means, which happened in canon) and that Will was an idiot for not telling Elyon who she was when they discovered it. Well, since here Vathek (who was the one who informed them in canon) can't know it since the soldiers found him out and Nerissa already explained why she has be doing things the way she has; here you have this fic's version of how events play out, with Elyon being manipulated before the Guardians even know who she really is. I hope you all liked this chapter and how I developed it, and I hope you are ready for what's to come.**

 **On another note… a year. A year already since I started publishing this story. Thank to you all who have been accompanying me in this journey; you are all the most magnificent of creatures. I hope you are ready for more, 'cause we aren't even halfway through this tale!**

 **Anyway, hope you enjoyed your read. Please leave a review to tell me your impressions, and good bye.**


	21. Your Princess is in another Castle

**Disclaimer: I own neither the WITCH cartoon-show nor Jackie Chan Adventures; they are the property of their respective creators, writers, and producers.**

 **A/N: My most sincere thanks to all the people that read and take their time to review this story. You're all awesome. For those who didn't catch it, the introduction of Archduchess Galiene during the previous chapter was an homage to General Grievous' introduction in the 2003 Clone Wars series; the one done by Tartakovsky. Having said that, time to continue where we left last chapter… except not exactly. Enjoy your read, because here we go.**

* * *

Guardians, Wizards and Kung-Fu Fighters

Episode Twenty one

Your Princess is in another Castle

* * *

 ** _Heatherfield; years ago_**

In the backseat of a car, a blond five year old girl sat and swung her legs in the air while looking out at the streets by the car's window. She was both nervous and excited, dressed into a cute, greenish dress that showed how the part of her legs below the knees were sporting a pair of blue leggings, feet covered in a pair of bluish shoes with little butterflies all over them. Her blond hair was tied into a braid that fell at her back, her blue eyes surveying the few images she got out the window.

When the car stopped and parked, she noticed how the nervousness had started to beat the excitement. When her father opened the door and unzipped her security belt; helping her to get out the car, by lifting her and leaving her on the ground, nervousness was everything she could feel. The air of early September still carried the heat of August with it, and the leafs of the trees still retained their green, Autumn still not having come to transform the flora of Heatherfield into a mantle of colors.

Instinctively, the tiny hand of little Cornelia Hale shot upwards and graved the hand of Harold Hale, the blond man dressed in a plain pair of pants and a white shirt. Around them, countless parents were bringing their children to kindergarten, each tiny boy and girl walking at different paces towards the building ahead, some carrying little schoolbags in their backs that contained, without a doubt, toys of some kind.

"Alright dear;" Harold addressed his daughter with the nickname he usually referred to her with. "Time to go. I need to buy the medicine for your mother's flu and then go back home. I will be right here when you get out, so don't worry."

"Uhum…" little Cornelia made an affirmative sound.

Sighing a bit, Harold kneeled and adjusted his daughter's dress. "I know this can look like something hard now, but you will have fun, I promise. Now you just have to go in there, smile and talk. You will make some friends. Would you like that?"

Little Cornelia nodded a couple of times. Making friends sounded like something very fun. It was worth a try. "Okay, daddy;" she said. Harold smiled and kissed the little girl in the forehead, making her giggle. Excitement strengthened once again, the little blonde girl walked away from her father and into the kindergarten.

* * *

Okay, here she was; the little girl in a new and mysterious world, ready to engage into unknown and thrilling experiences. What would be the first thing five year old Cornelia Hale would do? Uhm… the kids that were dirtying everything and themselves while painting with their fingertips seemed to be having fun. But Cornelia wasn't exactly a kid that liked dirtying herself. Maybe she could join the circle of children sitting in the ground and singing songs? And then there were two little girls fighting with long cylinders of foam, as if imitating medieval knights. Decisions, decisions…

"Your dress's pretty," a high-pitched, soft voice said at her back.

Turning around, little Cornelia Hale was met by the sight of a girl of her age, perhaps a year younger. Short hair of a straw tone of blonde, the girl was dressed in a bluish skirt and a little blouse of a pinkish tone. The girl had grey-blue eyes that were looking at Cornelia happy and kindly. Oh right! She had said something nice to her! Mom and dad always said that you had to answer with another nice thing when that happened!

"T-Thanks," Cornelia said, checking the girl's own outfit. "Yours pretty too… hey, is that Sailor Moon?" Cornelia suddenly asked, pointing to the toy the girl was holding in her left hand.

"Sure!" the other girl answered cheerfully, waving the toy in front of little Cornelia's face. "She's awesome! Do you like her too?" Upon the blonde nodding, the girl dedicated an enormous smile to her. "Do you want to play with me?"

"Sure!" Cornelia said, feeling that the other girl's cheerfulness was quite contagious. "I'm Cornelia," she said then recalling her dad had told her that you had to tell your name to new friends. "Cornelia Hale."

They both walked until they found a spot in the room a bit separated from the rest of the children, sat in the floor and started to play. As it turned out, this girl had even more toys. Uoh! More Sailor Moon figures! Sailor Mars, Sailor Venus… Crap, she should have brought some of her toys to share. Well, she could bring them tomorrow; nothing stopped her from doing that. Look at that, her dad had been right, this wasn't so horrible. She had been able to make a friend with ease, even. Oh, right! She should pay attention; the girl was just talking to her!

"I'm Elyon," the straw blonde told little Cornelia. "Elyon Brown."

* * *

 ** _Some years later, Heatherfield's sports center_**

"And with the gold medal, Cornelia Hale!"

The cheers and applauses were deafening. Sitting in the bleachers surrounding an ice rink, was Elyon Brown, now about ten years old straw blond hair longer, and already tied into her two braids. She had risen to her feet in order to clap her hands in awe. Below, in a small podium, a man was putting a golden medal around the neck of eleven year old Cornelia Hale, the blond girl smiling proudly and bathing in the ovation she was being given.

It wasn't until much later that Elyon was able to descend from the bleachers following Cornelia's parents, Elizabeth carrying a little two year baby girl in her arms. The baby was Cornelia's little sister, Lillian. As Elyon made her way through the swarms of people that had assembled there, she soon found herself with a barrier of people standing between Cornelia and her. Cornelia's parents and little sister had been able to reach the blond ice skating girl, while Elyon stood there where she had been left, being able to do nothing but watch as her best friend received so much praise.

 _A praise that she deserves_ , Elyon reminded herself. She wanted to be there too. Hugging her best friend and laughing with her. Wasn't that the reason Cornelia had invited her here? A part of Elyon's mind went and thought something that she shouldn't be thinking, that Cornelia had only brought her here to satisfy her ego. But that was ridiculous! Cornelia was her best friend. True, she could come as vapid, arrogant and sometimes a bit egotistical… but ultimately, they were friends. However, she didn't move. Instead, she remained where she had been left. After several seconds, her hands started to move and she joined the mass of countless strangers into clapping. Yeah… that was it, wasn't it? Deep inside her own self, a part of Elyon Brown was smiling wickedly.

 _Yeah, that's the only thing you're good for_ , that part of her said. _Clapping after everything she does_.

* * *

 ** _One year and a half later_**

"So… how did the date go?" Alchemy Ethel asked to Cornelia Hale.

They both were sharing a table at Sheffield's cafeteria alongside Elyon, eating their lunch before returning to classes. This was the time of the day for gossip and talking, for jokes and puns at the teachers and other students' expense. For the trio conformed by Alchemy, Elyon and Cornelia; it was the time of the day to discuss their short-lived yet intriguing love life. Particularly, the love life of the Hale girl.

"I dumped him," she said as she munched into a piece of meat, as if it was the most normal thing in the world.

"You did _what_?" Alchemy asked, not sure if she had heard her friend correctly.

"I dumped him," Cornelia repeated. "What?" she asked as she noticed the glares of the two other girls. "Don't look at me like that, what I was supposed to do? He was just a loser. Who'd date someone like that? Who'd like him?" Cornelia said as she let out a somehow cruel chuckle.

 _I kinda did…_ Elyon thought. The boy in question had been an auburn haired guy named Bryan McKnight, around their age, cute, liked dogs, somehow timid, a bit dorky… maybe? There wasn't anything wrong with that, at least in Elyon's opinion. But the boy had asked Cornelia out, not her. Well, she couldn't complain, it was his decision.

"That's… kind of cruel, Cornelia;" Alchemy told the blonde. "I mean, would had it hurt a lot if you apologized? Or if you gave him an explanation?"

"As if!" the blonde told the redhead. "I'm not gonna be losing my time with that kind of guy. I'm too much for him." After noticing how Alchemy was glaring at her, Cornelia sighed. "Okay, okay… I guess I could text him…"

A part of Elyon's mind, the one who had known Cornelia for almost her entire life, said: _It's alright, it's just an exaggeration. Cornelia didn't know how to let the boy down without hurting his feelings, so she just dumped him. Now she's just making excuses_. Another, smaller part of her mind, however? That part felt that Cornelia didn't need to make any cheap excuses, since Elyon was making them for her.

* * *

 ** _Sheffield's cafeteria; the day of Will Vandom's arrival_**

"So, have you seen New Girl?" Cornelia asked of Alchemy and Elyon, the three of them sitting at their usual spots at the school's cafeteria. Raindrops fell against the windows, making the day of any high school student even duller, if that was possible.

"The one with the dark red hair?" Elyon asked of her blonde friend. "I think she's called Wilma, or Will, or… something with 'W'."

"She seems nice," Alchemy told them.

"Yeah, but have you seen her outfit?" Cornelia commented, smirking a bit. "Where did she got those clothes, in a store specialized in tomboys? Someone should tell her we're in school, not in some gym. She looks like such a big loser;" Cornelia proceeded then to laugh at her own petty remarks.

 _Just because she chooses to dress different than you, that doesn't mean she's less that you_ ; Elyon thought, and frankly, wanted to say. Instead she just joined in the laugh, and Alchemy rolled her eyes. Long gone were the days in which Elyon would try to justify each of Cornelia's actions. However, she still thought about the Hale girls as her best friend, and the blonde's comment could pass as a teen's usual mischief; so she overlooked it.

"By the way, I can't meet with you this afternoon," Cornelia changed the conversation's topic then.

"What? Why?" Alchemy inquired.

"Hay Lin slipped a note in my pocket when we were in class," Cornelia informed then both. "Told me to go to her family's restaurant this afternoon, alone."

"Really?" Elyon asked. "For what?"

"I don't know, but you go and tell no to Hay Lin;" Cornelia answered, pointing out how difficult it was to give the Lin girl a negative without having to withstand the strongest 'puppy eyes' of all Sheffield.

"Okay. Then Alchemy and I'll be on our own today;" Elyon said.

"Oh, don't worry;" Cornelia said in an arrogant tone of voice. "I'll be back to you as soon as I can. I mean, what would you do without me?"

 _Yeah… what would we all do?_ Elyon thought. _Maybe we'd be better_ ; added a small, weak yet persistent voice in her head.

* * *

 ** _Will Vandom's birthday party; months ago_**

"Back off!" Elyon heard Cornelia's voice came from behind her, startling her, Alchemy and that other girl that had approached the cute boy that had showed up on Will's party. He was cute, with beautiful green eyes, dark brown hair and (most importantly) a body that would make any teen that spent all his afternoons in the gym jealous. "I saw him first…" the Earth Guardian practically hissed.

 _Yeah, what a freaking surprise! She's always the one who gets to decide, she's always the one who sees everything first_ ; the part of Elyon's mind that had started to harbor some serious resentment towards Cornelia spoke in a sarcastic tone that was practically dripping with venom. "Okay, okay;" Elyon said while waving her hands in the air. "Where are you guys going, by the way?"

"To get some pizza," Taranee answered, making Elyon to tilt her head a bit in surprise. However, she decided to ignore it, as she, Alchemy and the other girl headed back inside.

"Pizza, really?" the third girl that had come in order to get a better look at Caleb said as she distanced herself from Elyon and Alchemy. "That's the oldest excuse in the book to get out of a party."

 _See?_ a part of the straw blonde's mind told her. _They're going somewhere without you! You're letting Will and Jade to take your places, just like that day in the mall, when they disappeared! They're so obviously lying! Grab Alchemy and follow them or something!_

But Elyon decided to ignore those thoughts, just like she had decided to ignore them during the past years. Who was she to contradict anyone's wishes, who was she to get into someone's private life?

 _Cornelia's supposed best friend; that's who I am._

* * *

 ** _Last Sunday_**

"I bet she's just busy, or she's had some kind of emergency…"

The words of Alchemy Ethel did very little in order to calm the fury that was raging inside Elyon Brown's soul. The straw blonde was standing at her friend's side, a silver medal hanging from her neck. Her parents, Elanor and Thomas, were speaking with some other adults, distanced from them.

 _Yeah, she's just busy_ ; Elyon thought. This time, it wasn't a thought that a part of her mind had and with which she disagreed; it was her thought, her opinion, her belief. _Like all those times before. You know who wasn't busy all those times she needed me? Who was there in all those ice skating matches? Me!_

Elyon had had enough, this had been the straw breaking the camel's back! No more niceties, no more excuses! If Cornelia wanted to be her friend then she would have to be loyal and supportive! If not… then fine! Elyon didn't need her at all!

* * *

 ** _Heatherfield, Silver Dragon's basement, the present_**

"Cornelia," she heard a voice. "Cornelia, wake up."

"Ugh…" was everything the blonde could say as she started to open her eyes. She noticed there was something soft against her back, something against which she was lying. A couch?

"Cornelia?" she heard again as she opened her eyes completely, meeting with the faces of her friends. Will reached out to her with her hand, which the blonde took, incorporating and sitting straight. As it turned out, she was in the Silver Dragon's basement, her fellow Guardians, Caleb, Jade, Jackie, Mr. Uncle and Tohru alongside that thief lady and Hay Lin's grandma standing around her, albeit they were kindly enough to give her enough room to breathe. "You okay?" Will asked her.

"Uh… what happened?" the blonde wondered.

"You fainted, Corny;" Irma told her. "And I mean fainted in soap opera style."

Cornelia glared at her friend for a few seconds due to her joke, but then proceeded to rub her forehead. "How much time was I…?"

"No more than half an hour," Jackie told her.

Cornelia grunted. Alright, no biggie, that hadn't been _a lot_ of time. "Ugh… I don't know what just happened to me. I mean, I think I heard Caleb saying Elyon was the lost Princess of Meridian, but that's completely stupid…" The blonde stopped her sentence right there, noticing how everyone around her was now sporting a serious face. "Right?"

Nobody answered her. She had believed that she had heard wrong, maybe. Or perhaps that's what she wanted to believe. Anyway, her friends' lack of any direct answer was enough of one for her.

"You've got to be kidding me…"

* * *

 ** _Outside the Browns' residence, early in the night_**

The house of the Brown family wasn't something to be ashamed of. Three stories tall, a big backyard, a swimming pool for summer… No, it was definitely not something to be ashamed of. A lightning cut the clouded, starless and moonless sky then; followed by a thunder. Raindrops started to fall shortly after. Raining, it had started to rain. And that was weird, since today was supposed to be a sunny day, understandable since they were already on spring. For Elanor Brown, currently looking out at the street from a window, the rain was just another complication on top of the already complicated situation. She walked away from the window and into the kitchen, where her husband had just hanged his phone.

"Anything?" she asked.

"Nothing," Thomas Brown answered, starting to walk around the kitchen table, where he had left his phone. Elanor hated when he did this. Each time he got nervous he started walking from one spot to another in the same room, or in circles around something. She, instead, used to move less than usual in these situations.

This was strange. On top of strange, it was incredibly worrying! Elyon should have arrived home from her part time job at that bookstore hours before. And she wasn't picking up her phone!

"I'm going out," Elanor declared, walking towards the kitchen's entrance. "I'm going to find her."

"Where?" Thomas asked, following in his wife's steps. "In that bookstore? I will try calling Cornelia, or Alchemy, or their parents. Or the police if those fail. Elanor, we don't know…"

"You do remember we were royal guards of the Queen before this," she raised her arms and gestured to the house; "right?" Elanor asked of Thomas. "I will find our daughter. What if she has been hurt? What if she's lost? What if… what if a Portal has opened and she has crossed it by accident?"

 _That_ got Thomas. Returning to the table and taking his phone, he then followed Elanor out of the kitchen and into the house's main corridor. "I'm coming with you," he declared, but before they had time to even take their coats, they both heard a sound coming from the other end of the corridor. Both of them froze as they looked in its direction, Elyon standing by the opened door, water from the rain pouring inside and wetting the carpet, albeit their daughter appeared to be dry.

"Elyon?" Thomas asked with a bit of disbelief. Then his face lighted up with happiness and relief. "Elyon, thank goodness!"

"Where were you?!" Elanor asked next. "You had us so worried!"

"You lied to me," were the only words leaving their daughter's mouth.

Both parents, up until now thanking every divine being they could think of for their daughter to arrive safe at home, stopped in their tracks. Behind Elyon, a figure with long blond hair closed an umbrella and left it in the floor, near the entrance. For a brief moment, both adults thought it was Cornelia; it was difficult to see outside in a raining night. However, as the stranger finally entered their home, they both saw that it wasn't their daughter's friend at all.

"Mr. Hoffman?" Elanor inquired.

Yes, it was the man known to the Browns as 'Rick Hoffman', owner of 'Ye Olde Book Shop'; the kind and patient man that had given their daughter her first opportunity to work and earn money out of her own effort. Except he looked a bit different now; sporting the same bluish jeans and white shirt as usual, but the glasses were gone, and the ponytail had been ditched in favor of letting his blond hair fall over his shoulders. It made him look prettier, younger… and for some reason, far more dangerous.

"I believe it's time we ditch the whole 'Rick Hoffman' thing, don't you agree?" Cedric asked of the both of them alongside a devious grin. "The Princess here already knows my true identity. I was hoping that she could know yours now."

"Princess?" both Elanor and Thomas whispered at the same time. Realization hitting them, their eyes jumped from the smirking man to their angry daughter, her hands clenched into fists, scowling at them with something that resembled hatred. None of the Browns had ever seen Elyon looking at them like that. It felt so… unnatural.

"Elyon…" Elanor started to say, dedicating a hateful glare at Cedric before looking at her daughter with pleading eyes. "Elyon, listen. Whatever lies he has told you…"

"Lies? **_Lies?!_** " Elyon yelled; her two braids and the rest of her hair elevating in the air as if pulled by an invisible force, her voice echoing with power. A lightning cut the sky again alongside a thunder, and then a small tremor shook the floor. "He's been the only one who's told me anything that's not a lie! You're not my parents! Who're you?! **_Answer me!_** "

With those last words came another shockwave, this one shaking the house completely, bringing many objects to the ground, making many of the house's light bulbs explode, and almost every window in the house cracking and breaking into tiny pieces of glass. From the street came the sound of dozens of car alarms. The tremor had affected the whole street, apparently. Maybe the nearby houses too?

"Elyon, please, calm down;" Thomas begged his daughter. "You don't understand. Your power… the city…"

"Shut up!" Elyon declared with anger. "I… I don't even know who you're! Why should I trust you?! You've been doing nothing but lie to me my entire life!"

"Your Highness, if I may…" Cedric said with respect, placing a hand over her right shoulder. "Extend your hand towards them, concentrate and think something along the lines of 'Break' or 'Reveal your true self'."

"Elyon, don't listen to him!" Elanor shouted, rushing towards the pair, but before she could reach them the straw blonde did as told, pointing her hand towards both her parents. Her hair rose in the same vein as before and a stream of pure light shot from her palm. Both Elanor and Thomas fell to their knees, screaming in pain. For a second, Elyon's angry face left place to a horrified one, as she thought she was hurting her parents. But then the source of the horror changed, as the glamour hiding their true appearance started to slowly fade, revealing the two Galhots underneath.

"W-What're you?" Elyon asked with a broken voice.

"Elyon, it's us!" her father (albeit she wasn't so sure about calling him that anymore) told her. Even his voice sounded different, and that was not having how into account weird the bald head, the greenish skin and the scales were. Her mother was no different, with the same green color of skin and greenish locks of hair replacing her usual light auburn hair and normal, human-like skin. "It's still us, your parents!"

"Please, listen to us Elyon. We love you;" her mother practically begged of her, but the girl wasn't willing to listen.

"If you loved me," Elyon said with a face that showed rage and pain in equal measure; "you would've told me who I am! You would've told me… that I've got a brother! A life better than _this_!"

"Elyon!" Miriael called one last time, but her daughter ran out from their home, her parents losing sight of her shortly after.

"Oh my," Cedric said then, taking his umbrella back into his hand. "Better get to her; we don't want the Princess catching a cold, do we?"

"You monster!" Alborn yelled, just for his and his wife's bodies to start to glow, returning to their human guises.

"Oh, I'm a monster! I have _surely_ never heard that one before." Cedric said sarcastically, rising one hand in the air in an overly dramatic manner. "And strange glamour, the one you two use. It seems to be either a very good one or an incredibly defective one."

"You…" Miriael muttered. "You lied to her! You are one of Phobos' servants!"

"And you two are Alborn and Miriael, aren't you?" Cedric asked, albeit he already knew the answer. "The former commanders and sole survivors of Queen Weira's royal guard, still loyal after all these yearsssssss;" the man declared, his tongue shifting to its reptilian appearance for a moment. "I read about you two in the palace's library. My apologies for not introducing myself earlier; I am Lord Cedric, Prince Phobos' trusted advisor and servant. During your time in Meridian, I was mostly known as the Snake of Cavigor."

"A filthy Beast…" Alborn whispered, getting to his feet and putting himself at his wife's side.

"Save me the slurs, little man;" Cedric declared, holding his umbrella with both hands and clearly enjoying the rising killing intent of his newfound adversaries. "Please, don't hold back. I do enjoy the humble job as a bookseller, but I would lie if I said that I did not miss thissssss!"

Miriael was the first one to move, charging at Cedric with all her strength. With laughter, the Shapeshifter blocked each of her incoming blows, counterattacking with a kick to her stomach that sent her across the corridor. However, Cedric wasn't fast enough to avoid a projectile that Alborn had thrown to his head. The projectile (a heavy vase, to be precise) smashed against the blonde's skull, shattering in the process and leaving the Shapeshifter a bit dizzy and with a deep, bleeding cut over his left cheek, just under his eye.

Alborn closed distances with him then, delivering a series of punches to the man's head and torso. They weren't precise punches; they attacks didn't have any finesse of form. It wasn't the fighting style of a martial artist like Jackie or Hak Foo, but the attacks of someone more accustomed to fight with swords and shield that with his own limbs. His last blow was blocked by Cedric's umbrella, and then the disguised Galhot found himself in the receiving end of a series of quick attacks that sent him to the ground, hurting. In a last ditch effort, he grabbed the umbrella and tossed it in the air; where it was taken by Miriael, who proceeded to use it as an improvised sword. She was able to deliver several strikes at Cedric's head with it. This only made Cedric laugh after taking several of the woman's blows, then grabbing the umbrella with one hand and punching Miriael with the other. He then proceeded to grab her neck and slam her face against the nearly wall with such strength that the wall cracked where her head had impacted. And thus, the woman fell. When Alborn tried to incorporate, Cedric just kicked him across the face. Once he was in the ground again, Cedric kneeled, took his head between his hands and proceeded to repeatedly smash Alborn's cranium against the ground.

What a violent show. And how much Cedric had missed it!

The two disguised Galhots ended in the floor, hurting, wounded and completely defeated; wishing their daughter had been there to see what just had happened to them. Cedric, meanwhile, inspected his umbrella to see if it had been damaged in some way (fortunately, it hadn't. Good umbrella!) and licked a drop of his own blood that had rolled down his cheek and into his lips.

"So this is what thirteen years of inactivity do to seasoned warriors;" the Snake of Cavigor commented as the cut in his cheek started to heal and close. "That or you wanted the Princess to see this, which was a terrible idea to begin with. After all, you started to attack me."

"Get away… from our daughter…" Elanor whispered.

Cedric loomed over the pair. "But she isn't your daughter, is she?" he laughed. "I must say, you two have made things too easy for me. If you had informed the Princess of her true identity, then my whole scheme would have crumbled under its own weight. But you didn't. I wonder if you didn't because you thought it would keep her safe, or because you didn't want this," he gestured towards the house in a not so different manner than of how Elanor had done before; "fantasy of yours to shatter." The Shapeshifter turned around and walked away, stopping at the doorstep. "The Princess will be returning to her home now, to her brother. Know, while lying there; that it happened thanks to you. However, I think Prince Phobos will want you two in Meridian. But don't worry, I made arrangements for that before coming here today. You just have to wait here until some _friends_ of mine arrive. It won't take them too long, I promise. If you want to see your daughter again… then you will accompany them without making a scene. Have a nice night."

Using that as a farewell, Cedric disappeared in the rain, umbrella opened and searching for Elyon. Inside the house, Alborn crept towards Miriael, taking her hand into his.

* * *

Cedric found Elyon trying to hide from the rain under a tree three houses from hers. She hadn't got so far, and he was grateful for it. Of course, she was wet from head to toes when he found her; running under the rain had its downsides, after all. And to top it all she seemed to had been crying. Oh, perfect…

"Elyon?" he asked in a kind voice, standing under his opened umbrella.

The girl sobbed. "I-I'm sorry," she said. "It's just… I needed to… uh…"

"I know, I know;" Cedric said, putting a calming hand over her shoulder once again. "It was too much of a shock; I understand that you needed to run away from there."

"What _are_ they?" the girl wondered.

"Galhots," Cedric answered; "a native species of Meridian like Shapeshifters as me are. They are similar to humans, but with skin of strange colorations and scales over it. They have been living here under a glamour, a spell that disguises your true appearance."

"W-What's going to happen to them?" Elyon asked, looking at Cedric's eyes with concern. "A-Are they going to be alright?"

 _Still concerned even when she thinks they betrayed her?_ Cedric thought. "We will probably need to detain them and imprison them in Meridian."

"Yeah, I supposed it'd be something on that line;" Elyon remarked in a sad tone. "I… I can't believe they lied to me for so much time. My entire life! Was… was anything they ever told me true?"

 _So now she wonders if the love those two professed for her is real_ ; the Snake thought as he listened to the girl's words. "It's a lot to take in, isn't it, your Highness?"

Elyon nodded. "Yes… I mean, this morning I was just a normal girl without friends… and now, I'm a Princess of another world." The girl looked at him once again, her eyes full of doubts and begging for answers and guide. "So, what do I do now?"

"We should return to my bookshop," Cedric instructed. "I have a way to return to Meridian in there, your Highness."

"Alright," Elyon accepted, slipping under the umbrella and at Cedric's side. "And drop the 'Your Highness' thing. You can call me Elyon."

"I'm afraid I shouldn't," Cedric declared with a little grin. "You are royalty, while I'm not. As a servant of the Escanor royal family, it is my duty to refer to you as befitting of your title… your Highness."

Both of them shared a laugh then. One sincere, the other feigned. A false sense of happiness that was fated to break sooner or later, foreshadowed by another lightning cutting the sky.

* * *

 ** _The Silver Dragon; forty minutes later_**

"And I say it's impossible!" Cornelia Hale declared from the couch of the Silver Dragon's basement. This conversation had gone for far longer than intended. Elyon was the lost Princess; that was what Caleb had told them all. Cornelia, however, wasn't completely into accepting it. "I've known Elyon since we were little kids! She can't be the Princess! She's been living in Heatherfield all her life…"

"And how much is that?" Caleb asked then, one hand leaning against the pommel of the Sword of Thanatos. "Thirteen years? The exact same number of years the war has lasted? The same number of years since the Princess was taken from Meridian?"

"But… that's impossible," Cornelia repeated, convinced that if she repeated that phrase too many times, then it would become true. "Elyon's… my best friend."

"And according to the Mage," Caleb told her; "our true ruler."

"Well, the Mage could be wrong!" Cornelia protested.

"Uh… Elyon does kinda look like Phobos;" Jade said then, tilting her head and making her black bangs to move in the air. "If you let out the whole tyrannical Prince gimmick out, I mean. The hair's the same color, and the eyes too I think;" she said, recalling her memories of Phobos when she and Will had been captured so many months ago. "Maybe even the face?"

"Magic tends to call to Magic," Yan Lin interrupted the two teenagers. "Just like Heatherfield tends to call magic users from different corners of the Earth, there is a huge possibility that the power within the Princess, the Heart of Meridian, attracted you to her, as a future Guardian of Kandrakar."

"So Corny was destined to be best buds with Ely?" Irma wondered, folding her arms over her bosom. "It feels a bit weird."

"Alright, everyone's forgetting the important part;" Taranee said then. "If Elyon _is_ the Princess, doesn't that mean she's about to be kidnapped or something?!"

"Everyone, calm down!" Will shouted, elevating her voice over her companions'. "We need to think this out. Are you sure Elyon's the Princess?"

"Yes," Caleb declared, trusting the Mage's words.

"Then we need to get to her. _Now_ ;" Will ordered in an authoritative tone, taking the Heart of Kandrakar from under her shirt. "If Cedric's been really here in Heatherfield all this time and the Mage's right, then he's already with her, right?"

"Uh…" the redhead heard then, the Air Guardian raising her hand up. "Do we… really want Elyon in this? I mean… I know that the Princess must return and all that, but this war's done… _a lot_ to us."

That was a fair point, wasn't it? Leave it to cheerful and kind Hay Lin to always care for the feelings and well being of another, and also to point out that they were basically discussing taking Elyon into a situation that had caused all of them so much pain.

"Of course we want Elyon in this. We _need_ Elyon in this," Will said after a time, already walking towards the basement's stairs. "With the Princess, we gain the true heir to the throne, delegitimize Phobos… with that, most of the nobility won't have to support him, and he and Wong lost the Heart… even the Guard could be convinced to change coats, with enough incentives… and maybe getting rid of people like Lothar. And that's not having into account how strong Elyon must be. We could turn the war's tides completely."

"Will, I'm not throwing my best friend into this freaking war!" Cornelia yelled, angry at how Will was talking about Elyon as if she was a… weapon of some kind.

"At least, let's help her!" Will yelled back, the redhead's expression matching the blonde's anger. "Do you want Cedric catching her? Do you want Phobos or Wong doing… whatever they'll do to her to obtain the Heart of Meridian?! Do you?!"

"Calm down, girls;" Yan Lin interrupted again, walking between the two girls. "Right now, fighting between yourselves won't help anyone but your enemy."

"Cousin is right," Uncle supported her argumentation. "Guardians should not fight between themselves now. Their duty is to protect the Known Worlds, and if either Phobos or Daolong Wong end with the power of a Heart… Aiyah! They would become gods!"

Both blonde and redhead calmed down, staring at the ground for several seconds before looking at each other again. "Alright," Cornelia said reluctantly. "What do we do?"

"Main priority is searching and finding Elyon," Will addressed the blonde and the rest. "We could try calling her…"

"On it," Cornelia said in a voice that had sounded perhaps a bit too much harsh, taking her phone out of her pocket and dialing a number with quick finger movements.

 _Crap, Maybe I overreacted_ ; Will thought. Cornelia and Elyon were incredibly close. But how was she supposed to react? Elyon, kindhearted and patient Elyon of all people, was the Princess of Meridian! The Princess who could turn a war around with her sole presence! Heart of Meridian or not, Wong planning to betray Phobos or not; if Elyon appeared one day claiming to be the Princess and standing at her brother's side, it would mean that Weira's true heir was supporting Phobos! That would cost the Rebellion some of its support; that was for sure. Unless they revealed that Phobos and Wong probably wanted to steal the Heart of Meridian for themselves and then kill Elyon… Agh! Her head was in the verge of spinning! She needed to calm down and focus in the now!

"She's not answering…" Cornelia said with a preoccupied voice now. "I mean, she's been a bit angry with me lately but… it's not in her to not answer a phone call. Or three…"

 _Definitely overreacted_ , Will thought, a bit guilty. "It's better if we get to the streets and search for her. Maybe we should get to her home."

"Quick question here;" Jade asked aloud before they could depart. "How strong's Elyon supposed to be?"

"Any Heart-wielder," Yan Lin explained; "has the same amount of power of the five Guardians of Kandrakar… combined. As a world's source of mystical energy, a Heart is a massive amount of magic put together; almost infinite in what refers to energy."

"So it's like a giant magic battery?" Taranee wondered.

"It's much more," Yan Lin declared. "If Wong or Phobos got their hands on it, they would probably use it as a battery to boost their own powers to unknown levels. But Elyon has had this power inside her since birth, she is a natural wielder. Right now, due to her youth, she must be limited to performing very strong spells or magical feats. However, once she matures enough and with enough practice there would be very few things she can't do, especially in Meridian's soil. Albeit Heart-wielders are not invincible, only another Heart-wielder, or an entire generation of Guardians, can contend with them."

"Yeah, 'cause it'd be too easy if not, right?" Irma joked, her voice trembling a bit as she chuckled.

"Jade, could you locate Elyon via smell?" Will asked the Chinese girl.

"Not with all this rain," Jade answered.

"Right, right…" Will said, her mind thinking at top speed. _Calm down, let's rethink all the facts we already know_ , she thought. _Elyon's the Princess, has the Heart of Meridian inside of her… Cedric's been in Heatherfield enough time to gain her trust… gain her…_ Will could have sworn that a light bulb have manifested over her head right now. "Caleb! Do you know how Cedric looks in human form?!"

"I have seen him in human form very few times," Caleb started to say. And truthfully, he hadn't. Cedric had maintained his serpent form when he had captured him that fateful day, when he had blown up that armory. Each time they had collided in battle, the Lord had been in his animalistic guise. The few times he had been able to see him in human form had been from a distance, during announcements Cedric had made on the Capital, when Caleb was infiltrated amongst the commoners in order to gather information or new allies. "But according to what the Mage told me, her spy described Cedric's human form as a young man with white skin, blond hair… blue eyes? Yes, I think she said blue eyes."

"Wait, that sounds a lot like…" Taranee began to connect the dots.

"The bookstore guy!" Jade and Irma said at the same time.

"See?" Jade said afterwards. "I told you we shouldn't have gone to that place!"

"Rick Hoffman?" Cornelia asked. "But he's so nice!"

"And cute..." Hay Lin made a comment that should have been made in a less tense situation.

"And he's been around Elyon all this time," Will stated. "The description matches with him! That's the reason he offered that job to Elyon! Oh, we walked directly into it! How stupid! Let's go!"

"We start with 'Ye Olde Book Shop' then?" Taranee asked, adjusting her glasses and already walking towards the stairs.

"It's the best option we got;" Will told the Fire Guardian. The Keeper of the Heart surveyed the people that had gathered in the basement. "Jackie, take Tohru and Viper and go to the Browns' house; I want to know if Elyon's... er... parents," the redhead doubted that was the appropriate term with which refer to them anymore, "know something about this. If you see a man that matches Cedric's description, don't attack him and contact us immediately."

"Alright," Jackie answered, finding a bit strange how quickly he was accepting the girl's orders. When he had first arrived on Heatherfield this girl had needed his encouragement in order to accept the Heart of Kandrakar. Albeit a part of him would forever feel horrible for having a hand in starting the chain of events that had resulted into Will and his niece killing people and becoming far more ruthless than what they were before; there was a part of him that couldn't avoid feeling a bit proud about them, about how resilient they had been even in the face of all the adversities they had faced; especially about how Will had matured.

"Yan Lin, Mr. Uncle…" the redhead addressed the two elders.

"Oh, don't worry kid; I know when to step aside and let you handle things," the old Chinese lady told her kindly.

"Bah! Uncle wasn't going to go out with this rain!" the old Chinese man told her bluntly.

Having told everyone what the plan was, everyone at exception of the elders abandoned the Silver Dragon's basement, ready to find the deceived Princess and save her from the Snake. That left Yan Lin and Uncle alone in the basement, where they stood in silence for several moments. The retired Guardian of Air sat in the couch then, sighing.

People weren't accustomed to see Yan Lin act tiredly, the woman normally being surprisingly diligent and energetic for her age, something her granddaughter and her seemed to share. But now the woman had sat and she seemed way more tired than ever. Uncle sat at her side.

"Worried?" her cousin asked her.

"To the extreme," Yan Lin said. "And so are you, I know. The Veil is still there, and it costs them all a bit of their energy. Will doesn't even have access to her element. And Heart-wielders… Oh, Heart-wielders aren't your average foe."

* * *

 ** _Half an hour later_**

Tohru wasn't exactly the fastest man in the world. His girth, bulk and muscles made him into a fearsome opponent, but he was smart enough to know that they also meant a liability. He was stronger than any regular man, but he was also way slower. He had dedicated most of his life as a fighter to find ways by which he could use his strength to its fullest while making sure his enemies couldn't take advantage of his weaknesses. When he had served as Valmont's goon and fought Jackie in so many occasions he had found himself pitted against an opponent much faster than him, and that was far more trained than any of his other adversaries. As such, he had ditched any belief of being able to finish the fight as fast as he could, or of overpowering the man. He had to play slow, usually relying into people like Chow, Finn and Ratso or on Shendu's Shadowkhan in order to tire or distract Jackie so he could have an opportunity to strike the archeologist down. Now that he was training as a Chi Wizard he had found another alternative, since his spells granted him the ability to attack from a distance if dealing with a fast opponent. Yes, Tohru wasn't the fastest man in the world… that was the reason he was so glad that Jackie, Viper and him had come here in the archeologist's rented car instead of coming on foot.

The raining had stopped, but the ground was still wet and the skies continued clouded, a lightning crossing them from time to time. They parked in front of the Browns' house. The three of them advanced slowly across the dark street, every house dark, and every streetlight broken, the only thing to give them light the car's flashlights, since Jackie had let the engine on. What exactly had happened here? Their heartbeats sped up once they reached the Browns' house, recognizing it thanks to Cornelia's description. Every window had been shattered, and the door was opened. Why had nobody else come in order to check if the family was alright? Were all of them in their homes, thinking that the storm had caused a blackout? Or perhaps they didn't want to bother. Or perhaps a combination of the two.

"It seems there isn't anybody home," Viper declared as the trio approached the building, Jackie entering first.

As it turned out, the ex-thief found her statement to be completely right the moment they walked inside. The house was completely empty. Empty… and trashed.

"There was a fight here," Jackie said, inspecting the damaged walls and the rest of the zone. Standing near the doorframe, Tohru pulled his blowfish out of his pocket, the amulet glowing in a green aura. "Viper, can you…?"

"Go up and see if there's anybody there?" the ex-thief ended for him, already walking towards the second floor, lighting the way using her phone's 'lantern' app. "Sure thing, Tiger."

"What do you think?" the sumo asked of the archeologist. The green aura around the dried blowfish he and Uncle used in order to canalize their spells was still shinning with magic.

"I think Elyon isn't the only one that has been taken," Jackie declared as he passed a hand over a crack in the wall, clearly product of an impact. There hadn't been _just_ a fight here, but a violent one.

"Second floor is as empty as this one," Viper told them as she returned. "And now?"

"I'm going to call Jade," Jackie told her. "And we are going to help the girls."

The archeologist pulled out his phone and started to dial his niece's number. The thunders had become something akin to a murmur on the sky as of lately, but the moon and stars had yet to be seen, since the thick clouds continued there. All three of them had a very bad feeling about this…

* * *

 ** _Meanwhile…_**

Elyon had walked the path from her house to 'Ye Olde Book Shop' so many times during the past months that she was sure she could walk it with her eyes closed. Even so, now she found herself in need of being guided by Cedric, both of them walking over the soaked streets of Heatherfield at a slow pace. This was a lot to digest. The magic, she being a Princess, her parents' betrayal… No! She refused to think about those two as her parents anymore! But… but how to think about them then? They had been the ones that had woke her up every morning, that had fed her and dress her; they had been the ones that had taught her how to talk, they had been the ones smiling with her, taking care of her!

 _But they lied to me!_ Elyon thought bitterly. Yes, how much of that love, of that parental care; had been true? And how much had been nothing but lies? They had known since the beginning, hadn't they? About her being a Princess, about her having all these powers… about her having a brother! A brother! And they hadn't said a word! Why?! Cedric had told her that this… Meridian was in a war between her brother and some kind of Rebellion. That only she could put an end to that war and the horrors it had produced. Putting those two facts together, the only answer to those question

She supposed she could ask that in any other moment. After all, Cedric had told her that the two of them were going to be arrested by some meridianites under her brother's employ. Her brother… she really was thrilled in that regard, excited to meet him. How would he be? Would he tell her about their birth parents? Her birth parents that were… _dead_ , weren't they? Now that was a thought that left a bad feeling in her gut. That was the reason she had ended in this world to begin with, right? Would her brother tell her how that had happened? Were they nice when they were alive? Did… did they love her more than the ones that had raised her here on Earth? Her mind travelled back to her big brother once again. She hoped he would be nice. Of course he would be nice! He was her brother, he was a Prince! Those were always nice! And she would be able to control these powers and… and she was a Princess! What kind of girl didn't want to be a Princess?! Well, of course there would be some that didn't want to, but she definitely was in awe for that detail. Oh, so many emotions coming to her at the same time! Sadness, the feeling of betrayal, calmness, excitation, anger, joy… The turmoil those were creating inside of her seemed to be making her blood boil!

"Your Highness?" Cedric asked, noticing how nervous the girl seemed.

"Uhm?" Elyon asked of the blue eyed blond man. They had closed the umbrella shortly after the rain had stopped. They were now reaching Cedric's bookstore, which was just at the end of the street. "Oh, it's just… I'm a bit nervous. Is… is my brother nice?"

"Princess Elyon," the man said with borderline adoration, an adoration that Elyon mistook for something genuine. "You have no idea, but no idea; how much Prince Phobos and the entirety of Meridian's people have been waiting for this moment. Your brother is a fair and noble ruler, and he has been desperate to reunite with you since those two kidnapped you years ago. Your brother loves you, and he needs you. I already told you, my Lady, you can trust me."

Elyon giggled a bit after Cedric had called her 'My Lady'. The Shapeshifter fought the urge to roll his eyes, instead maintaining the calm and kind mask he was wearing for a face. Was foolishness a trait shared by all members of the Escanor royal line? Albeit he knew the Ritual of Amalgamation was the primary force behind this girl's willingness to trust everything that left his mouth, he also blamed his success into how this girl behaved and seemed to be feeling in regards to her own self. She stroke him as one of those people that had spent all their life playing by the rules of others, behaving nicely because that's what 'good people' did, content with the place that life had put them into, so concerned with the wellbeing of others that they tended to disregard their own; when deep down, the only thing that they wanted was to explode and tell everyone that they were also there, that they also deserved the same care, respect and consideration that they had been providing others with. In resume, they had been waiting for a prize, a reward for their noble behavior that didn't seem to arrive. A parody of the most devout and virtuous of Christianity, that's how big brother Charles had once referred to them. Cedric and Cyrus referred to them as teenagers. Those people were the easiest to manipulate, at least in an emotional level. Show them a little more respect or adulation than the rest of their peers, and they would try to stop a tidal wave for you. Of course, Cedric knew too well that not all of them were the same. But this girl… oh, this girl. He could almost see her, living her anodyne life, being friends with the Earth Guardian, going from home to school and back to home, smiling from ear to ear, being the voice of reason; and yet always muttering when nobody listened: ' _I deserve more_ '. Well, he was about to give her more. He was about to give her a world to reign, no matter how brief the time of said rule was going to be. He wondered how long Phobos would be able to maintain the charade, but not that it was his problem. The Family's plan's first phase was about to be completed, and he would do his duty as a member of the Ludmoore bloodline. The only thing they needed to do now was to enter his bookstore (which of course he would miss) and cross the Veil to Meridian…

"Elyon!"

 _Ah, damn it all to Hell!_ Cedric thought angrily.

The yell had come from a voice both the Princess and the Shapeshifter knew too well. It had come from the group of seven teenagers that had appeared at the other side of the street, after turning around a corner. Cedric recognized them for who they were in the battlefield. The five Guardians of Kandrakar in their human forms, that girl to whom Wong (in his complete lack of insight) had granted the abilities of a Shapeshifter, and the rebel leader, garbed with a meridianite's clothes, the Sword of the Berserker hanging from his belt. Cedric cursed internally the day his brother had had the brilliant idea of getting that blade out of the mountains.

As for Elyon, she saw them for the teenagers she had lived with here in Heatherfield, the girls she had studied with in Sheffield, the ones she had called friends. Even Will and Jade, whom she had known for much less time than the others, fell under that category. Cornelia was the one who gathered most of her attention, a mix between bitterness and happiness growing inside of her while seeing her. And then there was the boy that Cornelia had hit on during Will's birthday party, wearing the weirdest clothes ever… and a sword?! Why was he carrying a sword?!

"Stay behind me," Cedric said as he positioned himself between her and the other teens.

"You stay away from my friend, you creep!" Cornelia yelled at him.

"It's end of the game, Cedric!" Will joined in the yells. "We know who you are!" Elyon saw how Will took a pink jewel from under her clothes, holding it high. "Surrender and nobody will get hurt!"

"What are you talking about?!" Elyon shouted too. All the eyes focused on her, and Cedric took advantage of it in order to feed the growing feeling of betrayal inside the Princess.

"Oh, you don't know?" the Snake of Cavigor said. "Your so-called friends have known about this entire situation since the beginning."

"What?!" Elyon shrieked, getting out from behind the blond man. "You lied to me too?! **_How could you?!_** "

Upon that last sentence, the Princess of Meridian glowed in white light for a few moments, a tremor shaking the entire soaked street. The five Guardians, the rebel leader and the Ben-Shui reincarnation fought a bit to maintain themselves on their feet.

"Elyon, if you'd just listen…"

" ** _Shut up!_** " the Princess shrieked once more, and the street, this time alongside the nearby buildings; trembled violently once more.

"Elyon, stop! You'll end creating an earthquake!" Taranee told the girl, who upon those words and the thought of harming any innocents, put an end to the magic surging through her body.

"You… you knew I was a Princess the whole time?!" a more calmed Elyon asked of the six girls and the boy. "You knew I had a brother?! You knew my entire life's been a lie?!"

"We didn't know until a while a go!" Will yelled. "I swear Elyon, if we had known sooner, we would've told you!"

"Yeah, and that's freaking Cedric!" Irma joined in, pointing to the blond man. "He's tried to kill us! He tried to _eat_ me!"

"And why should I believe you?!" Elyon retorted, gesturing towards Cedric too. "He's been the only one that's been sincere to me!"

"I bet he has," Caleb said then, stepping in front of the sextet of girls. "I bet he has told you how much of a great and just ruler Prince Phobos is. In the same way he hasn't told you about Sonder Hill, or the hundreds of people that your brother's regime has imprisoned or killed, or how he," the green eyed boy said, gesturing to the blond man; "threw me into a dungeon to rot."

"Yeah Elyon, you brother's a nutjob!" Jade was the one to shout this time.

Elyon narrowed her eyes at them, and Cedric once again put himself between the Princess and her former friends.

"The Princess will know, in due time, what her brother's court has been forced to do in order to get rid of upstarts like you, in the same way she shall know about the Rebellion's crimes during this war;" the Snake declared. "But you won't be taking the Princess away this time, rebel scum."

Caleb's hand gripped the hilt of the Sword of Thanatos. "You don't want to do this now, Cedric."

"If words aren't useful, then…" Will said, lifting the Heart of Kandrakar high. "Guardians, Unite!"

Elyon had to close her eyes due to the sudden flash of light around the area. When she opened them, each of the girls sans Jade were inside some kind of bubbles of different colors, emerging from them shortly after, each of the five girls having gained a handful of years (Elyon thought they looked around eighteen, maybe older) and were clad into the weirdest outfits she had seen, a combination of different types of skirts and shirts, colored in pink and greenish blue. And they had wings, literal wings at their backs. And they were flying. Cornelia was flying, Will was flying; Irma, Taranee and Hay Lin were flying.

"W-What?" Elyon was able to say. "You… you've got magic too?!"

"Elyon please, let me explain…" Cornelia begged to her friend, but once the blonde touched the ground, Cedric pushed Elyon away from her.

"Your Highness, please stay away from this;" the man told her. "I shall be the one dealing with these liarssssssss!"

Electricity coursed through Cedric's body, his arms growing green scales all over them, his legs disappearing and letting place to a long, reptilian tail. Where the handsome blond man had once stood, now was an enormous snake-like creature, with fangs, claws, a tail and a long, whitish mane of hair over his head.

"C-Cedric?" a confused and a bit scared Elyon asked of the man, who proceeded to take her in his coils and let her gently over the ground, away from him.

"Your Highnesssssss, sssssstay away;" the man hissed as gently as he could. "Pleassssssse, this isssssss for your own good."

"You wouldn't recognize good even if it was biting your own fat tail!" Jade told Cedric, her locks of black hair growing until the Chinese girl was covered in it. Then the hair transformed into fur and kept growing, the ball of fur starting to sprout legs and a canine face; Jade shifting completely into her wolf form after a bunch of seconds.

 _Jade too?!_ Elyon thought as she saw how the girl had transformed in a wolf bigger than a man. Everything was just a… everyone was just hiding information from her?! Was everyone just a big liar?!

"Taranee, defense! Irma, Hay Lin, attack him with everything you got! Caleb, Jade; the same!" Will ordered, remembering from their last encounter that Cedric's scales were able to withstand Taranee's flames, but that Hay Lin and Irma combining their elements into ice should do harm to him. Also, Jade and Caleb could actually inflict fatal wounds on the Lord if given an opening, though she wondered if Caleb's cursed blade could penetrate the Shapeshifter's scales. "Cornelia, you and I…"

But the blonde rose in the air, flew past her and directly towards Elyon; completely ignoring the redhead. Will fought back the urge to tell the Earth Guardian to not be reckless with all this, especially concerning how Elyon must be feeling right now, and flew towards the two blondes too.

Cedric roared then, trying to strike them with his tail. Jade answered him with her own roar, and charged at him while bearing her fangs. She jumped and hit his torso with her claws, sparks of red chi appearing around the wounds as they closed. However, she wasn't fighting the same Cedric she had fought back then, when both he and Wong were tired after fighting the girls. She was fighting a fully grown and experienced Shapeshifter that was fresh and ready to battle. As such, it wasn't all that surprising when Cedric swung his tail and hit the wolf with all his strength, ending her to the ground. It did very little to stop Jade, who was in her four paws in seconds, growling and baring her fangs at him, earning a hiss from the Snake of Cavigor.

"Hey, snake man!" Irma yelled, having flown over the Shapeshifter alongside Hay Lin. Both girls stood close to each other, pointing their palms towards the Lord. "Need a cold bath?!"

Hay Lin called her Air while Irma called her Water. Both elements mixed as soon as they left their respective Gaurdian's hands, transforming into a stream of pure ice that hit Cedric and froze him. Of course, the Lord was quick to free himself from the ice using his strength, but due to his cold blood, these kind of attacks bothered (and hurt) him strongly. If he was a younger or a smaller Reptilian Shapeshifter he was sure he would still be encased in the ice, letting the cold to slowly bring him towards death.

He then felt a chill to run all over his spine, from the top of his head to the tip of his tail. ' _Predator! Predator!_ ' screamed his animal instincts. He turned around and moved one of his claws fast enough to hit and parry the strike of a black sword that otherwise would have hit one of his coils. Caleb was able to withstand the strength of the blow, making a pirouette backwards and landing on his feet, Sword of the Berserker in one hand, black marks expanding over his body. He doubted his scales could be penetrated by a blade so easily, but considering Charles had told him that once this blade cut you, you were dead (and not a pleasant death to that) it was better to not take risks. It was better if he focused into taking the rebel leader out of the picture first and then taking care of the Guardians and the Black Wolf.

Speaking of the wolf, she howled and started an attack once again. Cedric decided to answer with an attack of his own this time, swinging his tail at Jade and delivering another blow, this one with even more strength. The wolf, however; took the attack head on, coating her body in blood-red chi and clashing with the tail of the snake. To Cedric's surprise, the strength of the Mammal Shapeshifter with the power of her Chi Magic added on it was enough to stop his blow, resulting into his tail bouncing back from the great wolf. Cedric noted how there were some claw marks in it, already starting to heal. He was unable to notice the sparks of blood-red chi around the wounds, however.

Meanwhile, the Chan girl landed graciously over the soaked ground, dedicating a proud howl to the dark skies of Heatherfield. Yeah, this was it! She was going to teach this lizard how it was done; she was going to tear…! _Whoa, whoa, whoa! Stop there_ , Jade thought, forcing the wolf inside of her, hungry for battle, to stay calm. No more charging like an idiot and letting her mind to shut down during fights, that had ended horribly for her last time. Besides, she had already put something in motion to take care of Cedric.

"Taranee!" Jade called for the Fire Guardian, currently flying over her and behind Irma and Hay Lin. "I can take him out, but I need time!"

"Alright!" the Fire Guardian said, shooting a stream of flames to the ground.

As soon as her fire touched it, the water product of the rain and soaking the street evaporated, creating a huge amount of vapor. Taranee continued to employ her element until creating a small wall of fire between the two Shapeshifters. Not that Cedric had any time to focus on just Jade, instead trying his hardest to either block or parry all of Caleb's attacks while also trying to strike Hay Lin and Irma down with his tail. It wasn't proving very efficient, and thus the Snake of Cavigor had to partially ignore the two Guardians from time to time and focus mostly on the rebel leader, taking any blat of water, air or ice as best as he could. The rebel leader was actually proving far more formidable than he had expected; something Cedric attributed to the Sword of Thanatos and those black markings over his body. Normally, Cedric could get rid of any human or Galhot opponents by doing something as simple as swinging his tail, but now he found himself unable to do that to this single boy. The Lord couldn't avoid feeling thrilled about this entire situation, even if he knew it was counterproductive with his mission. Cedric Ludmoore was a man of literature and deception… but he was also a man of violence, and as he used his tail to block the latest ice attack of the Guardian pair, then smashing his frozen tail against the ground in order to free it; the man felt _happy_.

* * *

While Cedric fought against three Guardians, the current Ben-Shui incarnation and the rebel leader; Elyon Brown had ran away to the end of the street, near Ye Olde Book Shop. She had put enough distance between the fight and herself to not get harmed, but not enough that she couldn't see the fight in every detail. This was… this was insane! Cedric had transformed into a giant snake, Jade had transformed into a wolf, that boy was fighting with a sword, and now half the street was on fire! It was… it was how it really was, wasn't it? Magic, knights, princesses, princes, wizards and witches; all of those she had only read about in fantasy books were _real_. And… and she was one of them. It felt as if she had been her entire life watching a parade, one thing after another, but without knowing what was going on behind the curtains. Now someone had gotten rid of those curtains in an abrupt manner, and she could see everything that was going on. It made her feel scared… but also excited.

"Elyon!"

All those emotions and thoughts disappeared once Cornelia and Will appeared on her sight, landing in front of the petite girl. She looked at the blonde and the redhead with narrowed eyes, still trying to accept the whole 'wings and super-powers' thing.

"So?" Elyon asked with a hateful voice. "When were you going to tell me?"

"Elyon, I know how you must feel…" Will started to say, but she was silenced by the straw blonde stomping her foot on the wet ground, creating a tremor around the three of them.

" ** _Shut up!_** " the straw blonde said, her voice resonating with power. "I didn't ask you. I was asking _her_ ;" she declared, pointing to Cornelia.

"Elyon, you don't understand what's going on;" Cornelia tried to appeal to her friend. "Listen, whatever lies Cedric's told you; you can't trust him! He's not your friend, I mean, look at him! He's a giant snake!"

"Cedric's more of a friend than any of you! He's been the only one that's been sincere with me once he knew who I am;" Elyon retorted, finding an oddly feeling of satisfaction in how Cornelia's eyes widened with surprise. "And bit of an hypocrite there, considering that Jade's a werewolf, or something; and that you are freaking fairies!"

"Elyon…" the Earth Guardian muttered.

"What, Cornelia?" the straw blonde retorted. "I don't understand? Oh, of course I don't understand, because I'm just normal, dull and plain little Elyon. It's Cornelia who's always got all the special secrets. Well, look at that, I'm special too! I'm a Princess! I've got a brother! An entire world waiting for me!"

"Wait, so that's it?" a heartbroken Cornelia asked. "You… you're doing this because you're jealous?"

"Jealous? **_Jealous?!_** " Elyon said, her voice echoing once more, and the ground trembling once again. "You think I'm jealous of _you_?! Yeah, what a surprise, Cornelia thinking she's the center of everything! Big news, you're not! But I told you that you were, every time you thought so. And did I ask for something in return?! No! Always walking behind you, always making sure you didn't screw things up, or that people wouldn't get angry at you! At least…" Elyon's voice lost almost all its rage then, becoming far softer and sadder. "At least you could've turned around and told me that you were grateful for it."

"Elyon, that wasn't me. Not the real me," Cornelia said, trying to confess to the girl why she had been acting like that all the time. But she found she couldn't guilt making her to swallow her words. All her life, trying her hardest in order to look like the best, the prettiest, the most of everything, just so she wouldn't feel like nothing, just so she could feel that she mattered, that she could met the expectations she thought everyone had for her. And thus, so she couldn't feel inferior she had made her oldest and closest friend to feel exactly like that.

"It doesn't matter," Elyon said in a harsh voice. "I'm done with you and I'm done with everyone lying to me, no matter if it's you or my false parents. I think I'll try my luck with this Meridian; at least they seem to be honest there. At least I've got a _real_ family there."

"Elyon," Will intervened in the conversation once more. "Your brother's an insane tyrant, not even the people that fight for him stand him. He doesn't want you because he misses you; he wants you for your power!"

For a moment, Will thought she had been able to break through Elyon's pain and get to her, that the lost Princess was going to accept the truth. Doubt was there for a few seconds, but in the end it disappeared, leaving nothing behind. After all, the words of Will Vandom, well founded as they might have been, were weak in comparison with the feelings of betrayal and anger of Elyon, all of them strengthened thanks to the Ritual of Amalgamation and Cedric's manipulations.

"I don't believe you," Elyon said coldly, clenching her fists. "And it's funny, that you mention _my_ power," remembering what she had felt during the ambush the pair of flying gargoyles had perpetrated on Cedric and her, her fists glowed in white, as did her eyes, her hair elevating upwards; " ** _because I bet I'm stronger than you_**."

* * *

 _Kill him! Kill him and flay him! Oh, wouldn't his pelt look incredible hanging from a wall in the Infinite City?!_

 _Shut your damn mouth, Abaddon_ ; Caleb thought, fighting both Cedric and the growing voice in his head. He didn't know how much longer he could last with the sword unsheathed before the marks started to grow and cover his entire body in black, transforming him into the Berserker once more.

 _Yes, how long will you last, human? This battle, the next, the next one to that perhaps? A day, a week, a month or a year? It doesn't matter_. Caleb could almost see the grin in the demon's face. _You shall be mine, and then… then everyone will know why I was known as the Prince of Sheol associated with Wrath_.

 _Prince of Sheol? You are nothing but a memory_ ; Caleb thought, remembering the words of Thanatos own memory.

 _Careful now, boy_ ; Abaddon replied in a funny tone.

 _Wha-_ Caleb thought back; just to get hit by one of Cedric's claws, sending him meters away from the snake. _Damn it!_

Cedric hissed triumphantly and then shifted his attention towards the three Guardians flying around him. The Shapeshifter wasn't exactly unharmed, however. He had several bleeding wounds all over his body; that would be in a much worse condition if it wasn't for the healing factor that all Shapeshifters of the Reptilian variety shared. Nonetheless, even the strongest of healing factors had its limits. One lucky attack that pierced his brain or any wound that destroyed any of his internal organs completely, and he would perish. But of course, his size and experience were enough to avoid getting a fatal wound most of the time, considering his usual enemies were human-sized, were on foot and some of their weapons couldn't even penetrate his scales. The three Guardians he was facing, however, were unharmed and didn't seem to be willing to stop shooting their elements at him, and those clearly could pierce through his scales.

"Isssss thisssss the best you can do, Guardiansssss?" the Shapeshifter hissed.

"Wanna see my best?!" he heard.

Practically in front of him, the wolf-girl had shifted back into her human form, her palms glowing with a blood-red aura. Cedric thought of it as a joke, but then he felt an enormous amount of pain coursing through his body. He fought back a scream of pain, bending over himself, scaly palms against the ground.

"W-What did you… do to me?!" Cedric shrieked. His veins, his… his blood! It felt as if it was burning! It was agonizing! It needed to stop, now!

"Turns out that, while you were playing bookseller;" Jade said as Taranee, Irma and Hay Lin descended from the skies and Caleb joined them, the rebel leader sheathing the Sword of the Berserker and the black marks disappearing from his body; "I was learning new tricks. You wanna see what I can do to your body now? Wanna see what happens if I tell your blood to get into your lungs? If not, then shift back to human. _Now_."

 _Christ, and I thought she couldn't get scarier than when she killed Tharquin;_ Irma thought, opting for not voicing her opinion.

With a hiss, Cedric obeyed and started to shift back into his human guise, becoming smaller and smaller, losing the scales and the tail until he looked like a blond man once again. The wounds over his body had almost healed by now, looking more like scars than actual wounds.

"You lost," Caleb told him. The rebel leader was panting, the empowering effects of the Sword of Thanatos quickly leaving him once he had sheathed the blade. He needed more practice, and to be fair, Cedric was far more useful as a prisoner than dead, considering the Mage's words about him being in league with Daolon Wong and Servantis' information regarding the Shapeshifter's role in court.

"I lost? Are you sure?" Cedric taunted them. "I believe that I won."

"We kicked your ass, you creeper!" Irma declared, pointing a finger towards Cedric.

"And yet I just see three Guardians here," Cedric said in a smug tone. "Uhm… now with whom did you leave the other two?"

Before any of the girls or the boy could say anything else, two figures flew over them, falling to the ground. They were Will and Cornelia, both of them fighting to come to their feet.

"Oh look, the victorious heroines;" Cedric mocked them.

"Girls!" Taranee shouted in concern, flying towards them alongside Hay Lin, she and the Air Guardian helping the Earth Guardian and the Keeper of the Heart to stand up.

"I… We tried to convince her, but she doesn't want to listen…" Will was able to say.

"Uhm, guys?" everyone heard Irma's voice. "We may've got a huge problem here!"

Something was bright. For a moment, all of them were blinded, their eyes getting accustomed to the sudden brightness. Only then they noticed that the source of light was human shaped, and that it was a shape all of them were familiar with. It was Elyon, the girl literally glowing, as if she were a walking, human-shaped white star. It was a beautiful sight, and also a terrifying one. Elyon looked inhuman, and for some reason all of the people in that street that moonless and starless night understood then that this girl was stronger than them all.

" ** _Stay away from him!_** " Elyon ordered, her voice now enough to make the entire street, nearby building and even the skyscrapers in the distance to tremble.

"Oh Jesus, her voice…" a terrified Irma whispered.

"Elyon, calm down;" Jade said with worry, both for the Princess and for the entirety of Heatherfield. Meanwhile, Caleb gripped the hilt of the cursed blade once more, not sure if using it two times in a row would be safe for either him or his friends.

" ** _I said…_** " Elyon declared, pointing her glowing palms towards them. " ** _AWAY!_** "

Caleb, Irma and Jade were hit by a shockwave of purely white Raw Magic, which hoisted them in the air and sent them in the same direction the other four Guardians were, colliding with them. All seven members of the party went to the ground. The Guardians rose in the air shortly afterwards, while Jade helped Caleb to incorporate. They weren't very sure of what to do. None of the girls wanted to fight with Elyon, but none were sure they were looking at Elyon anymore.

" ** _All of you,_** " the Princess declared in her nightmarish, echoing voice. Her body rose a meter in the air, something that the girl didn't seem aware of. " ** _Get DOWN! And don't MOVE!_** "

Another shockwave of pure Raw Magic hit them, this time originating not from the Princess' palms but from her chest, as if it had been born in the core of her own self, or more accurately, her Heart. It felt very similar as when Wong had hit them all with that gravity spell, so many months ago, in that building lot. Except this time it felt like it had been increased by a hundredfold, crushing the seven of them under a magic wave of pure light, the shockwave expanding over the whole street until the entire place was under some kind of dome of energy, another tremor shacking the ground, this one going past the street and expanding over the entire city, making every corner of Heatherfield to tremble without knowing why. And the Princess hadn't even _tried_ to do that, she hadn't even _wanted_ to do that. And yet, thus it ended that night's clash. With the five Guardians of Kandrakar, Jade Chan and Caleb, son of Julian; inside a crater on street, fighting to maintain their consciousness, completely defeated.

Such was the power of a Heart. Such was the power of gods.

In the midst of this destruction was Cedric Ludmoore. The man had been freed from Jade's Blood-Chi Magic in the moment Elyon had hit her with her powers, the Snake of Cavigor deciding to step aside and let the Princess deal with the Guardians and their associates in her own. And she hadn't disappointed, had she? Cedric had never had the privilege of seeing a Heart-wielder in action before, but even he had to admit it was a breathtaking and terrifying sight. For not speaking about the sensation it produced. It was as if he was an ant standing near a sun. As Elyon descended to the ground once more, the glow around her body fading, she started to wobble, Cedric quickly moving to her side in order to catch her before she fell. The girl, now completely returned to her normal self, looked in confusion at the street.

"D-Did I do this?" she asked remorsefully, half scared of herself, half amazed at her own might.

"Yes, you did;" Cedric told her with pride. "You will have to practice with your powers in order to hone your skills, your Highness; but I must say you are really talented. Now, let us go; before it's too late."

"E-ly… on…" the straw blonde heard a weak voice calling for her. Looking behind she saw Cornelia, the Earth Guardian and the other girls having somehow managed to stand up.

The Princess of Meridian dedicated one last contemptuous look at the rest of the teenagers assembled in the trashed street, her former friends… and the boy called Caleb.

"Goodbye… _friends_." She said the last word as sarcastically as possible, her voice dripping with venom and bitterness.

The last thing Cornelia Hale saw before losing consciousness was the image of Cedric and Elyon running inside Ye Olde Book Shop, a flash of light illuminating the bookstore's insides, or at least so it seemed to the Earth Guardian from outside. And so, they were gone. The next thing Cornelia knew she was enveloped by a flash of pink light.

* * *

 ** _Sixteen minutes later_**

Jackie Chan had driven as fast as he could without risking having an accident; pressed by the earthquake that had hit the entire city while they were moving from the Browns' house to the place where Jade had told them the girls and Caleb were going. Yet when he, Viper and Tohru had arrived they hadn't found an ongoing fight or anything similar, but the Guardians of Kandrakar and Jade back in their human forms alongside Caleb, all of them soundly defeated.

He ran towards his niece's side, helping her to incorporate, asking how she was, and checking if she was fatally injured. There were several bruises over her body, her nose bleeding slightly. He knew it was nothing her Shapeshifter condition couldn't take care of, but that didn't do anything to lessen his worrying. Meanwhile, Tohru tended to the five Guardians, while Viper helped Caleb to his feet.

"What happened here?" Jackie asked of Jade, the girl rubbing the side of her head.

"Elyon happened," Jade muttered.

"I think we got a firsthand impression of what a Heart can do…" Hay Lin complained, rubbing her back. "It was like when Phobos hit us with his powers in the dungeons, or when Wong used that weird magic with us… but stronger, way stronger. Oh, my poor little body…"

"And where is she?" Tohru inquired. "Where is Elyon? Where is the Princess?"

"She's… she's gone;" Cornelia was able to say.

"Damn it…" Will cursed in a low voice. "We lost."

* * *

 ** _Across the Veil; Meridian, the Castle_**

In any other day, in any other _and normal_ day; Elyon Brown would be getting ready to prepare things for dinner alongside her… no-parents? False parents? She needed to find a term to refer to them. But anyway, she would have been hungry, or tired, or both. But not today; for today was a completely different thing and the only emotion Elyon felt was amazement.

Cedric had taken her to his bookstore, and there he had taken her hand and touched a book in the one of the shelves. Elyon had been wrapped in light and then the world around her had dissolved, letting way for a new one. They had first appeared in a huge, magnificent library, way bigger than any room Elyon had been during her entire life. Cedric had promised her that she would be able to pick any books she wanted from here… later on. Then he had taken her to the halls of this place (this… this castle!) and her amazement hadn't done anything but increase. Oh, the walls were of a pure white marble, torches lighting the way, sculptures here and there, everything was perfect and beautiful! Any feeling of doubt or remorse she could have been feeling was quickly brushed away in the moment she gave more than two steps into the castle.

While the girl marveled at the sights, Cedric, walking a few steps behind her, looked at the place with suspicious eyes. So Phobos had been smart enough to realize that the gloomy, dark and dismal palace wasn't the best to house the deceived Princess. Cedric wondered if this was how the insides of the palace looked back in the times of Queen Weira. The Prince must had casted a massive glamour around the zone, a feat that surely had cost him a lot of the precious energy he spent so much time siphoning into himself.

 _Careful, Phobos_ ; Cedric thought; _we don't want you exhausting your reserves before facing Wong_. "Turn right now, your Highness;" he addressed the Princess.

Elyon did as told, turning around a corner and accessing an even bigger hall. It was even more brilliant than the ones she had walked before, with windows of bluish glass at one side and paintings at the other hanging from the wall.

 _An art gallery?_ Elyon thought. _Is this like… a private art gallery?_

She had been in art galleries before. She and Hay Lin had once spent an entire afternoon in a museum just to admire the painting techniques used in different pieces. Hay Lin… had Elyon acted fairly with her? Or with any other of the girls? Leaving them in that trashed street… No, no! She won't be feeling guilty about this! They had lied to her, and attacked Cedric! They were helping the people who wanted to usurp her brother!

"Ah," she heard Cedric, the man putting a hand over her shoulder in order to stop her. "There he is," he said, pointing onward.

Elyon focused her entire attention on the figure at the end of the large hall. A tall man standing with his back turned against them, dressed in a long, regal robe of red and black, an equally regal looking crown-like hat of the same colors over his head. She couldn't see his face, but yes the long mane of pale shade of blond hair that fell over his back.

"Prince Phobos," Cedric announced. "It is a pleasure for me to introduce you to Elyon Escanor, your sister."

 _My brother…_ Elyon thought with both glee and nervousness.

A good definition for Prince Phobos could be that he wasn't the nicest man to have around. If you actually took your time to ask anyone, they would tell you that that definition was an understatement. Phobos Escanor wasn't humble, patient, or particularly virtuous in any sense. He was arrogant, very quick to anger and perhaps too full of himself for his own good. However, and contrary to the perception of many of those who worked closest to him, he wasn't stupid. People tend to mistake madness with stupidity, and that should be always considered an error that can very easily become a fatal one. Phobos was aware of the lies his underling had fed his sister, and thus he had taken matters in his own hands in order to act according to how those lies had described him. Mad and incompetent ruler he may be…

 _At long last…_ "Elyon!" Phobos said, turning around, his lips forming a happy and warm smile. "Oh, is so good to have you finally back, dear sister!"

Phobos Escanor could be a surprisingly good actor. Only Cedric seemed to take notice of how, when his lips smiled, his eyes did not. And even so, the Shapeshifter found himself surprised. Perhaps Phobos had skills the Ludmoore middle brother hadn't given him credit for. Then again, what the Prince did was basically sit in his throne all day, so it's not that there were a lot of opportunities to see how he would unwind in different situations.

"Brother?" Elyon asked, finally seeing his face as he walked towards them. His eyes were of the same grayish blue as hers, the face was also similar, albeit the features were more mature and rougher, understandable considering the Prince's age and gender in comparison with Elyon's. And then there was the goatee. She had to admit that he looked surprisingly handsome, exactly like how she had imagined a Prince of a story would be; a thought that she discarded once she remembered that this man was her brother. Ew, ew, ew…

Phobos reached her and looked at the girl, having similar thoughts to the ones Elyon had had about him. Similar hair, similar eyes… petite and weak, that's how the girl looked in his eyes. Worse still, she looked too similar to…

 _To him, and her_ ; Phobos thought. He was thinking, of course, about his late parents, Queen Weira and Royal Consort Zanden. She looked a lot like them, with his hair and nose, and her face. He supposed she would also develop her frame, if given time. Anyway, the hatefulness she had awoken in him wasn't something to show now; because the Heart of Meridian was there, inside of her, waiting for him to claim it. And he couldn't do so if his sister hated him, could he?

So instead, when Elyon extended her arms and hugged him, he fought the urge to shove her aside, pin her to the wall with his magic and torture her with his powers, answering her hug with one of his own. The sensation felt strange, not the one of hugging, but yes of touching another living being. He didn't even bother to notice how her sister was crying out of pure happiness against his chest, at least not until they separated. He frowned while Elyon rubbed her eyes, worrying that she would have dirtied his clothes. Once the Princess dried her tears, he smiled at her again.

"Sister, if you could accompany me," Phobos addressed her. "I have thirteen years of your life I would want to know."

"O-Okay," the girl retorted after a sob. "But what about Cedric?"

"Do not worry, your Highness;" Cedric told her, bowing his head to the pair of Escanor royals. "I have other duties to attend to, and I believe it would be better to let your brother and you to… know each other better, wouldn't you agree, my liege?"

"Indeed, Cedric;" Phobos told the Shapeshifter. "And good job," he added with a grin while taking his sister by the hand; both of them walking away from the Prince. As for the Snake of Cavigor, he left in the opposite direction.

* * *

 ** _Lord Cedric's chambers_**

Cedric's chambers in the castle weren't exactly austere, albeit they were far less bombastic than what anyone would expect from Prince Phobos' second in command. The room was large, befitting his status within court; with an equally large balcony from which one could 'appreciate' one of the inner gardens of black roses that the Prince had created.

There was quite a big bed, with a bedside table. A larger, round table occupied the room's center. No bookshelves here, there was no need since he could go to the castle's library if he desired to have a good read. Funnily enough, he had to sneak actual works of literature from Earth via his older brother, since the majority of what the palace's library housed were books describing meridianite history, several sorceries, and then some poems, songs or tales around the repetitive theme of Escanor, Queen Leryn and the Four Knights; and their respective triumphs against their enemies. However, right now there was only one book that interested him.

"I know you are there," Cedric whispered, approaching the balcony and closing its doors. Another thing he liked about his chambers? He had made sure that the Whisperers, little flower-like little creatures born of the Prince's paranoia, neither could hear nor see him here. "You still have much to learn before sneaking up on me."

"You can't blame a girl for trying," an animalistic voice said from the ceiling, and moments after Miranda descended from it, hanging from a spider thread in her spider-like form. Once she touched the floor, she reverted back to her human guise, dressed in her usual meridianite attire. "You are back."

"I am," Cedric said, looking at her blue eyes. Moments later, Miranda rushed towards him and hugged him, and in contrast with what Phobos had done with Elyon, Cedric welcomed the gesture right away; embracing Miranda tightly. God, she was adorable! And beautiful! And in contrast with all the members of the female gender that had showed interest on Cedric over the years, which weren't exactly few, she had a brain, a taste for literature! But oh, the best part was the predatory look on her eyes. He still remembered the day he had found her, during one of his raids against a group of angry peasants that may or may not have been rebels. He was, of course, in his snake form, creeping over the land, a platoon of guards at his back. He had felt something then, a scent of rotting meat in the air, the sensation someone was watching them. He had ordered the guards to stand away, and he had investigated on his own. He had ended tracking the scent to a cave, where he had found a young Miranda in her spider form. He had told her he wasn't her enemy, partly because he had been impressed by the high numbers of cocoons hanging from the ceiling, either containing animals she had hunted for food or… people perhaps? The scents were mixed, so he hadn't been able to discern which cocoon contained what. He had shifted back to his human form, and had said ' _I show you mine, you show me yours_.' She did, revealing herself as a little girl. And yet that look had remained there, even if she must have known that she didn't stand a chance against him. A look that contemplated him and saw not an enemy, but a prey. Just another animal. Even then, Cedric had liked that look. So he had taken her with him, and into the Prince's service, out of pragmatism, in order to use her. If he had been able to predict back then he would be falling in love…

"I missed you," Miranda said between his arms. When they separated, both were smiling. "You succeeded?"

"Of course," Cedric answered her. "You doubted me?"

"Not even for a second;" Miranda declared.

"Did you have any problems with the pair of Galhots?"

"No," Miranda answered. "I sent them to Cavigor, just as you entrusted. The pair of little flies didn't even try to fight." Then she searched inside her clothing, extracting a book with red covers. "I believe it's time, then?"

"Yes," Cedric answered, taking the book into his hands. The Princess had been taken, the Rebellion grew stronger day by day, and Wong was in the verge of making his move. "It's time for this family to conclude Phase One."

* * *

 ** _Across the Veil; Ludmoore manor_**

Charles was having a simple dinner composed of a salad and a fried fish, a half-emptied bottle of wine at his left; when he sensed someone writing a message in the Red Book. He stopped eating, cleaning his mouth and summoning his own tome. As he opened it, he recognized the handwriting as Cedric's, which meant that his brother was once again inside the castle. He read the words Cedric had written: ' _Princess secured. Wong's confidence secured. Everything is ready to enter the last third of Phase One_.'

"Excellent," Charles declared, sipping from his glass of wine. How much time it would take for Phase One to be completed in its totality? Perhaps a month? Two, maybe? It didn't matter, the family had waited for centuries, and they could wait for a handful of weeks more. "Well, time to finally stop with the neutrality and pick a side in this war…"

With his left index finger extended, he wrote a single phrase in the book using a very simple spell and a very little amount of his Raw Magic. As he finished, the following words could be read in the page:

' _Convince the Prince to attack this manor and me_.'

* * *

 ** _A day later; Across the Veil; Infinite City; morning_**

They had had a hard time finding a Portal for him, Caleb passing the last day as he usually did while being on Earth, sleeping in that… how was it called again? _'Couch'_ , in the Silver Dragon's basement. Lady Yan Lin always tended to apologize for not being able to offer him something better, but he always retorted that it was a considerable improvement over all the places he had slept in during the war. Sword of Thanatos hanging from his belt and contained in the sheath, the rebel leader clenched his fist a couple of times in front of his face, feeling the strength in each of his fingers. His body still felt sore from the battle from a day ago, and not from Cedric's strikes, but from the girl's… the _Princess'_ (he corrected himself) magic. That power… he hadn't seen or felt anything like that before, not even when he had been captured by the Snake and brought into Phobos' presence. Not even when he and the girls had faced down Wong. So that was the power of a Heart, right? The power of the Light of Meridian. If an untrained girl could do so much damage… what could experienced sorcerers like Phobos or Wong do with it? And that wasn't the worst part, no. The worst part was that the rightful heir to Meridian's throne, the one who was supposed to take the crown from her mad brother; was now on his side. This meant that the ties between the remaining members of the nobility and the crown would probably be strengthened, and that some parts of the smallfolk would start supporting the Prince's court just because the Light of Meridian was part of it now. It would be necessary to inform and convince them of the fact that Phobos was planning to strip her of said powers in order to add them to his own.

As he walked towards the Mage's workshop, his mind started to think about how to solve this problem. The most ideal solution would be for the Princess to change sides and join them… but that seemed nearly impossible right now. Perhaps there was a way to exploit Wong's treacherous intentions towards the Prince? Maybe there was some way of unveiling Cedric's lies? He would have to discuss it with the rest members of the Small Council, but right now, he needed to report.

He found the Mage in her workshop, as he usually did when searching her. She noticed him entering without having to turn around from whatever she was doing, inspecting a vial containing a strange liquid that didn't stop from changing color, many vials around it with similar, but not the same, liquids. Was the Mage trying to reproduce whatever was in the vial?

"Young Caleb," the 'Mage' addressed him, turning around to see. "How did everything on Earth unfold?"

Caleb evaded the ancient woman's gaze, instead looking at the ground. "We… failed, Mage."

The 'Mage' didn't utter any other word. Instead, she closed her eyes, letting the boy know that she understood. Behind her glamour, however, Nerissa Crossnic was cursing every single being in existence.

 _Blast! This complicates things even more_ , the fallen Guardian thought. _Well, as they say, if you want something done right... It's better if I take matters in my own hands regarding Wong._

* * *

 ** _Across the Veil, a cafeteria on Heatherfield_**

" _Continuing with the reports on the earthquake that shook the city yesterday in the night, the police and several other authorities have declared that the earthquake wasn't caused by any movement of a tectonic plate. Investigations continue to unravel what the real origin of the tremor was, still not discarding any other explanation. While the experts say there is no risk of our city suffering any more tremors, the earthquake has caused severe damage to the city's centre, both in the infrastructure of numerous buildings and in some sections of the water network. Fortunately, there hasn't been any fatal victims, but yes numerous injured. We can only be grateful that no hospital was damaged to such an extent that it wasn't available. Contrary to expectations, schools and the university are still opened today due to not being in the proximities of the epicenter of the earthquake. Costs in damages ascend to…_ "

"Danny, could you please turn that thing off?" an elderly, balding man sporting a pair of old glasses asked of the bartender. Only they and another were at the cafeteria at this hour of the morning, but it was better that way. It left them with time to talk. "I have enough with all the animals going crazy last night due to the earth playing games with us."

"You know what they say, Mr. Olsen;" the bartender replied, a young man in his twenties; with slightly tanned white skin and dark hair kept into a small ponytail. His body was slim yet somehow muscular, albeit not to the extreme to be called bulky. It was clear that the boy trained, but not to the extreme of obsession or dedication. "Animals' got that sixth sense thing going on."

"Yes, I suppose it's normal;" Herbert Olden replied. "However, it's really strange. I have been living in Heatherfield since I moved when I was a boy, and there's not been any earthquake ever."

"There's a first time for anything;" a blond man with tanned skin and glasses by the end of the bar said then, taking a bite from a donut he was eating alongside an emptied cup of coffee. "But I've been in town for only a couple of weeks." He finished the donut and rose to his feet, approaching Herbert. "Raphael Silla, it's a pleasure;" he introduced himself, offering a hand.

"Herbert Olsen," the elder said, shaking it with pleasure. "And this fine young man here is Daniel Ashcroft, but everyone calls him Danny."

"Hey there, fella;" Danny said, shaking the man's hand. "Say, never see people this early around here except Mr. Olsen and me. How come are you here?"

"Coffee's good," Silla answered. "And I'm new to the city, and I work from dawn to dusk. This place's one of the places that opens earliest in town. And with the whole thing about the earthquake from yesterday, the only one opened now."

"Yeah, it was a big, scary surprise for everyone;" Danny said, rubbing his neck. "Can't believe Sheffield's opened today. I even told Nigel that he could skip classes today, but he said he had to talk with your grandkid about something regarding their band."

"Oh, then I don't know anything;" Mr. Olsen replied with a small chuckle. "I never understood that new music every youngster seems to like now. Rock, punk… and let's not start with all those 'House' and 'Electro' styles, or whatever they're called. Whatever happened to blues? I still maintain it's the best thing that's ever been created in this country."

"Now that's a wise man speaking!" Silla spoke, sharing a laugh with the old man. "So your kids go to this Sheffield?"

"Not exactly _our_ kids, though you could call them that. My lil' bro Nigel and Mr. Olsen's grandson, Matt;" Danny answered. "And better if they put effort into it. If I see them slaking around, I'll put them both to work with the dishes instead of a guitar."

Silla laughed again. "Alright, alright… it was nice meeting you too;" the man glanced at his clock. "But I better get going. Until tomorrow at the same hour, I suppose. But before I go…" Silla said, leaning against the bar. "This Sheffield place… do you know if they may be looking for some new computer teachers?"

* * *

 ** _Sheffield Institute; several hours later_**

"And that's the reason Russia is usually called a ' _giant with feet of clay_ ' when referring to the socio-economic situation it was in before the Bolshevik Revolution;" Dean Collins explained over a Power Point that showcased a map of Russia during the early years of the twentieth century; "during the rule of the Tsar Nicholas II and World War I. Any questions?" Once the teacher finished his explanation, he clapped his hands and looked over his students. Uriah Dunn, a fifteen year old student (and a fairly problematic one) with a slim frame and spiky, auburn hair; was playing with his phone, as were some of the other kids. The ones who weren't didn't seem to be very motivated to actually question any of his words. He supposed it was normal, after the tremor from yesterday nobody would be thinking about paying attention in class. Who the hell in the city hall had had the brilliant idea of keeping schools opened after what had happened last night? "Alright, let's continue."

As Dean Collins proceeded with the lesson, Will Vandom glanced outside the window. A sunny day, contrasting the rainy one from yesterday, could be seen beyond the glass. She fought back a yawn, product not of his mother's boyfriend's explanation, but of her own tiredness. The battle from the night before had been brutal, and she hadn't been able to sleep as much as she supposed she needed to. Whoever had had the idea of making Guardians out of teenage girls from Earth didn't seem to have had how modern school would work into consideration. She glanced at the wall-clock that hanged over the monitor in which Professor Collins was projecting the Power Point. Alright, it was almost time for the meeting. Her eyes travelled then to Cornelia Hale, the blonde sitting a couple of desks away from her, also looking at the window, lost in her own thoughts.

 _God, please let the bell ring already_ ; Will thought. Heaven seemed to answer her pleas several minutes later, when the class ended.

"Uh?" the ginger haired teacher muttered. "I suppose I lost track of time. Alright, everybody, this was our last class before Spring Break. I hope you all enjoy this time apart from each other. Remember to do the homework I assigned you!"

* * *

 ** _After classes_**

"Martin, I told you once, and I don't like repeating me;" Irma lair told the bespectacled boy following in her steps through the halls of Sheffield, both of them carrying their backpacks. "Don't you get the meaning of 'No'? It's just two words!"

"C'mon Irma, you like all this radio stuff almost as much as me!" Martin said. "It'll be fun!"

Irma mumbled something between her teeth, rolling her eyes. True, she liked everything related to radio, she liked music, and cables, and hardware... and it'd be good to have a distraction after... everything that had happened. "Fine... but if this is some kind of plan to stay near me, I swear I'm gonna punch you!"

"Promise!" the boy said, rising one hand as if he was under an oath.

Afterwards the brunette walked away and towards the gates of the institute. There she reunited with her friends, and all six of them took off from Sheffield. The lot remained in silence for far longer than any other day.

"So... anyone else's grounded?" the Water Guardian asked, breaking the silence.

"Everyone," Taranee answered. "Up until spring breaks starts next week."

"Even you?" Irma asked of Jade as they turned around a corner and into an alley in order to change from one of the main streets to the others.

"Uncle Jackie said it's better if we don't raise suspicions;" the Chan girl answered. "But I think he just wants to keep a close eye on me. You know, 'cause Elyon mopped the floor with us."

"My mom wasn't exactly happy when I arrived late after an earthquake;" the Fire Guardian told her. "At least Cornelia, Hay Lin and you have someone to talk to about all this. Will, Irma and I just have to make some excuse, and I think my family's starting to grow suspicious of me."

"What do we do now?" Hay Lin asked of the group. "About Elyon, and Meridian..."

"This is all my fault."

And there it was. Everyone turned around to look at Cornelia, the blond having stopped, standing a few feet away from the rest of the group. It would be a lie if any of the other girls said that they weren't expecting this.

"Cornelia, this is not your fault;" Will told her, putting a lot of emphasis in the not. "This is Phobos' fault, and Cedric's. It'd be stupid to put the blame on Elyon or you."

"But you heard her," the blonde said. "When we were fighting… If I had been a better friend, if I hadn't been so selfish, if I hadn't been such a bitch just to appear so god damn perfect!"

"Cornelia, you're not selfish;" Will told the blonde, giving a couple of steps towards her and facing the Earth Guardian eye to eye. "And you're not a bad friend either. The fact that you're saying those words proves it. And thinking about 'what ifs' it's not going to help us."

"I know, I know…" Cornelia said, her eyes jumping from one girl to another. "This is the moment when you tell me I'm not a bitch."

"You were kind of bitchy, Corny;" Irma said. "When at your worst."

"And kind of a meanie in normal days," Hay Lin contributed.

"Uh, uh! And you sounded kind of egotistical, narcissistic, superficial…" Jade started to list.

"Okay, okay; I get it!" Cornelia stopped them. "I'm not the best girl in the world, I'm not gonna win a prize for good behavior, I'm not trying. But… look, I told Caleb this as well; that me isn't me. I mean, I do like winning, I do like being pretty, but… that whole 'I'm the best' thing that I had going on was just…"

"A shield?" Taranee asked. "To not feel vulnerable, because you thought you had to meet some standard?"

"Yeah," Cornelia answered plainly to the black girl. "But I thought that Elyon understood that. She's my best friend, for crying out loud."

"Did… did you ever told Elyon this that you're telling us?" Taranee asked again, and this time Cornelia didn't answer right away.

"No," the Earth Guardian replied after a while. No, of course not. She had kept everything to herself, every weakness, every doubt.

"Then you'll tell her when we save her," Will said then with determination. "Because that's what we're going to do."

"And the sooner, the better;" Irma said. "How long do you think it's gonna take my dad or any other cop to realize the Browns just disappeared in thin air?"

"Yeah, and how exactly do we rescue a Princess that doesn't want to get rescued?" Jade inquired. "Because I'm not too much into the idea of getting into Elyon's bad side again. Even worse, how do we know that Phobos doesn't have the Heart of Meridian already?"

"My grandma said that a Heart has to be freely given to another;" Hay Lin explained. "I suppose that Elyon would get suspicious if Phobos asked her for her super-powers after meeting her for the first time."

"If Phobos had the Heart of Meridian we'd already know," Will declared.

"Yeah, I bet Princey wouldn't let go of the opportunity to show off his new power;" Irma corroborated.

"And we also have to have in account that Wong and Cedric are planning to betray him and get Elyon's power… somehow;" Will continued, taking a hand to her chin. "Something's starting to rub me the wrong way about Cedric."

"What, the whole creeper thing he got going on with Elyon, or the fact he's totally chill with betraying Phobos?" Jade asked.

"Both," Will said, making the Chan girl to smirk. "Remember what Servantis told us? That Cedric's the one rising taxes, that he's the one that convinced Phobos to attack Zamballa? Caleb told us he's the one normally directing executions on the Capital. That doesn't seem the most efficient way to maintain a steady regime. And now he jumps into Wong's boat at the first opportunity? Seems… weird."

"You think Cedric's planned all this from the beginning?" Cornelia asked, letting her mind go away from Elyon for a second. "Betraying Phobos?" her mind went back to Elyon then. "You don't think… he's the one planning to get the Heart of Meridian?"

"I don't know," Will declared. "But this war just got much more complicated."

* * *

 ** _Across the Veil; Cavigor Prison; four days later_**

Miriael had thought that this would be worse. It was bad, don't get her wrong, but she had thought they would separate her husband from her, put each in a different cell and then chain them both to the walls, being fed only the necessary amount of water and food to not die from starvation. However, here they were both her an Alborn; sharing a cell that even incorporated a bed, after being taken by a Beast girl and a dozen of Lurdens, back in their homeworld and then thrown into a cage that had been brought by carriage to the infamous, inescapable Cavigor Prison. The fortress had been built centuries ago in a rock formation surrounded by a deep ravine, the only accessing point a simple bridge, and then the workers had dig a cylindrical hole in the earth, kilometers of galleries full of cells having been crafted in the walls, elevators and almost ten minutes needed to reach the bottom. To that you had to add two thousand guards operating the prison, some of them Shapeshifters, since apparently Cavigor had never had any standard in that regard. How could any respectable soldier work with those Beasts? Then again, Phobos' soldiers haven't struck her as respectable in any sense.

Speaking of the bottom, that's were Alborn and her had been imprisoned. Now both of them sat side by side over their small bed, thinking about what had happened. Their little girl… lost. And now that they had finally come back to their world, they had been thrown into the most impenetrable dungeon of Meridian.

"We should have told her," Miriael whispered.

"I know," Alborn declared. "I was so stupid."

"No, no; I must take part of the blame too;" Miriael comforted him, rubbing his back. "If we had been more careful… so many years on Earth perhaps made us too confident. I should have been more alert."

"Oh, would you two please shut up?! Both of you're to blame, okay?"

Both Miriael and Alborn froze upon the sentence. The two of them stood up from the bed and rushed to the cell's bars. In front of their cell there was just another one, its insides coated in darkness. It was impossible to see who was inside, so both had supposed there wasn't anyone there. As it turned out, they had been wrong.

"Who… who is there? Show yourself!" Alborn demanded.

"Or what?" the voice replied into a smug tone. "You're gonna come here and make me? I think you should give a better use to that strength if you could rip off these bars."

"My husband… wasn't trying to sound impolite," Miriael said in a much softer and nicer tone than Alborn's. "We have had… quite a horrible experience. We didn't know there was anyone else this low."

"Yeah, bottom's the most difficult part of here to get out or into;" the voice told her. "Which means you're either very important, very dangerous, or both. And playing the nice girl card won't do you any favors, I can't go to the bars; since I'm chained to the walls. Arms, legs, neck, tail… these bastards don't want me getting out. At least they got the decency to give me meat and water."

"Tail?" Alborn asked in whisper.

"What did you do to be here?" Miriael asked the stranger.

"Came from another planet to find some guys in order to do a job;" the stranger explained. "Turns out, the local authorities didn't like my… _ways_ of testing the strength and resistance of the locals. Man, as if any of them hadn't evr seen a bit of fire in their lives."

"How… how long ago was this?" Alborn asked.

"Fifteen, maybe sixteen years?" the stranger said dubious. "It's hard to count in here. What did you two do?"

 _Fire?_ "Wait, I… I know who you are!" Alborn declared, remembering some reports from the officers that had come from the borders of the kingdom when he was in service of Queen Weira. "You are that… monster, that creature that was pillaging across the outer ring almost two decades ago! You burned down entire villages! And then you stole whatever hadn't been reduced to ashes!"

"Ah, so my reputation precedes me, eh?" the voice replied, and then it laughed. "Nothing personal, really. I made some dealing with a bunch of bandits. If I weakened the outer ring so they could raid villages easier, they'd help me with my business. If it wasn't for that damn snake and the rest of those Changelings, or whatever you call them here… I'd gotten away with it. Burned down two platoons of those guards before they took me down, and killed two out of five of those Changelings that came with the snake too."

 _Cedric detained this one?_ Miriael wondered with surprise. "You monster! You are nothing but a criminal!"

"Face it, we're all criminals here;" the voice replied funnily. "And if you're going to call me something…"

"Then call me Drago."

* * *

 ** _The Castle, two days later_**

Elyon Escanor couldn't feel any happier. And yes, that was how she was referring to herself now. Elyon _Escanor_ , not Brown. Her brother had been educating her in her real family's history during these few days, on top of giving her some basic lessons about how to use her powers, mostly centered around controlling them for now. She had had real parents, grandparents, great-grandparents! All the way up until Escanor and Leryn, the first monarchs of Meridian, heroes in their own right! Oh, it felt so wonderful!

Of course, there were still some things she hadn't accustomed herself to. Her new clothing and her tiara were some of them, now the girl finding herself dressed in robes not very different from her brother's, except hers were of a light blue color. Having maids that insisted into preparing her clothes, her bath, her food and tended to every single one of her needs was another. But the baths were amazing! There was this room annexed to her royal chambers (which were enormous and incredibly pretty on their own) that was this big room made of marble with a gigantic bathtub in the middle! Oh, it was fantastic! Her brother accompanied her almost every time they moved around the castle, like a true gentleman would. And he was so nice! And they always ate together, and whatever she would ask, he would answer, and… and she was royalty! Royalty with super-powers!

"Princess?" she heard by the door. She was standing in one of the halls of the Castle, near a balcony from where you could see the entire Capital. In that balcony, her brother was giving a speech to the people… her people! And by said balcony's entrance stood Cedric, who was now smiling at her. He looked very different now than on Earth, his hair once again tied into a ponytail, but no glasses over his eyes. His robes were of an emerald type of green, reminiscent of his scales. "It's time," the Shapeshifter said, and with a deep breath, Elyon walked towards the balcony, Cedric going in first.

"And now, your Princess, Elyon Escanor!" Cedric announced her.

There weren't any cheers at first. The people below just looked up, and she looked down, dozens, hundreds, perhaps even thousands of people looking at her. It was difficult to discern any individual face from the lot, but Elyon knew why most of them wouldn't cheer. She had been away from this world since she was a baby, so of course some of these people wouldn't believe her being herself. She supposed there were some ones that had thought she had died back then. However, her dear brother had thought about everything.

"Sister," Phobos addressed her. "When you are ready."

With another deep breath, Elyon concentrated. At first it was difficult for her to find the power, but it had become easier with each day and each lesson. Now it was just a matter of minutes. The power, the Heart of Meridian, her brother had called it; came to her in a very similar fashion it had done days before, during the fights. Except this time she didn't intent to harm anyone, instead pointing her hands towards the yellowish sky. Her brother had told her that due to the war's intensity and the strange weapons used in it, Meridian (and especially the Capital) wasn't exactly in the best of shapes. Horrible as that reality must have been, it provided a perfect opportunity.

And thus Elyon concentrated and liberated a stream of magic towards the sky, impacting it and blinding every person for a couple of seconds. When she stopped, she could picture the smiles on Phobos and Cedric's faces without even looking at them. The sky was, once again, of the same blue as the ones on the rest of Meridian. Her brother had told her that it would only be a short-term solution, that only when the war had ended they could make long-lasting repairs to their world. But for a few hours, maybe until night, the sky would remain blue.

And then it came, at first low but gaining strength by the second, until it erupted. The crowd of commoners surrounding the castle broke into cheers and shouts of happiness. "Elyon Escanor! Princess Elyon! Light of Meridian!" that's what everyone was saying, and Elyon couldn't feel happier.

There, standing in that balcony, the girl felt happy, safe, important, special, needed and at home. Little did she know that all of it was nothing but a lie.

* * *

Below, distanced from the crowd, there were two men that weren't cheering. Not that what had happened hadn't surprised them, but their worry surpassed that emotion. One of them was Captain Lothar (returned from the outer ring shortly before), and the other one was Frost, the Hunter. The two of them had been curious about what the Prince had to announce, since he rarely made any announce by himself, instead leaving that to Cedric. Imagine their shock when the Prince had announced that his sister, the long lost Princess, had been retrieved from Earth. Of course, none of them had believed it at first, but all those doubts had been dissipated the moment she had used her magic.

"What are you going to do now?" the brute demanded of the Captain.

Lothar thought for a moment. "Take Crimson and ride to the Meridian Plains. Inform all the nobles gathered there of this. From there send a message to Archduchess Galiene. Tell them that…" his voice stopped for a few seconds, the man doubting his own words, as if he wasn't so sure if they were the truth, of it they were good or bad news.

"Tell them that the Princess has returned."

* * *

 _Beware of broken friendship. There is nothing more dangerous than making an enemy of those who were your friends, for they are the ones who know your every weakness and your every strength, and they will take advantage of them better than any other_.  Halinor Clarkson

* * *

 **A/N: Jesus, this was one long chapter. Ah, sweet teenage drama. Yeah, so this is how my version of how the whole Elyon goes to Meridian thing plays out. It's not only deception and the whole Ritual of Amalgamation thing, but also emotional turmoil and, yes; a bit of egoism and desire to be special. But let's be sincere here, has any teenager ever not wanted to be special, or better than his or her equals at least once? Elyon, like all the rest of this cast, has flaws, and we should allow her to have flaws in the same way we allow people like Will, Irma, Taranee, Cornelia, Hay Lin and Jade to have them. The reason I'm saying this is because one of the main reasons people criticize the cartoon version of Elyon is because they feel like she's an idiot that trusts Phobos when there are so much proof that she shouldn't. Elyon is naïve, and she's going to be portrayed like that (she thinks that being a Princess is all fun and games for now, and that's genuine) but she's going to mature across the story. Having written this long paragraph, I hope you all enjoyed this chapter. Please, leave a review, and until next time.**

 **Bye, bye!**


	22. Masquerade

**Disclaimer: I own neither the WITCH cartoon-show nor Jackie Chan Adventures; they are the property of their respective creators, writers, and producers.**

 **A/N: Hello everyone, and welcome back. Nothing to say here save for my usual thanks to all readers that take their sweet time to read through these large chapters and leave their opinion in the form of a review. To you all, you're amazing. So… this actually turned out as quite the enormous and surprising chapter. You'll read and see. Please, enjoy.**

* * *

Guardians, Wizards and Kung-Fu Fighters

Episode Twenty two

Masquerade

* * *

 ** _Earth; Louisiana_**

Tarakudo had to admit, this country, these United States; was kind of beautiful to the eye. A country which's shores were bathed in the salty waters of both the Atlantic and the Pacific Oceans, and with such a vast territory that you could find deserts, forests, mountains, canyons, and even frozen lands all in the same country. You could even find yourself in a swamp, which is where he was now; floating across the trees and over the muddy waters, only gaining the attention of some confused animals.

 _I know it to be here, somewhere…_ the King of all Oni thought, halting for a few seconds and concentrating. He had been searching for the last two Oni Mask that had yet to be discovered since the moment Ikki had been removed from his host, and he had been able to track one of them to this region. _There!_ Tarakudo thought with glee as he was able to feel the presence of one of his generals.

After a few more minutes of floating around, the Oni was able to reach his destination. It was a cabin, an old and normal cabin in the swamp, built at the side of a river. In any other circumstance, Tarakudo would have felt disappointed. However, he had grown accustomed to expect his Generals' imprisoned forms to be held in the most nonsensical of locations, instead of being held into enchanted shrines or fortified fortresses, protected by skilled warriors, just as his comrades' reputation deserved. Without further delay, he approached the cabin and entered by passing through one of the cabin's walls. Advantages of being in a semi-astral form.

The insides of the cabin were composed by a single, large room. A strong smell of incense impregnated the entire place. But it was what that room contained what gained most of Tarakudo's attention. Bizarre decorations and trinkets of all varieties were all over the place, from small and colorful voodoo dolls to both animal and human skulls; each one's flesh long gone, bone dried, old and yellowish. On top of it all, there were some strange devices around; product of humanity's modern age, no doubt. Cameras, microphones, wires... their presence only made an already weird place weirder. Upon first glance the King had thought this to be the hideout of some sorcerer (there was a faint feeling of magic here, beside his General's), but now he wasn't so sure.

"What is this place?" Tarakudo inquired aloud.

"It's the house of mystery! The home of the unknown! The palace of enigmas! Welcome to Ms. Kimber's Psychic Shack!"

Tarakudo was caught completely off guard by that sentence. Shortly after there was a poof of white smoke mere meters away from him, and after said smoke cleared, Tarakudo was greeted by a tall, slim, dark-skinned woman in her thirties, with curly dark brown hair and green eyes. Her attire consisted of a violet and red dress, golden bracelets, violet stones as earrings, a necklace made of dark brown beads and a green headband. After she appeared, she coughed a couple of times, waving away some remnants of the smoke.

"Augh, augh! I need to find something less harsh to the throat..." the woman, Ms. Kimber she had called herself, said between coughs. "Hello," she said casually to Tarakudo after that.

The King stared at her blankly for several moments, not really sure of how to react to what he had seen. Shaking his gigantic, ethereal head a bit; he spoke. "Greetings, human woman. I am..."

"Tarakudo, King of all Oni, Shogun of Shadows, and so on," Ms. Kimber ended the phrase for him. "You're here for the Oni Mask I've got."

"The reason I'm here... alright, time out;" Tarakudo, slightly annoyed and confused, continued to say. "How do you know...?"

"Who you're? What you want? What you're gonna say before you do so?" Ms. Kimber said funnily. "I've seen it. Same way I've seen you… well, I wouldn't say holding, since you got no hands; the Mask I got here and another, orange one."

 _So she knows that I have already retrieved the Mask imprisoning Shiryū…_ Tarakudo thought. "What are you, a seer?"

"I prefer 'fortuneteller' or 'star-reader';" Ms. Kimber told him, walking towards one of the room's curtains. "If you're being pompous, then you can refer to me as 'clairvoyant' or 'seer'. Or you can just call me Ms. Kimber, and problem solved. I'd tell you my name but my Mama, God bless her soul, always insisted in not giving my name to strangers."

"Ms. Kimber;" Tarakudo said, floating around the woman. "As interesting as I find the possibility of having a talk with a woman able to see into the future, I'm in kind of a hurry. Would you kindly give me the Mask I came here searching for?"

"Oh well, if you ask so nicely;" Ms. Kimber said with a smirk, moving away one of the curtains to reveal a small table. On top of said table rested a Oni Mask, depicting the yellow face of an Oni with a horn in the middle of his forehead, thick eyebrows and a thin moustache over his upper lip, both of a dark orange color. Ms. Kimber took the Mask and handed it to Tarakudo. "Here you go."

The floating head raised an eyebrow. "That's it? You aren't going to pull some trick, some warning, revealing that your family…"

"Has been protecting this Mask for generations?" Ms. Kimber ended the King's phrase for him again, something that Tarakudo was starting to believe she was doing just to irritate him and amuse herself. "I've got this Mask 'cause my cousin thought it'd be a good birthday present, since I _'like weird stuff'_ according to him."

"But you know what I shall use it for," Tarakudo declared, having the woman's precognitive abilities in consideration.

"I do, and I also know you'll succeed;" Ms. Kimber answered. "But I only know 'cause I've seen it, and if I've seen it, it means it'll happen. Demons, humans… nobody can fight the thing we mortals refer to as fate. At least that's what life has taught me, and I must say, it gives me a feeling of tranquility. Sooner or later everything falls into place. So I stay here, I do my show, gaining enough cash with my abilities as to live peacefully. I remain neutral in most conflicts, and I sleep well at night. You've got what you wanted, so now you'll leave."

"Because you have seen it," Tarakudo said, taking hold of the Oni Mask by using his telekinesis. _At least I got Takahiro without gathering any attention_ , he thought. "Then I suppose this is a farewell. It was a pleasure," Tarakudo declared, opening the door of the cabin with his telekinesis and exiting through it with the Oni Mask in tow.

Once he was gone, Ms. Kimber approached the entrance and closed the door. Good thing that there wasn't any emission programmed for today or she would have had a lot to explain. Oh, she knew that what she had done would result in, another successful step in the King's larger plan. Then again, she also knew all of the steps the King gave could be considered as successful ones, his ploys having such a small margin for complete failure. Then again, not that it was her problem. Ms. Kimber would so continue with her life as she had done before, and that night she would sleep well, like she had done a million times already.

* * *

 ** _A cave_**

"And with this, I have the last two;" Tarakudo said to nobody, as he deposited the yellow Oni Mask over a rock, where there was already another. While the one he had taken from Ms. Kimber (or more accurately, that the dark-skinned woman had given him) was yellow and bald and with a horn; the other one depicted an orange-skinned Oni with somehow feline features, with a purple mane at his head's back. "Hello General Takahiro;" Tarakudo directed himself to the yellow Mask, "and General Shiryū;" he said to the orange one. "I don't know if you two can hear me while sealed in that form, but if you can…" Tarakudo grinned as he said those words.

"Prepare for some action."

* * *

 ** _Across the Veil, Meridian, the Castle; two days later_**

Elyon woke up slow and pleasantly. Then again, how do you expect to wake up when your bed was as good as this one was? It felt like sleeping in a cloud! She opened her eyes slowly, letting them to accustom themselves to the dim light her room (pardon, royal chambers!) was in thanks to the sunrays entering by the window. She incorporated in a similar pace as she had woken up, sitting in her bed. She looked at her body, clad into a bright golden nightgown out of a Disney Princess movie that her (for lack of a better term) servants had provided her with and that she was sure was more expensive that all her previous clothing put together. Then again, she didn't really understood how money worked in Meridian… yet. She would have to ask her brother for some info in that regard, if she ever wanted to buy something by herself. Did she have to buy something by herself, or even buy it? She had spent a week here already, and she hadn't had to make any effort to get… anything. She was a Princess, she was royalty! Not being able to contain herself anymore, the straw blonde jumped from under the blankets and started to jump in her new bed, giggling out of sheer glee. Yeah, this was it! No more playing backup singer to Cornelia! No more lies, no more secrets! This was her life! This was…!

"Your Highness?" Elyon heard a womanly voice. Stopping her jumping, she stared awkwardly at the doors to her chambers, where a chubby woman with brown hair and green eyes stood, dressed in a servant's attire and holding something resembling a towel.

"Eh… hello," Elyon greeted, still standing over her bed and not knowing exactly if it would be good to sit down or keep standing. "You… I'm sorry; I don't know your name."

"Trill," the chubby woman answered, giving Elyon her name. "I apologize if I interrupted something, but Prince Phobos wishes to have breakfast with you. Would you like to bathe before?"

"Oh! Oh… yeah, I think so;" Elyon answered. Not sure if that was serious enough for someone with her rank, she decided to phrase it better. "Yes, I'd like to have a bath before having breakfast."

"Understood, my Princess;" the chubby servant woman… Trill declared before directing herself towards the room annexed to Elyon's chambers, where her massive, personal bathroom was. "I will have everything ready."

"Thank you," Elyon said, finally letting herself fall and sitting over her bed again. The chubby woman gave a solemn nod with her head before disappearing behind a door. Well, that had gone better than she had expected. Elyon had thought the woman would scold her… but why would she? _Could_ she? Could anyone here, aside her brother, deny her anything she wanted, tell her that she was wrong? She supposed they couldn't. Not that she was going to do anything crazy but… for some reason, thinking about the fact that she could do as she pleased put a smile on her face.

* * *

 ** _Several minutes later_**

Elyon let out a sigh of pure pleasure as she let the warm waters to clean her body. Her house back on Earth had had a bathtub and a pool, but those didn't compare in the slightest to this! Her personal bathroom had, on top of what she knew to be a primitive toilet (she had used it more than once she arrived to this world, with _mixed_ results) an enormous bathtub (and she referred to it as bathtub because she didn't know if there was any more appropriate term with which to refer to it) carved into the ground and made out of pure white marble. It reminded Elyon of some of those movies about ancient Rome she had seen, of those public baths where senators and centurions bathed and discussed things. Except this one was all for herself, water warm and smelling fantastically, thanks to some weird herbs Trill had put in there. Speaking of the chubby woman, she was standing near one of the room's walls; as if waiting for instructions.

 _Of course she's waiting for instructions, she's here to help me_ , Elyon thought. _What if I need more water or something like that?_

It would be difficult to get used to this new life, but she would end doing it. Stretching her arms upwards and extending her legs, she let her body's muscles to lose any tension they may have. Alright, she had spent enough time in the water, and her stomach was starting to remind her that she hadn't eating anything yet. It was incredibly relaxing, but baths lacked the advantages of a nice, quick and refreshing shower.

"Hey, Trill?" Elyon asked the servant woman. "Does Meridian have showers?"

Elyon looked how the woman's expression became one of confusion. "I don't know, my Princess… what is a shower?"

Elyon chuckled. "It's a… thing from Earth. It's nothing really, this was amazing. I think I'm ready to get out. Can you help me?"

"Of course, your Highness;" Trill answered. "I'm here to tend to your every need."

* * *

 ** _Later on…_**

Fully dressed in one of the dresses Cedric had provided her with, her head sporting the tiara her brother had given her as a welcoming present; Elyon and Trill walked towards the throne room, where her brother awaited her. The halls of this castle still confused Elyon. She had the feeling that she would need to learn and memorize every corner if she didn't want to risk getting lost when she walked on her own. For now, having Trill to guide her had to suffice. As they walked, Elyon spotted some of those weird looking, orc-like creatures that patrolled the castle day by day and night by night. They were incredibly ugly, dressed in loincloths (albeit there were some that worn more elaborate tribal clothing) and carrying scimitars or spears. Very few of them carried shields. How had Cedric called them? They were… er… uh…

"Trill, what're… those?" Elyon inquired of whom she was starting to think was her personal servant, maid or whatever.

"Lurdens," Trill called them. "Habitants from beyond the borders of kingdom, thriving in sections of the deserts or in the tundra far at north, they formed an alliance with your brother, the Prince, shortly after the war started. They are…"

"They are good soldiers, but not very bright;" a dry, old voice joined theirs. As the two women halted, Elyon was greeted (albeit she would never refer to it as a pleasant experience) with the sight of Daolon Wong, the darkly dressed old Dark Chi Wizard strolling down the hall until he reached them. "My apologies for the interruption, my Princess, but I believe we have yet to be properly introduced. I am Daolon Wong, Archmage of this palace. It is an honor to finally meet the famous Light of Meridian."

"It's a… pleasure to meet you too, Archmage;" Elyon answered as pleasantly as she could. She directed a quick glance towards Trill. _Was that good? Did I use the proper phrase?_ Elyon thought, hoping the woman could hear her mind. This man, this incredibly old and wrinkled man… he had talked to her with respect, but there was something about him (not just the looks, but _something_ else) that was creeping her out.

"If you don't mind, may I accompany you to the throne room?" Wong asked with feigned nicety. "I was actually heading towards there."

"Okay…" Elyon practically whispered. "I mean, yes; you can come with me;" the Princess then turned to face Trill. "Trill, you're… dismissed;" _Yes , that's the word_. "Go and tend to your other duties."

"Yes, your Highness;" Trill told the Princess, alongside a small reverence. "Lord Archmage;" she said with equal respect to Wong. When the old wizard waved his hand in dismissal, the servant left the place, and the Princess and Archmage continued their path towards the throne room.

* * *

 ** _Mere minutes later_**

 _What a stupid girl_ , Nerissa thought as she tried to put as much distance as she could between Wong and herself. Good thing the Archmage had appeared or else she would have been forced to accompany the girl all the way to the throne room. She may not like the man, but she was grateful for his opportune intervention. And speaking of Wong and his interventions…

'Trill' turned around a corner, and without nobody noticing, accessed a room that seemed to be a small armory within the castle. There, a circle of light travelled over 'Trill' from toes to head, her glamour dispelling and revealing the guise of Nerissa Crossnic underneath.

"I can't let that fool Wong to get away with everything he wants," Nerissa said aloud, walking while leaning on her staff. Wong may not be as brilliant as her, but he was n Phobos. If he got his hands on the Heart of Meridian, then her plans could be on risk of not getting completed. She glanced at her metallic forearm, where the Dragon Talisman continued to rest, embedded into the hexagonal hole she had made. Even when not using it, she could feel its immense power.

"If you want something done right…" Nerissa said as she tapped the ground with her staff and teleported in a buzzing flash of green light.

* * *

 ** _Throne room_**

What was better than a bath worth of a Princess? A breakfast worth of a Princess! A large table had been placed in the center of the throne room, with fruits, and roasted meat, and small fried fishes and deliciously tasty and soft bread. There was fresh milk and water and also wine, but she wasn't having any of the latter. Cedric, who also was sitting at the table, was, however. Wong, meanwhile, ate and drank very little; or so it seemed to Elyon. Her brother, meanwhile, ate and drank normally.

The throne room was as beautiful as ever, with brilliant and marvelous walls, bright red roses growing around the throne her brother sat at when taking care of his… their kingdom. Because she was going to become the Queen; that was what her brother had told her. Of course, this would be when the war had ended, and her brother would stand by her side, helping her in anything she needed. Her future duties as ruler weren't what preoccupied Elyon the most now, however. No, her curiosity was focused… in something far more different.

"Can I go to the city?" Elyon asked after swallowing a piece of bread.

The three men sharing the table with her stopped eating and drinking. Phobos, sitting at the opposite end of the table to Elyon, nearest to his throne; stared at her for several seconds. "I don't think that would be wise, dear sister;" the Prince told her. "Rebel spies are everywhere, and I don't want to risk you getting hurt."

"Ah…" Elyon said in a sad tone, lowering her gaze. That… made sense, she supposed. But she really wanted to see the city, and the entire world for that matter. She had spent all her days since coming here behind the palace's walls, and albeit the place was marvelous, the sight was starting to get repetitive.

"My liege, if I may speak;" Cedric broke into the siblings' small exchange of words. "The Princess has more power than anyone else in Meridian, and the Capital's streets and filled with guards. Perhaps, given a couple of escorts to protect her, sending her to the Capital's streets wouldn't be a bad idea. If could be… relaxing."

"Are you certain?" Phobos asked in a neutral tone of his second in command. What was going on inside the mind of the Prince was a mystery for all attendants.

"Can I?" Elyon asked, face lighting in joy. "Can I, big brother?"

"You can," Phobos answered. "Go to your chambers and prepare yourself. I will find someone to accompany you after lunch."

Elyon giggled, rose from her seat and walked towards her brother. "Thank you!" she said enthusiastically and then she hugged him. "You're the best big brother in the world!" At first she was sure her brother grew stiff under her touch, as if he was greatly uncomfortable, but she dismissed it once he hugged her back. When the hug broke she ran out of the throne room, leaving the three men alone.

 _And in three, two, one…_ Cedric thought sarcastically.

"ARGH!" Phobos shrieked, smashing his palms against the table and creating a small magical shockwave that threw almost everything over the table down to the floor. From Phobos' hands a second wave of magic was shot, dispelling the immense glamour covering the throne room. What had appeared to be walls of brilliant marble became ones of gloomy and black stone, what had seemed like roses to the innocent's eyes became thorns once again.

"How much longer will we need to keep up this charade?" Wong inquired to none of his interlocutors in particular.

"As long as it's necessary…" Phobos said tiredly. "Until I can take the Heart of Meridian from her!"

"That would be months from now on," Wong declared flatly, earning a glare from Phobos.

"That's the reason I think sending her out of the palace would be a good idea;" Cedric interceded. "Not only will it give you some room to recover the energy you spend by casting these massive Glamour Zones, my lord;" he explained to Phobos; "but it will give your court a better image with the commoners."

"Why would I want those peasants to like me, Cedric?" Phobos said dry yet angrily.

"Not like you more, my lord;" Cedric told him, then decided to elaborate on that phrase; "such things as the commoners' opinions are beneath you. But what if they liked the Rebellion less? If we parade the Light of Meridian around them, if we send her to some villages around the Capital or to the nearest great city, Lannion; and made her use her powers to better some of their life conditions then we will reduce the support the rebels find amongst the smallfolk."

 _And while she is away, I will make my move and take Phobos down_ ; a delighted Daolon Wong thought, catching on Cedric's true intentions. _Very intelligent Cedric, I don't regret incorporating you on my plans_.

"Yes, yes!" Phobos declared gleefully. "Excellent idea, Cedric; as always. Wong, go and find Miranda and instruct her about her new job… as the Princess' lady in waiting. Fetch that Shapeshifter boy you crafted too, he could be useful for this task."

"As you wish;" Wong declared, abandoning his spot at the table. _Soon, you Escanor brat, soon you won't be able to give orders anymore. Soon you will find yourself covering at my feet!_

 _And that takes care of that issue_ , Cedric thought for his part as Wong left the throne room. _Now…_ "My lord, speaking about weakening the Rebellion," Cedric began; "perhaps I should suggest we also get rid of another of their assets?"

"What are you talking about, Cedric?" Phobos inquired, rising from his seat and heading back to his throne. Once he sat in it, he started to siphon some of Meridian's energy into his own being in order to replenish the power he had lost maintaining the last glamour around the throne room. "The Guardians? Sending an attack force to Earth across a Portal can be extremely risky, and none of our attacks over them had fared well lately. I won't dispose of them until I have my sister's powers."

"No, no… not the Guardians, my lord;" Cedric said, walking until he was at the throne's feet. "I'm talking about disposing of someone that can be considered more a problem than anything else."

"I'm talking about Charles Ludmoore."

* * *

 ** _Across the Veil, a van in the road_**

There were several pros and cons to Spring Break. Pros? Well, of course vacation time was among those, not only giving students an earned break from high school but also free time they could dedicate to what they liked. Cons? Well, if you happened to have a family like the one of Cornelia Hale… much of that free time was spent into family trips to the mountains.

"Look, Cornelia, look!" little Lillian Hale cheered, pointing to the window of her family's van. All four Hales were taking the opportunity that this day presented them with to ride their van to Heatherfield's mountainside for a little trip. "Look, Cornelia! Cornelia! Cornelia! Look! C'mon, look!" she said, tugging at one of her sister's pinkish shirt's sleeves.

"What do you want, pipsqueak?" Cornelia asked with an exasperated voice.

The youngest Hale sister continued to point into the same direction she had pointed before. "The dog in that car's smiling at me!" Lillian declared.

Snorting, Cornelia looked at what her sister was pointing at. Effectively, it was a dog, sitting in the backseat of a car driving parallel to the Hale family's van. The animal was leaning against the window of the car, tongue out and making an expression that could be confused with a smile.

"It's just a stupid dog," Cornelia answered bluntly, angering her younger sister.

"Dogs aren't stupid!" Lillian protested, moving one of her tiny arms in an attempt to hit Cornelia, which the older blonde quickly and easily stopped.

"Girls," Elizabeth Hale's voice came from one of the front seats. The mother of the two blondes didn't have to raise her voice more than necessary, yet it carried an air of authority. "Behave."

"Yes, mom;" both girls answered in unison, stopping immediately.

* * *

 ** _Nature; two hours later_**

"Isn't this nice?" Harold asked as he inhaled deeply. The aromas of the wild, a mix of wet wood that had yet to lose the moisture it had gained thanks to rain and snow; fresh grass and multiple types of flowers entered his nostrils.

The four of them were in a forest. Specifically, they were on one of a forest's many clearings, having accessed it after parking the van and walking for a few minutes. This clearing in particular was clearly meant to be used by tourists, as there were many wooden tables with wooden benches over the place, ready for any person to use them if there was any intention of having a picnic… which was exactly what the Earth Guardian's family was planning.

While Harold and Elizabeth prepared one of the tables, Cornelia was left in charge of taking care of Lillian. Whoever said that taking care of five year old children; didn't know how Lillian could be, especially when left in open nature. The youngest Hale would run from one spot to another, searching for something that may interest her. And of course, Cornelia would run after her, because in the moment Lillian got hurt, she would be the one the blame would be put on.

"Mom! Mom, look what I caught!" Lillian shouted, approaching the table her parents were at, something small ad furry in her hands. Once Lillian reached them he showed Elizabeth what was between her hands. It was a small squirrel.

"How cute," Elizabeth said, stroking the squirrel's head with her index finger.

"Can I keep her?" Lillian wondered.

"Sorry, sweetie;" Elizabeth said. "But if you ever have a pet, is not going to be one you have found in a forest."

"But she likes me…" Lillian pouted.

"Honey, the squirrel probably has a home here," Elizabeth explained. "I don't think she would like leaving it. Come," the woman said, extending her hand towards her youngest daughter. "I'm going to help you leaving her here."

"Okay…" Lillian said in a tone between happy and sad.

Meanwhile, Cornelia took the opportunity to sit at the table and rest. Before she could let her mind to be emptied, however, Harold sat in front of her.

"Is everything alright?" the blond man asked, resting his palms over the small, picnic table. Cornelia kept her silence for a few moments upon hearing the question.

"It's…" the Earth Guardian said. "Nothing."

Harold took notice then of how dark his oldest daughter's mood seemed to be. He leaned a bit forward. "Does this have anything to do with that whole 'magical girl' thing? I know we haven't talked a lot about it since… well, since…"

"Since you ditched the mafia and lying to me, and started to help the government?" Cornelia helped him.

"I keep telling you, it's technically not a mafia;" the blond man told her, passing a finger over his moustache. "But yes. You know you can trust me, Cornelia. And I know I haven't been exactly an ideal father, keeping things from you;" _and still keeping them_ ; "but you can speak to me if you have a problem."

"Well…" Cornelia began. "Remember Elyon?"

"Yes, of course I do;" Harold told her. "She is your best friend. Did you two have a fight, or something?"

"You see…"

* * *

 ** _An explanation later_**

Lillian and Elizabeth were taking their sweet time in order to part way with the squirrel. Not that neither Cornelia nor Harold had any problems with it.

"Escanor?" Harold asked with a surprised, dumbfounded expression.

"Yeah, that's Elyon's real surname, apparently;" Cornelia told him. "And now she's in another world, and her parents, Mr. and Mrs. Brown, have disappeared too; and who knows what Phobos will do to her, and… and it's all my fault."

"Elyon… Escanor;" Harold repeated. It just… it didn't make sense. In Harold's head, the name Escanor evoked the image of a man taller than the tallest men, shoulders broad and strong, able to send five men flying by one swing of a great-sword. Elyon, on the other hand… "Your best friend, the small, kind girl… is a Princess from another world."

"Yes," Cornelia answered. "I know it's incredibly hard to take in…"

"No, no;" Harold said. _Elyon was the Princess of Meridian the whole time? Well, that was something none of us five were privy too. So he is hiding some information to himself, is he? Not that anyone can blame him. We are also hiding our end goal_. "I believe you. It's just… why do you think it's all your fault?"

"Because it is;" Cornelia said. "Will told me it wasn't, that it was Cedric's thing, but if I had been just a better friend… Elyon was so angry…"

"Cornelia, you are a good person, and I have no doubt that you are a good friend. And I'm not saying this just because you are my daughter;" Harold declared. "These things happen between people, even between the ones that are closest to one another. Someone will say or do something wrong in the wrong moment and then anger will follow. And when that happens don't expect people to behave rationally."

"How're you so sure?"

"Because I think I do understand Elyon's point of view. I had this friend before I met your mother, when I was younger, called Lancel…" Harold continued to speak, biting his tongue when pronouncing the name. "Lance; and he did something to me, something… horrible; from my point of view. Something that angered me so much that I surprised myself with how angry I was. I was quick to blame him, but it never occurred to me that maybe we should have talked to each other. That maybe it had been all a mistake, that maybe there wasn't anyone to blame. By the time I was ready to actually put myself in his shoes, it was too late. What I'm trying to say is that Elyon will understand, with time; when her anger towards you has cooled down. And when that moment comes, believe me when I say she will hate herself for what she has done. What you should do now is continue fighting, and if when the time comes she refuses to not see what you have been doing and feeling, then maybe it's her fault that she doesn't see, or that she doesn't _want_ to. People are… _complicated_ in that way."

Cornelia looked down at her hands, resting over the table. Drumming her fingers against the wood, she thought about what her father had just said. Maybe… maybe it wasn't her fault? She could see now why Elyon's words had hurt so much. In a way, the Princess had been right about her, always so haughty, always so full of herself. She had put all her weaknesses together and buried them deep within her heart, putting a set of armor around them. It had been that armor that had hurt Elyon. Yes, perhaps that would be a good solution, or at least a way to start solving things. Next time… next time she spoke with Elyon, the armor wouldn't be there.

"That friend of yours…" the blonde Guardian muttered; "what did he do?"

"My… _girlfriend_ at the time cheated on me with him;" Harold answered bluntly.

"Whoa… Sorry;" the blonde Guardian told the man.

"You don't have to be sorry about that," Harold told her sweetly. "It's not your fault." _Even today I'm not so sure of whose fault it was_.

"Thanks dad," Cornelia told him with the utmost sincerity after remaining silent for several moments. "For cheering me up and all that."

"Hey, this is supposed to be my job;" Harold told the blond girl. "Now let's get things ready for lunch before your mother and sister return. I would like to enjoy this forest before it starts darkening."

"Okay," Cornelia answered, her mood becoming lighter. "Hey, dad? Mind if I ask you something else?"

"Sure," Harold declared, rising up and starting to put four plates over the table, taken from a bag waiting over the ground.

"You see, there's this boy…"

* * *

 ** _Heatherfield, early in the afternoon_**

"So, how does it feel to finally be thirteen?" Irma Lair asked of Jade Chan, the duo of girls sitting at the table of a cafeteria in Heatherfield's mall. Both of them were sharing a plate of nachos with melted cheese, each girl drinking a soda.

Jade's birthday had been a few days ago, Jackie and Viper having prepared a small event (she wasn't sure it could be called a party) for her to enjoy with her family. Not that she was going to complain about passing her birthday without a big party. After everything that had been going on the last weeks, even someone as Jade Chan liked some tranquility.

"Meh, I feel the same;" Jade told the brunette, moving her head in order to pull one of her black bangs of hair from her face. She took a nacho from the plate and ate it. "I'm starting to think it's not gonna make a difference until I'm sixteen. Jackie and Viper gave me a videogame; Tohru gave me a book, Uncle… just, sort of complained about the cake they had bought."

Irma laughed at that. "Yeah, that's a lot like him. Sorry for not getting you anything."

"You kidding?" Jade said with a small smirk. "None of you girls need to get me anything. You all are enough."

"Now you're just trying to be nice," Irma said with a smirk of her own.

"It's true, really;" Jade said in a tone a bit more serious. "Look, back in San Francisco or even in Hong Kong… I never was Ms. Popularity."

"Yeah, you told us about it;" Irma said. "Will had the same problem, I think."

"She did," Jade admitted. "And not having friends can be… kind of hard. But now I'm here, and all of you're just amazing. I mean, here we're just the two of us with a bunch of nachos. And it was your idea."

"Will's got swimming practice and then she's going on a date with Matt, Corny's with her family on that trip, Tara's with her brother, and Hay-Hay's said something about painting with your Uncle. And I'm like… We're supposed to be on vacation, remember?" Irma joked. "We're in the middle of Spring Break and all that; time to relax, not worry and don't do things. And after everything that happened and it's going to happen with Meridian and Ely and how hard she kicked our butts, I think we deserve it."

"Amen to that," Jade declared, raising her can of soda in the air. "Speaking of enjoying our times, what about that whole radio-thing with Martin you told me about?"

"Oh… _that_ ;" Irma said, glancing at her side. "I do love all stuff that's related to radio programs, and Martin proposed me to create our own with a bunch of other people from Sheffield. We've got our first meeting later this afternoon. But I swear, if it's just another excuse to hit on me, I'm gonna punch him."

"C'mon, guy's not that bad;" Jade said funnily. "At least, you gotta give him credits for trying again and again. What do you've got against him, anyway?"

"Nothing! That's the funny thing!" Irma said, shooting her arms onward. "He's nice, if a bit dorky, and I've got no problem with that. I wouldn't be so hard with him if he took some notes and just wanted to be my _friend_. But then he gets into that whole wanting to be my _boyfriend_ thing, and I don't want that. Heck, maybe I should tell him just that."

"Then do it," Jade counseled her friend. "The last thing we need right now it's more drama."

Irma chuckled. "Who would've thought that Will'd be the first one to get a boyfriend of all of us?" the brunette paused for several moments, eating a couple of nachos and drinking from her can of soda. "Hey, what about you?"

"About me, what?" Jade wondered as she took the last sip from her can of soda.

"You know, feeling the 'butterflies in the stomach' for any guy?" Irma teased her, enjoying every minute of it as Jade chocked into the soda she was drinking, expulsing it from her nostrils.

"What?!" the Chan girl yelled. "No!"

"I'm just asking," Irma said, smirking and shrugging. "I bet there's more than one guy at Sheffield that likes you. I mean, you're cute in your own awesome way. If you'd excuse me, I gotta go to the bathroom." She rose from her seat and distanced a bit from the table. As she did so, Jade was able to sneak a peek at her cleavage, visible thanks to the red shirt she was wearing and that didn't cover that area entirely, a dark blue jacket over it, complemented by dark blue jeans. As the brunette walked away, Jade couldn't avoid looking at her rear.

Resting her left cheek over her left hand, head tilted, Jade continued to look at Irma go. She didn't know if this was something that had to do with her entering adolescence, whatever magical cocktail Wong had infused her with that had transformed her into a Shapeshifter giving a boost to her hormones on top of making her human form far svelter; or a combination of the two. But the fact remained there.

 _Yup_ , the Wolf Shapeshifter thought; _definitely not liking boys_.

* * *

 ** _Across the Veil; the Capital's streets_**

"I know that big brother's just worried about me;" Elyon said as she and Cedric walked out of the Castle's frontal gate; "and the castle's pretty amazing, but what kind of Princess doesn't get out? I mean, you told me that this people have been waiting for me since I got kidnapped as a baby…"

Walking at her side, the Snake of Cavigor, hair tied into a ponytail and dressed in his usual greenish robes gave an affirmative nod, acknowledging her statement as true. "Indeed, your Highness. It would be terrible if we maintained you away from the population, seeing how much they have waited for this moment. But remember that you must behave accordingly to what is expected from a Princess of Meridian, and have in mind that you must remain in company of your escorts at any moment. Don't walk far away from the city's main streets. Apart from that, you may do as you please. It will be good to give the smallfolk a reason to feel hope in these times of war. Your presentation to them the other day should have done enough to win you their hearts, though."

"Right," Elyon said, trying to memorize everything Cedric had said. "I still can't believe my so-called friends and my own pa… Alborn and Miriael," the Princess corrected herself; "kept all of this a secret from me."

"You shouldn't trouble yourself with those ill feelings anymore, Princess Elyon;" Cedric reassured her. "All the lies those manipulators told you are now broken. Ah, there are your escorts."

Looking ahead Elyon saw two individuals waiting for them. Judging by their height and appearance, they both were around her age, albeit she could be wrong in that regard. One was a girl with dark raven hair, blue eyes and a somehow Asian look to her, albeit not as much as Hay Lin and Jade; dressed in a plain dress with green attachments. The other was a pale boy with white hair and amber eyes, dressed in a commoner's clothes. While the girl seemed calm and collected, it was clear from a first glance that the boy was nervous.

"Princess Elyon, meet Lady Miranda;" Cedric said once he and Elyon had reached the pair; gesturing towards the girl. "And Tristan," he pointed to the boy. "They will be, from now on, your lady in waiting and personal bodyguard, respectively."

"It's an honor to meet you, Princess;" Miranda said with a musical and respectful voice, then proceeding to bow her head. Tristan imitated her gesture, but didn't say a single word. Elyon smiled and waved her hand at them, not knowing exactly how to replay to that sentence.

"I will be leaving you three now, I have other duties to attend to;" Cedric said, dedicating one last glance at Elyon. "Enjoy yourself, Princess."

"Thank you," Elyon told the blond man, starting to walk ahead and into the Capital's center's direction.

As Elyon put enough distance between herself and them, Cedric directed himself to the pair of his fellow Shapeshifters. "The Princess should have no problems with you two revealing to her your Shapeshifter status; but keep in mind that we must be discreet. If a rebel sympathizer or a commoner tries something funny, then you stop it." Cedric looked directly at Tristan. "No killing with that stinger of yours."

"Understood," the white haired boy said, and afterwards the duo composed of Miranda and himself followed on Elyon's steps, while Cedric turned around and left.

* * *

 ** _Meridian Plains; at the same time_**

The Meridian Plains, as its name indicated, were an enormous extension of land that separated Meridian's middle ring from the lands and small villages that were around the Capital; the nearest great city of the middle ring being Lannion, with no other edification in kilometers around. The Plains provided a very useful natural defense against exterior attacks against the Capital, since they were so large and without any forest or mountainside to cover the movements of large groups of people, any army that wanted to reach the Capital would be able to be seen from kilometers away.

And speaking of armies, there was a large one currently in the Plains. Almost every nobleman had taken their main forces to there, under the orders of Archduchess Galiene, leaving only enough forces back in their great cities to maintain order. The soldiers and commanders had joined up, setting up a camp with hundred of tents and all the paraphernalia for the soldiers to live there until the moment for battle came. Even now there were very few people who weren't moving, either carrying enormous stewpots to feed the soldiers or organizing weapons and horses, rhinoceros or Hoogongs.

And in the largest tent of the camp, almost as large as the living room of a small house, a meeting was being held. Frost the Hunter sat in a small chair, while five individuals were standing up and yelling to each other. These ones were nobility, the remaining noblemen and noblewomen that had yet to take part in the war. Even to someone like Frost, who himself admitted was more a man of brute force than a man of wits, it was clear that the Viscount's disappearance had hit them hard. He was certain that, if not for the sense of authority that the Archduchess' involvement had provided, every noble would have opted to defend their city and not move a finger for anyone else. The news Frost had brought to them, about the Princess having returned and how she had used the powers of the Light of Meridian in front of the entire Capital didn't help in the slightest.

"I say she's nothing but an impostor!" a middle-aged, half-breed nobleman yelled as he munched a piece of cheese. "Phobos could've found someone that looked like Weira and Zanden's child and put her in a dress and a crown!"

"You heard what Frost had to say, Margrave Olein;" the Count of Lannion, Cornelius, declared. "She used magic to clear the skies with a flick of her fingers; she is the Light of Meridian!"

"You trust this brute?" a nobleman, far younger than the other two (probably in the middle of his twenties) and completely human said while making a gesture towards Frost.

 _I'm right here, you noble brat_ ; Frost thought, albeit not even he was stupid enough to voice that opinion. "I just carry the words of Captain Lothar. And the girl, the Princess, is the genuine article. I can tell because I was there; I felt… something, when she used her powers; something brilliant, warm and calming in me. Lothar told me that we should send a message about this to Archduchess Galiene."

"Brute or not he holds a point, Viceroy Khenel, uhm;" a small, fat, balding and auburn haired Galhot with grey skin and white scales over his body, with the largest nose Frost had ever seen, declared. He looked considerably older than the rest of the people there, maybe in his sixties. "A point that if true, which I believe; brings very interesting possibilities up, uhm. If the Princess has returned… then it's clear that she is the heir to the throne, not Phobos; uhm."

"What are you talking about, Duke Jedah?" Viceroy Khenel asked, folding his arms.

"Not just talking, I'm suggesting;" Duke Jedah said; "that this could be a great opportunity to side with her and get rid of the Prince and his small court of monsters, wouldn't it, uhm? We have a large army and the Guard in our side, thanks to Captain Lothar, uhm."

"Are you mad, Duke?" a half-breed woman in her forties with dark skin and a muscular build, hair tied in a pair of bums at the sides of her head; asked of the man. "If we were to directly fight Phobos we may win, but our army will lose countless combatants. The Rebellion would crush us, with or without Lady Galiene's host coming towards here."

"I agree with the lady Baronetess;" Margrave Olein declared firmly.

"Perhaps making peace with the Rebellion wouldn't be so farfetched if we followed the Duke's idea, lady Relena;" Count Cornelius declared. "Their enmity is with Phobos, not his sister."

"I will die before allying with a rebel!" Viceroy Khenel screamed at the top of his lungs. "Those bastards are just a bunch of revolted peasants that burn everything in their paths! Thieves, killers, whores; even rapists! They have no shame! How many had they killed, or worse, in these thirteen years of war?! Have you forgotten what their Mad Dog and his men did to the villages near Frozen Peak?!" the words of the Viceroy made Margrave Olein to shudder. After all, Frozen Peak was his home, and what Rhouglar and his followers had done to some of the villages and towns in its vicinity…

"Then what do we do?" Count Cornelius asked. "Keep fighting and killing, until the only thing that lasts is the Mad Prince standing over a mountain of corpses? That is not what the noble Viscount would have wanted."

"The Viscount is probably dead," Baronetess Relena declared with a sad voice. "The Viscountess too."

"They were good people," the Margrave said. "They didn't deserve any of it."

"We all have lost good friends and family in this war, or even before it;" the Duke declared somberly. "But what about Earl Ghiscar and Baroness Mergo from Fallbottom, uhm? Here we are, discussing important matters of war and the realm, and they aren't present, uhm."

Sighing heavily, Count Cornelius extracted a small scroll from his robes. Unfolding it, he handed it to the Duke. "I received this message just a few hours ago. I have already sent word to the Capital and Captain Lothar, and to the Archduchess' camp in the border of the middle ring."

Duke Jedah read carefully, passing the scroll to the Margrave as he ended. "Kelliwic has fallen to the Rebellion, and our dear Earl seems to have died, uhm. Fallbottom itself helped in the attack, under the command of…"

"Miriam?!" the Margrave bellowed. "The Baroness' sister?!"

"According to some of our informants around the villages near Fallbottom," the Count informed. "Miriam is the Baroness now. What happened to Mergo and young Melody after the former abdicated… I ignore."

 _Liar, you are a liar_ ; The Count thought to himself. _You know exactly where and how they are, but you can't talk. Because you are a traitor. You let that girl to kill your mother, all in the name of the needs of the many! Shame! Shame on you!_

"That whore!" Viceroy Khenel shouted. "I will kill that traitor myself!"

"Calm yourself, Viceroy;" Baronetess Relena told him. "All traitors will pay."

"This is the reason behind my trouble," Cornelius said, folding his arms over his chest and looking down. "Torus Filney was conquered, Kelliwic too. Fallbottom has abandoned us…" _and so have I_ ; "our army has lost those three sources from which to gather more soldiers, while the Rebellion gains more and more power day by day."

 _And how did you obtain this information before any of us, I wonder, uhm?_ the Duke thought in a playful way.

"And meanwhile the Prince continues to sit in his throne," Margrave Olein complained; "not doing anything but worsen our already grim situation."

"Ah yes, that would be the duality of it, wouldn't it, uhm? Our enemies despise us for having to make harsh decisions when nobody else wanted to. Meanwhile, our own ruler does nothing but give them more reasons to despise us. So what do we do, uhm? Keep sacrificing ten men each time we have to save thousands? Defy the Prince, even if we know that his wrath will only fuel his madness and cause more destruction? Frankly, both options don't differ from one another so much. Perhaps this entire situation we find ourselves now is just atonement for our past sins, uhm;" the Duke declared. "For thinking so foolishly back then, thirteen years ago, when we stood with Phobos, thinking we could control him, uhm. Or when we backed Servantis into building Carhaiz, thinking that the Rebellion would turn a blind eye to that. Our best bet for now would be to do as we have done, following Galiene's strategy until we have dealt with the Rebellion, uhm. It wouldn't be bad if one of us were to make a quick visit to the Capital to meet the Princess, uhm. Agreed?"

One by one, the rest of the nobles gave their approbation.

"Great. And a very good speech;" Frost interrupted the noblemen and noblewoman sarcastically, rising from his seat. "Can I go now?"

"You uneducated, brutish…" the Viceroy started to say, just to get interrupted by the Baronetess.

"You may go now, Frost. And I will accompany you;" Relena informed him. "We shall inform the Captain of these developments, and I shall see for myself if the Princess is real or not."

"Anyone against the Baronetess being the one sent to the Capital, uhm?" the Duke wondered, receiving no negative response. "Make sure to return as soon as possible, lady Relena," the fat noble said with care. "We will need you in command of your forces. And we have already lost enough comrades."

"Thank you, Duke;" the Baronetess declared, abandoning the tent alongside Frost.

"Do you believe we can survive through this?" the Count asked of the Duke. The Margrave and the Viceroy leaned towards them, sharing the same doubt.

"I'm no warrior; I always preferred the duty of an administrator and leave the fighting part to Galiene or Ghiscar. The only reason I'm here is because my soldiers are here. Frankly, I'm unable to see myself tipping the balance of any battle in my side's favor;" Duke Jedah said nonchalantly, alongside a small chuckle. "But now Ghiscar is dead, the end of the bloodline of a noble house; the Princess is here, brought back from another world, and the war seems to be coming to an end… who knows? We may perish, our names forgotten after a handful of decades, reduced to be mere lines in history books, which will in turn reduce us to the archetypal minions of a mad tyrant. Or perhaps with a bit of luck and skill, if the Light of Meridian abides, we may live to see another day and perhaps the end of these dark times."

* * *

 ** _Across the Veil; a bar on Heatherfield; hours later_**

Jackie Chan had to admit, Heatherfield was quite cosmopolite for a city that wasn't so well-known across the United States. Take the establishment he and Viper were in right now as an example, a tapas bar in the center of the city that had been founded by a Spaniard that had emigrated to the USA. Not exactly the most bizarre or exotic thing you could encounter, but it was enough for Jackie Chan, and apparently for Viper. Both were sitting at a high table, having a small talk.

"So Ross has officially disappeared?" Jackie asked of the former thief.

"The guy has completely vanished;" Viper told him. "Captain Black told me he's thinking to put an APB on Ross' head, and let the FBI handle it."

"I want to say something along the lines of 'that's one problem solved', but I don't feel like it;" Jackie said, enveloping her coffee mug with both hands. "Will you be staying on Heatherfield anymore?"

"Aw, already missing me Tiger?" Viper asked him alongside a devilish smirk. "No worries, Black gave me permission to stick around. I don't want to miss my part of the action, and Black said that he needs as many trustworthy people around that Hale man as he can."

"Yes, he commented me that Raphael Silla, one of the closest operatives of one of his superiors, has been ordered to stay around Harold;" Jackie stated. "Frankly, the more people of our side we have around him, the better. The last thing I want is the Dark Hand discovering that Harold is a double agent and harming him or something."

"And a former thief can be pretty useful to them," Viper said. "I know my way around that world, remember? If you want back in, you just have to ask."

"Thank you… but I like my normal, completely boring and academic job;" Jackie joked back, sharing a laugh with the woman afterwards.

"How are the girls doing?" the ex-thief asked after a few moments.

The archeologist lowered his gaze a bit. "They won't say it, but Elyon's betrayal has affected them deeply."

"And you?"

"Me?" Jackie asked. "I'm going to keep doing what I have been doing since I arrived here. Yan Lin brought us here so we could help, and that's what I'm going to do."

 _I think that sums up quite nicely what I like about you_ , Viper thought. _Jackie Chan, the man who never gives up helping people._

They continued to talk for about ten more minutes, sometimes about important things, others about trivialities. Afterwards, Jackie left for the bathroom. As he was washing his hands, he noticed the door opening, a presence behind him.

"Hello there," the newcomer said.

"Hello," Jackie said politely while looking at his hands covered in soap. The voice of the stranger sounded gruff and deep, it reminded Jackie of the voice one would expect from an elder that had smoked too much.

"Nice woman you have out there," the stranger said. "She looks strong. A bit small for my liking and of course she doesn't have horns; but you two make an interesting couple."

Wait, what? Was… was he talking about Viper? Why would anyone say anything like that? "We aren't a couple," Jackie said as he stopped washing his hands. Wait, what was that last part about horns? Raising his eyes from his washed hands and turning around, Jackie Chan was greeted by the sight of the enormous, floating head that Tarakudo, King of all Oni, was.

"You aren't a couple?" Tarakudo asked, a bit doubtful. "Strange, I could have sworn that I saw something between you two. Well, errors have been made."

Before Jackie had any time to react, Tarakudo unleashed a telekinetic wave, smashing Jackie against the bathroom's wall, holding him there thanks to his mental problems.

"Hello, Mr. Chan;" Tarakudo greeted him. "I believe we have yet to be properly introduced. I am Tarakudo, Shogun of Shadows, King of the Oni."

Jackie struggled against the telekinetic hold with all his strength, to no avail. "Let me go!"

"I'm afraid I can't do that;" Tarakudo declared calmly. "I have been toying with a plan for a time, and I have decided to set it in motion now."

"Tiger?" both men heard as someone else opened the door. "Are you alright? You were taking your time, and a waiter told me that he heard weird noises… oh my God, what the hell is that?!"

"Viper!" Jackie shouted. "It's Tarakudo, run!"

Viper froze in her tracks as she laid eyes upon Tarakudo, the King of all Oni quickly unleashing another telekinetic wave and putting Viper at Jackie's side.

"Oh, I get a two for one?" Tarakudo joked. "And I thought they were exaggerating when they said that this establishment was good."

"Let me go, you overgrown Halloween monster reject!" Viper yelled at the Oni, who continued to hold both of them against the wall.

"As I told Mr. Chan before," Tarakudo informed her, ignoring the woman's insult. "I can't, I need you two for something."

"What do you want?!" Jackie demanded to know.

Grinning, Tarakudo's floating head seemed to somehow deflate, or at least lose some of its mass. As its size decreased, two Oni Masks appeared from behind him; one yellow and with a horn, the other orange and with feline features. The former was floating in front of Jackie, the latter in front of Viper.

"You see," Tarakudo said as the Masks started to approach Jackie and Viper's faces. "I want to do an experiment, and I was hoping for you two to act as… _volunteers_."

"Bad day, bad day, bad day!" Jackie yelled in fear, as the two Masks reached his and Viper's faces. Both the archeologist and the ex-thief feel something once the Masks entered in contact with their skin, as if the trinkets were trying to devour their heads, closing over their skulls.

* * *

 ** _Across the Veil; Alchemical Laboratory_**

 _Now he is treating me as if I'm nothing but an errand boy_ ; Daolon Wong complained as he entered his laboratory. He was starting to grow impatient, a feeling only strengthened by the fact that the Prince had sent him in search of Miranda and Tristan when that could have been done by any servant; but he needed to wait until the Princess was out of the castle for long enough that he could make his move against Phobos. The Princess… what a magnificent addition she would be! Or more accurately, her _powers_ would be. He had been able to feel it, even during their brief encounter. The power of a Heart, a source of nearly infinite magic… and it was there, in front of him for the taking! But of course, he needed to keep his priorities straight. A Heart couldn't be taken by force, so he would have to be careful once Phobos was gone and play his cards right. If his first plan if hijacking the Ritual of Amalgamation proved to be too risky or needed too much time to be performed; perhaps the Prince's own deception could play at Wong's favor. He could maintain Phobos alive and weakened so he could give him to a sister that didn't know her brother didn't care about her at all in exchange of the Heart. Or perhaps he could try a combination of the two? If he maintained Phobos alive, he could use it as a bargaining chip against his sister. Then, it could be just a matter of making enough changes to the Ritual of Amalgamation so when it activated, the power of the Princess would be redirected onto him. Or he could make the changes and wait for Phobos to activate the final part of the Ritual and… No! That Escanor brat deserved to be punished, deserved to be dethroned, beaten by his better! And Wong would defeat him not by using the Heart of Meridian but by using his own power and mastery over Chi Magic!

Wong approached one of the many cauldrons in his laboratory. Then he started to pick ingredients from the nearby tables and putting them inside. Then he added a bluish liquid he had in a bottle that rested at the top of a shelf, igniting the logs under the cauldron with a shot of his magic. As the potion started to boil, Wong heard something at his back. Something small, like a 'clang' sound result of something falling from one of the tables he had around, several objects resting over them. The Dark Chi Wizard approached the fallen object and put it back in its place. Then he heard a sound again, this time at his back. As he turned around, he could have sworn that he had seen movement at his left, in the shadows.

"Who is there? Tracker? Roberta?" Wong demanded to know. The sound of steps at his right, the sound of something else falling to the ground at his eight, and then he heard a soft and mocking laughter ahead of him. "Who is there?!" Wong asked again to the shadows of his own laboratory (he was lamenting now that he hadn't put more torches around, but extreme light or heat could damage some of the ingredients he had there), this time far more angrily. "I'm the Archmage of Meridian! Identify yourself!"

"Quintessence," the shadows spoke back, and in the blink of an eye Wong found himself being hit by a lightning bolt, flying across the room and clashing with his cauldron, which contents were spilled all over the floor once the Dark Chi Wizard collided with it and fell to the ground, hurting thanks to the electricity coursing through his body.

 _Quintessence? The element of life?_ the Dark Chi Wizard thought as he incorporated. How?! Had the Guardians infiltrated his laboratory in hopes of dispose of him? No, no… that couldn't be it. The current Keeper of the Heart didn't have access to her full power; she would have used her element in their numerous battles otherwise. Then who…?

Wong's answer came once he ended rising from the floor, as a green eyed woman clad in a black robe, left arm metallic, hair grey and long, face full of dried wrinkles and carrying a long wooden staff which's top contained a large, black sphere; walked out of the shadows and stood in front of him.

"I suppose that thinking of killing you with one blast was hoping too much," Nerissa Crossnic declared, extending her flesh hand towards Wong, whitish sparks generating between her fingers as she charged another attack. "Hold still, it will be over soon."

Not caring about _whom_ this woman was anymore but caring much more about _what_ this woman was trying to do; Wong pointed the twisted root he used as a wand towards her, unleashing a beam of dark chi with the purpose of striking her down for good. Nerissa, meanwhile, smiled at the incoming attack, pointing her flesh palm towards it.

"Quintessence!" she yelled, unleashing her own magic attack, both blasts colliding and generating a small explosion.

"You old, decrepit woman!" an angry Wong shouted at her. "I don't know who you are, or if you are an ally of the rebels or not; but I will make sure you spend the rest of the few moments your life has left lamenting the moment you thought that attacking me alone was a good idea! Gan, Ren, Chui!"

"Yes, because you of all people have the right to call someone old and decrepit;" Nerissa taunted him, finding quite amusing the Dark Chi Wizard's words considering that he was surely older than she was. "As for lamenting anything…" Nerissa said as she saw the three Dark Chi Warriors materializing from clouds of dark bluish purple smoke and running towards her with their weapons ready; "I don't tend to lament any of my decisions;" she declared, holding her staff with her flesh hand and pointing her metallic one ahead this time.

Wong watched how, as his Dark Chi Warriors started their attack, something shined in the woman's metallic forearm. The Archmage watched in shock how the woman unleashed a wave of concentrated flames this time, the attack taking his slaves by surprise, reducing them to ashes and making them disappear, dissolved into dark purplish blue smoke. As the flames dispersed, Nerissa smirked arrogantly at Wong; the Archmage still too surprised to continue his attacks.

"That fire… it cannot be!" Wong said, not believing what his eyes had seen.

"And yet, it is;" Nerissa said, changing her staff from one hand to another again. "Quintessence," she declared again, shooting another lightning bolt at Wong, electrocuting him and sending the old man flying again.

"The power of the Noble Dragon…" Wong whispered from the ground, Nerissa walking slowly towards him. "The power of Combustion!"

"Indeed," Nerissa said, showing Wong the part of her metallic forearm where the Dragon Talisman was embedded. "A little souvenir I took from Earth. I must say," the fallen Guardian declared, the Talisman lighting up and making Nerissa able to create a fireball in her flesh hand's palm; "it is quite useful."

"You… you stole one of the Twelve Powers?" Wong asked. Who was this woman?! How dared she come here and attack him!

"Oh, you could said that;" Nerissa said alongside a despicable chuckle. "But then again, you all were making it too easy for me in that cave. Not that I wanted to reveal my ownership over it so soon, but fortunately…" the fallen Guardian said, charging another lightning bolt with her Quintessence; "you won't be around to tell anybody."

"Foolish sorceress," Wong said then, lowering his face. "You possess only one of twelve;" Wong raised his head in an abrupt and fast manner, surprising Nerissa with how his eyes were shining, as if they were on fire. "While I possess two!"

The gleam in Wong's eyes intensified, and then from each eye came a beam of burning energy, that impacted against Nerissa's body and sent _her_ flying this time. Wong was quick to come to his feet as Nerissa fell to the ground, holding his twisted root highly.

"That was the power of the Noble Pig that I obtained from the Pig Talisman!" Wong said triumphantly while he watched Nerissa come to her feet. The woman left her staff in the ground, pointing her metallic arm at him and unleashing another flame-based attack via the Dragon Talisman. The flames engulfed Wong, but as they died Nerissa contemplated in complete surprise how he was unscathed, having protected himself with an invisible spherical barrier. With a movement of his free hand, Wong dispelled the barrier and then hit Nerissa with a telekinetic attack, hoisting her in the air and proceeding to smash her against the ceiling. "And this is the power of the Noble Rooster that I obtained from the Rooster Talisman!" Wong spoke again, dispelling the telekinetic grip he had on Nerissa and letting her fall over the ground. "And this," he said, his eyes burning with golden heat; "is my power put together with them!" Wong declared, shooting a beam of dark chi from his twisted root and adding the heat vision from the Pig Talisman to the attack, adding a little telekinetic push for extra force.

Thinking fast, Nerissa answered by letting go of her staff and unleashing both a Quintessence lightning bolt and a large torrent of fire product of the Dragon Talisman, both energies mixing and colliding with Wong's attack. Both magic beams struggled with one another, neither pushing the other back for several moments. After a while, the point in which both attacks were linked to the other started to glow intensely, and ended producing a large explosion that sent both Dark Chi Wizard and Quintessence sorceress flying in opposite directions. Both magic users came to their feet shortly after, the room they were in completely trashed.

"You…" Wong said bitterly; "I'm going to make you pay for this, sorceress!"

"You could make me pay," Nerissa declared in her usual tranquil, soft spoken, and yet somehow arrogant voice. She was beginning to tire; she had been ready to take down Wong fast, but she hadn't had in mind Wong possessing such powers, and tiredness and use of Quintessence, especially without a Heart to back her abilities and loss of energy, didn't fare well together. Retaking her staff from the ground, she used the Dragon Talisman once again, shooting a large fireball towards the nearest tables and shelves, setting them on fire. "Or you could save your tools. How much time did you invest in those? Wouldn't it be horrible if your precious Shapeshifter formula and who knows what else were to burn to ashes?"

Wong narrowed his eyes at her, clenching his fists. In the end, he decided that saving his accomplishments was far more important than continuing this fight. "This doesn't end here… Guardian;" Wong declared, letting her know that he knew who she was and what she had been.

"I suppose it does not;" Nerissa said, and if she had been surprised by Wong's last word, she didn't show it. "We will leave it as a tie… for the moment. But remember, Wong. I will return, sooner or later. At any moment, when you are eating, when you are too focused in your experiments that you won't see me coming, when you are sleeping… I could be there. Have nice dreams." The sorceress tapped the ground with her staff then, disappearing in the buzzing green flash that accompanied every teleportation, leaving behind nothing but a sinister laughter.

As for Wong, he focused into putting out the fire, saving as much as he could. Meanwhile, his mind was focused into trying to understand what had happened. A Guardian, a Quintessence Guardian no less! Was she the former Keeper of the Heart? She had to be, no one else could use Quintessence! Was she in league with the current generation of Guardians? If that was the case, then why not aid them in battle? If she had the Dragon Talisman, then she was in that cave and could have helped them. No, there was something more… perhaps she served just herself? Another side in this war the Archmage hadn't had in consideration?

 _This situation becomes more and more complicated day by day_ ; Wong thought as he used his telekinesis to put everything that hadn't been broken in his laboratory back in its place. _The sorceress could appear at any moment and strike me down. It's decided then, I shall take Meridian's throne in the moment the Princess leaves the castle for enough time_.

* * *

 ** _The Infinite City, minutes later_**

Nerissa appeared in the late Mage's workshop. She didn't say nor did anything, instead opting for just standing there. In any other circumstance, the woman would be cursing herself for not being able to beat Wong. This time, however; she didn't. While she hadn't been able to put Wong out of commission, the current turn of events didn't exactly play at her disadvantage either. The wizard knew of her existence and that she was out there, which would instill paranoia in his heart and force him to rush his scheme against Phobos, which in turn would increase the probabilities of his plan failing. Besides, she knew Wong couldn't dispose of Phobos with ease, the Prince may be a fool, but he was versed in sorcery, and he had been leeching from Meridian's energy for years. So if Wong won and Phobos died, then the Archmage would be left weakened enough for her to deliver a swift killing blow, for not speaking that the tyrant would be dead and his sister would ascend to the throne automatically, which in turn would provide her with the opportunity to put her true plan in motion sooner than expected. If Phobos won, then Wong wouldn't be a problem anymore and everything would continue as she had designed; and at least the Dark Chi Wizard's plot would leave the court of the Prince weakened enough for the Rebellion and the Guardians to finish the job. The only thing she had to be careful with was of Wong getting his hands into the Heart of Meridian, but she supposed that possibility was very unlikely to happen, since Wong seemed to be planning to dispose first of Phobos and then turn his attention to the younger Escanor.

 _I will have to plan my next steps carefully_ , Nerissa thought as she casted a glamour around her, assuming the appearance of the 'Mage'. She approached a nearby table, where a vial of Wong's Shapeshifter serum surrounded by vials with several of Nerissa's own attempts at recreating said serum awaited. _But if a planner can't adapt her plans to any situation that goes out of control, then she doesn't deserve to be called a planner_. _Wong and Cedric's cheap ploy caught me off-guard, but if those two think that they can get in the way of the plans I have been crafting for decades, then they are far more idiotic than what I thought._ _Now, let's see,_ she thought as she took the vial in her hand, staring at the liquid inside; _how much more I can obtain from you before I unravel the secret behind how do you turn people into Shapeshifters._

* * *

 ** _Across the Veil; the Silver Dragon's basement; afternoon_**

One of the things Hay Lin loved more than anything else about her home was that it was situated over her family's restaurant. When she was just a kid, she would marvel at the fact that, just by descending some stairs her flat transformed into a place full of customers and sound and weird yet pleasant odors product of the food being cooked. She usually joked with her grandma and parents that the door that connected the Silver Dragon with their flat was some kind of magic, inter-dimensional portal. Of course, everyone would laugh at that. And now her life consisted basically into waking up, going to school, and then crossing magical, inter-dimensional portals to another world in order to fight. She had to admit that, from time to time, that lifestyle became really tiresome. Whoever had decided that every generation of Guardians was formed by five teenage girls from Earth hadn't had in consideration how Earth's educational system would end working. True, her grades hadn't dropped, and she still could make it to her painting classes, but Hay Lin found herself in need of more hours of the day to accomplish what she would accomplish in less before becoming a Guardian. Had her grandma had this same problem when she was young too? Had she struggled to maintain a balance between her Guardian duties and her normal life?

' _The secret for a healthy and happy life resides into enjoying the small moments and pleasures_ ;' her grandma had told her once, and Hay Lin had taken that lesson to her heart. Thus, why she was here, doing what she was doing.

"How long I'm supposed to stay still?" Chen Lin, carrying a tray full of grapes and sitting in a small chair, asked of his daughter and Uncle Chan; the girl sitting behind the elder, who was standing, painting a picture of Chen into a canvas. "My nose is staring to itch…"

"Did Uncle tell cousin Yan's son to move?" the Chan elder asked.

"N-No?" Chen Lin retorted.

"Then you don't move, you don't talk, and you let Uncle finish his painting!" the elder said, pointing his paintbrush at the man, just to resume his painting seconds later.

"Don't complain, dad;" Hay Lin addressed her father. "You're going to look super-pretty in this!" the Air Guardian cheered. "Seriously, you're very talented, Uncle Chan. I didn't know you liked to paint."

"Bah! There are a lot of things about Uncle that only Uncle knows!" Uncle declared, as he gave the finishing touches to the last grape he was reproducing. "Oil painting has always been one of my favorite pastimes."

"Yeah, I can see;" Hay Lin declared, looking at the ongoing painting of her father. She loved painting too, even since she had been young and she had gotten her hands into a bunch of paint. It was funny and also quite relaxing once she started practicing. For not speaking that it was an excellent way of using her imagination, and Hay Lin had a lot of that. Painting was also one of the things she had bonded with Elyon over with. The girl may had been closest with Cornelia, but Hay Lin and her could also spend hours talking about painting, drawing, which color and style was better for which picture… and now she was gone, blaming them for things they didn't have any control over. Could have hurt Elyon to stop for a second and talk? Her parents always said that people understood each other by talking, if those people were willing to talk and listen. True, Hay Lin could understand how Elyon must have felt due to how Cornelia had behaved for most of the time they had known each other, but the Earth Guardian was changing, and Elyon hadn't made any effort to see that. It made the Air Guardian's heart to darken, a mood she didn't like in the slightest, and to which neither was she accustomed. Good thing that she could also focus into the beautiful painting's creation she was witnessing. Her mother, Joan, always insisted that ' _black clouds always let way for the sun_ ' and that a bad situation can become better if you work hard enough. There was still hope, to heal the wounds that this entire situation with Elyon had left opened. Besides, that was practically Hay Lin's life motto. Keep smiling; keep giving it your best, things will get better.

"Mr. Uncle? Am I interrupting something?" came Joan Lin's voice from upstairs, the Chan elder stopping painting for a second.

"What?" the old Chi Wizard demanded to know.

"That big man, Tohru, is outside;" Joan informed, appearing from behind the door that gave access to the basement. "He wants to see you. Something about some mask or…"

Eyes widening a bit, the elder left his paintbrush and directed himself towards the entrance to the restaurant. Hay Lin followed in his steps by saying she was going to check what was happening, while Joan and Chen Lin were left alone.

"Wait!" Chen called or Uncle. "Are you going to come back? Can I stop holding the grapes? Can I scratch my nose?!"

"I don't know, Chen;" Joan answered to her husband as she got down the stairs and gave a good look at Uncle's oil painting. "Wow. He _is_ pretty good."

* * *

 ** _The street_**

Tohru had come to the Silver Dragon by using the car that Jackie had rented so many months ago. The sumo was waiting for his mentor standing at the side of the vehicle. As soon as Uncle and Hay Lin appeared on sight, the mountain of a man directed himself to them.

"Sensei," Tohru addressed the elder; "we have a… complicated situation at hands."

"My mom talked about you talking about some mask;" Hay Lin said, taking her hands to her mouth. "Please, please, tell me that it's not another one of those creepy masks that can summon shadow monsters."

"It's… two, actually;" Tohru said, shivering a bit.

"Two?!" Hay Lin exclaimed.

"Does apprentice have the willies?" Uncle inquired.

"It's not only that, sensei;" Tohru declared, shivering. One Oni Mask? That he could handle. Two? He was going to be getting the willies non-stop. "I was at home when the Hana Fuda cards activated, this time showing two Oni Masks at the same time, two ingredients for each mask-removal potion, but only one location; Heatherfield."

"Two new Masks here?" Hay Lin inquired, quirking an eyebrow. "That's weird. Even by this town's standards, I mean."

"It gets worse," Tohru said. "Before I could do anything, I received a call from Jackie and Viper, who were in a bar and… well, see for yourself. They are in the car."

"What do nephew and thief have to do with all this?" Uncle asked as he opened the car's door, looking inside. "Nephew, explain to Uncle why… AIYAH!"

"What?" Hay Lin asked with worry, rushing to the car. "Is there something wrong with… oh my God, your faces!"

"I told you it was complicated…" Tohru said, shivering again.

* * *

 ** _Across the Veil; Infinite City, Small Council's Room_**

"And that is our current situation;" Caleb finished giving his report to his fellow members of the Small Council, all of them sitting around the table they always held meetings at; a map of Meridian over it. At the table, Vathek, Aldarn, Drake, Sephiria, the Baroness of Fallbottom and the 'Mage' looked at the map with serious eyes.

"The famed Blade of Meridian advances through the outer ring and into the middle ring, which we are leaving save for some of the forces we have left in Torus Filney and Kelliwic;" Vathek said, pointing to a silver line that had been drawn in the map that represented the Archduchess' forces. "Are we sure she won't try attacking one of the cities we have taken?"

"No," the young rebel leader answered. "Her army's movement would have already shifted. Her next stop should be near the vicinity of Cavigor Prison, and then straight towards the Meridian Plains through the territory surrounding Lannion."

"And meanwhile," Drake said while sipping from a coup of red wine; "the remaining members of the nobility strengthen their position at the Meridian Plains, knowing that we will have to confront them if we want to march towards the Capital. At least we have the Count of Lannion on our side."

"A nobleman that can betray us with the same ease he betrayed his own;" Aldarn declared. "No offense to you, Baroness."

"None taken," Miriam said, winking at the young man, a gesture over which Aldarn remained impassive about. "Considering what our combined forces pulled at Kelliwick and that Cornelius must have informed them of it by now; I don't think I can afford betraying you to side with them again."

 _You can't?_ Aldarn thought. _What a lie. You could go to them and tell them how to access the Infinite City! Then they would raid it, killing us all! Damn it all, Caleb! What were you thinking bringing this woman and the Count to here?!_

"So the decisive battle of this war will take place at the Meridian Plains," Vathek muttered. It… wasn't the most advantageous of terrains. All the battles the Rebellion had faced had been either employing quick assault tactics or having tilted the balance of power in their favor. Torus Filney and Kelliwic were good examples of that. But to fight in the Meridian Plains, against the combined might of all the nobles that remained in Phobos' side? Even with the Count and his army among them, ready to turn to their side in the moment it was necessary, the Plains were immense, without any natural or artificial fortress in which take cover. It would be a bloodbath.

"I wouldn't call it the decisive battle of this war," Sephiria broke in, taking the blue Galhot out of his thoughts and back to reality. "Even with the nobles' main army defeated, Phobos and his court would still remain there. And then… then there's the Princess. The Light of Meridian;" Sephiria said, pronouncing the last words with reverence.

"The Princess has been deceived, now living a life of lies crafted by her brother;" the 'Mage' told them all. "Phobos won't let her to stay far away from those he trusts; and in turn she won't distrust him."

"Our best option then would be to break the deception," Vathek suggested; "or win the war, depose Phobos and let her take the throne."

"Easier said than done;" Drake retorted. "The girl is the Heart of Meridian incarnated, right Mage?" the ancient woman nodded. "If Phobos were to deploy her to the battlefield, or obtain her powers…"

"I don't think he will send her to the battlefield, she is too valuable to him as to risk her. If he obtains her power, which we should be preventing;" Caleb interrupted his friend; "we will have the Guardians' aid in order to deal with him. This Rebellion has come too far to have doubts now, or to continue to fight from the shadows and in the sidelines. We will face the nobles at the Meridian Plains, there is no other option. Drake, I want you in charge of organizing our supplies and weaponry. Vathek, Aldarn; I want the soldiers fresh but sharpened and ready for the battle of their lives. Sephiria, every wounded you and your faithful are sure can be brought back to fighting condition takes priority over the ones that can't. Understood?"

"Understood," each of the rebel commanders declared one by one.

"Then this meeting has ended;" Caleb declared, remaining in his seat while the rest departed to attend to their duties. Sighing, he spent the next minutes alone; drumming his fingers over the map and table, then passing two fingers over the scar that ran over his face. The war was finally coming to an end, after all these years. Rising from his seat, the rebel leader took off from the room. If it was time for Meridian to enter the final stages of this conflict, then perhaps it was time for him to face his own conflicted feelings.

* * *

 ** _Time later_**

There were times in which Caleb wished he could go back to how he was so many months ago, before he had crossed that Portal and ran into the Guardians; when he was nothing but a fool, thinking that all moves and sacrifices were for the good of the Rebellion, for the liberation of the realm. Being so pragmatic back then, when each of his steps was justified by his own fantasizing of being a hero of old lore, was way easier. Now, every time that he had to choose the most pragmatic decision, every time that he had to sacrifice a good man to save ten, or ten to save a hundred; he felt the weight of that decision. And nothing made him realize the weight of said decision more than this room.

The place he was currently in was a large chamber filled to the brim with wounded rebels that ranged from people with minor bruises to ones missing limbs; and members of the Faithful all around them, operating in either rudimentary beds made of straw, tables, or even the ground; trying to save the ones that could be saved. The ones that couldn't, however… Yes, those ones would probably be just barely treated and then left to the fate luck had reserved for them. Many of them would not probably see the first light of the next day. Well, it had been _his_ order to prioritize the ones that could be cured for battle over the ones that couldn't.

Caleb had always felt intrigued by the works of the Faithful. He supposed that was because he didn't actually understand how they worked. Healing by both weird medicine and magic (or a combination of those two), teaching to most of the smallfolk that wanted to learn how to read or count, the organization of the worshipping of the Light of Meridian… all of those were handed by the Faithful. Or at least so it was, until Phobos came. Worshipping the Light of Meridian was banned by word of the Prince, no one knowing how the population would react now that his sister, the true heir to the throne and Light of Meridian had returned. Phobos had ordered the abbeys to be burned down, he himself destroying Lannion's Cathedral. How could the population react now that the same tyrant that had destroyed their places of worship had brought the very same person they worshipped back to Meridian? The scarred rebel leader let those thoughts to leave his head. After all, he wasn't here to preoccupy himself with the tribulations of religious commoners; he had never been all that religious to begin with. No, he was here for a far different reason.

He surveyed the place until he found the person he was searching for and wanted to talk with. As he walked around the wounded and those treating them, he acted carefully enough that he wouldn't disturb the healers. Strong smells hit him, and he was able to hear some of the incantations that some of the healers that employed small spells in order to heal were muttering. He didn't last long until he reached Sephiria, the green haired girl tending to the wounds in the arm of a woman in her thirties or so.

"Sephiria?" Caleb asked of the girl, gaining her attention almost instantly. The nun practically jumped at that moment, surprised to see him here.

"Caleb?" the green haired healer asked. "What are you doing here? Is there something wrong? Something else that I need to know?"

"No, it's just…" Caleb began, just for his eyes to fall over the wounded woman and then over the rest of the people there. "Can we talk? Alone?"

* * *

 ** _The Capital, late afternoon_**

Tristan, son of Ban, couldn't yet believe what his eyes were seeing; which he thought as strange, as he had been seeing it the entire afternoon and thus was sure his eyes weren't being deceived by some illusion. Walking in front of him, sometimes giggling, sometimes not, were two girls.

And one of those girls, clad in a bluish regal dress, straw blond hair tied into two long braids that fell over her small and yet to develop chest, was the Princess. She was Princess Elyon Escanor, of Meridian; the Light of Meridian. His mind travelled back to some of the first years of his life he was able to remember, when he had been at Carhaiz and his mother and father had spent hours teaching him how to properly pray to the Light of Meridian, which phrases he must say in which moments and how to do so; insisting he should always do it in secret and away from the look of some of the more strict guards. Phobos had burned down abbeys, Phobos had destroyed the Cathedral on Lannion, but the people kept praying, if not to the Princess and the Queen, yes to the power they possessed and the belief they represented. And now the personification of said belief was walking a few steps in front of him, going from one market stall to another of the street they were currently in, marveling at what some of the merchants had to offer, both them and the commoners around bowing and praising her, some of them asking if they could even touch her, or if she would honor them with her blessing to their family, their business or something related to those. There were even children around, timid at first, but then eager to wave at the Princess. She answered them with politeness, at least.

But Tristan didn't forget his duty. He had been called here to protect the Princess, not to enjoy himself. Looking around, he spotted two guards at the end of the street, each carrying a spear. No problems in sight, or at least nobody that could be a rebel. He had to thank Captain Lothar for that. The Guard had taken almost complete control of the Capital and albeit most of them were concentrated around the walls that protected the Capital from exterior attacks, patrols had been doubled, efforts had been strengthened. No criminal or rebel sympathizer would dare to show his face around here, it was too risky for them.

It was Miranda who unnerved him the most, frankly. The spider was usually aloof and cold with almost everyone and every smile and chuckle that came from her was usually dripping with sarcasm and despise. But now he saw Miranda, and she was _giggling_ alongside the Princess, laughing and cheering and making funny and witty jokes; talking with the Princess and counseling her how to behave most appropriately in each situation, acting as a true friend even if the two girls had known each other for just a few hours. It was the strangest sight he had seen in his entire life, and he had seen pretty weird things! It was almost as if Miranda could switch between this sweet and laughing girl persona and her real, aloof and cold one. It was disturbing.

"Hey, Tristan;" he heard, taking him back from his little daydream. "I'm sorry; you're called Tristan, right?"

The Princess had stopped and was now standing in front of the white haired boy, forcing him to stop his walk too. Miranda was a few steps behind her, looking at him with slightly narrowed eyes. ' _Don't do anything stupid now, you idiot_ ', those dark blue eyes of the spider said to him. He focused on the smiling Princess in front of him again, who was holding a pair of rings, one in each hand.

"Yes, my lady; I'm called Tristan," the scorpion Shapeshifter answered.

"Okay, sorry;" the Princess apologized again, for some reason, using that weird expression she used from time to time; ' _okay_ '. What did that exactly mean? He had heard Simon using it sometimes when they had worked together, but now Simon was dead, and of course that meant he couldn't ask the fat boy what meaning the word held. "Which one of these rings do you think it's prettier?"

Tristan stared at the rings for several seconds. What did he know about rings? What the heck did he know about jewelry?! Were the rings different from one another to begin with? Both were golden, both had jewels embedded into them, it was just that one was green and the other blue. "The left one," he said after a moment and without thinking too much, pointing to the ring with the green jewel. _I guess_.

"Really?" Elyon said, looking at the piece of jewelry. "I thought the other was better…"

"Then choose the other one, your Highness;" Tristan declared rather bluntly, earning a small glare from Miranda. His action, however, made the Princess to laugh a bit.

"You're not very good at this, right?" Elyon asked of him, a question to which Tristan answered by tilting his head a bit.

"Not very good with what, your Highness?" Tristan asked. Behind the Princess, Miranda rolled her eyes.

The Princess, of course, laughed. "N-Nothing… with, you know, having fun? I mean, I know you two are here to protect me, especially you;" Elyon said, gesturing towards Tristan as she turned around, forcing Miranda to fall back into her smile demeanor; "but that doesn't mean we can't enjoy ourselves, and… maybe we could be friends. It'd be good to have _real_ friends;" Elyon told him, approaching the stall of the merchant from where she had taken the rings. "I'll take this one," Elyon said, showing him the one with the green jewel. "Miranda…"

The Shapeshifter girl approached the Princess and, standing and her side, extracted four golden coins out of one of her pockets, holding them so that the merchant would take them. The merchant in question, a half-breed in his late forties it seemed, rose up from the seat he was sitting at, leaning against a thick cane. His left leg was encased in old bandages and wood pieces, and it seemed to be twisted under all that; a fact that didn't escape the attention of either Tristan or the Princess.

"You… you're…" Elyon began, words not leaving her mouth with ease.

"A cripple, m'lady, aye;" the man answered, taking the coins in his palm. His voice was far more high pitched than what Tristan had imagined it would be, for some reason expecting that his voice would be gruff and deep. "Got crippled by some bastards, some raiders, some years ago, in the outer ring, m'lady. Not a story for Princesses, but thank you for…"

The man became mute when the Princess approached him, putting a palm over his torso. Both Miranda and Tristan were surprised too, the spider being the only one able to react.

"Your Highness," Miranda began, "With all due respect, what are you…?"

"It's okay, Miranda;" Elyon told her as she concentrated. After a few seconds her palm glowed in pure white light, as did her eyes. The merchant became terrified for a moment, but then the Princess talked again, her voice echoing with power. " ** _Walk_**."

There was a flash and a sound reminiscent of a strange, soft thunder. All the eyes in the street focused on the small show, wide open. Then the body of the merchant glowed for a few moments, and then it all stopped. Elyon separated from him and put herself at Miranda and Tristan's side. For a time, nobody knew what had happened. Then the man started to shift his weight from one leg to another, an enormous smile appearing in his face. He threw the thick cane away, and then proceeded to tear apart the bandages and wood pieces around his leg. When he removed them, his limb was completely alright.

"I…" the man whispered, still smiling, a few tears in his eyes. "I… I can walk. I can walk!" he stomped the ground with his foot. "Hahahah! I can walk!"

The entire street broke into cheers and applause, which were quickly joined by shouts of "All hail Princess Elyon! All hail Princess Elyon!" shortly after. The Princess smiled warmly, and Tristan couldn't avoid feeling a bit contagious about that same feeling. That's it, until the cheers died down and only one voice was left yelling.

"Boo!" the voice, belonging to an old Galhot woman, dressed in a peasant's normal attire declared, forcing her way between the people of the street. "Boo! Pathetic, pathetic Princess of the mud! How dare you come here now?!"

"I… what?" Elyon asked flatly. Meanwhile, Tristan and Miranda exchanged a worried glare.

"Princess of the mud!" the old crane declared. "Thirteen years of war! And now, now after all the tears you show up?! Curse you, curse your damned brother, your mother, and all you royalty!"

"I, wait!" Elyon told her, but it was too late. Before the Princess had any time to react, the old woman was able to distance herself from the rest of the commoners and rush at her shouting, with what seemed to be a large knife in hand.

The woman never reached her.

Elyon saw something grey being shot from behind her, something gooey and silky that wrapped around the woman and immobilized her, pinning her to the ground. Something that looked like… spider web? As the attacker struggled to free herself, something of a scarlet color jumped from behind her, landing on top of the woman. It was a giant scorpion, bigger than any adult man, with a scarlet exoskeleton, pointing its stinger tail at the woman's head.

"Stay still," The scorpion said with a raspy voice that reminded Elyon too much of Tristan. "Don't make me do this."

"Rot in the Abyss of Shadows, you filthy Shapeshifter!" the woman yelled back.

"Enough!" another raspy voice said behind Elyon, and as the girl turned her head, she was met with a four legged, black-furred spider-like creature (albeit the limbs seemed humanoid) with four glowing blue eyes. "Take her to the guards; I will take the Princess back to the Castle."

"Miranda?" Elyon asked of the spider, and then she looked at Tristan. "Tristan? You two are Shapeshifters like Cedric?" Well, not like Cedric. Cedric was bigger than them. They were similar to Jade, except Jade had become a wolf bigger than an adult man, and these were… bugs.

"Of course we are," Miranda told her. Of course, that was the reason they had been assigned to her, wasn't it? A pair of normal teenagers couldn't be able to protect her. The spider took Elyon and helped her to mount over her torso. "Let's go, Tristan can handle everything here."

Once Elyon was over her, Miranda shot a spider-web thread to a nearby building and used it to leap at it, climbing over the walls and once on top of it jumping from rooftop to rooftop. In any other circumstance, Elyon would have enjoyed this, maybe she would have made a Spiderman joke. But not now; now the only thing she was thinking about was the old woman, looking at her as if she was the most horrible and despicable thing in the world.

* * *

 ** _Across the Veil; Heatherfield, late afternoon_**

When Martin had commented to Irma some days before Spring Break that the place where he was planning to mount the radio club was near Sheffield, she hadn't been expecting for it to be in Sheffield's grounds. In fact, the place had turned out to be an old shack that had been lately reformed and that Knickerbocker had decided to transform in the new radio station, leaving the old one (inside the school building) to be remodeled into a room that the students could use for their spare time.

"So… we're basically cheap manpower," Irma declared as she entered into the shack with a bunch of cables. "You know Martin, when you told me I was gonna have access to my own radio station; I wasn't thinking that I'd have to build it. In vacation, no less! You made me come back to Sheffield before I was meant to!"

"C'mon Irma, don't complain. All the heavy stuff was already inside;" Martin Tubbs, dressed in a pair of pants that showed the lowest part of his legs and a blue jumper over an orange t-shirt, told her as he connected a cable's end to another. He adjusted is glasses afterwards, ruffling his hair a bit "And the Principal was really nice giving this place to us. But Knickerbocker said that we could only use it if we put everything in order, and that if we do something to this equipment we can say goodbye to this place."

"Blah, blah, blah, do all the heavy lifting, blah, blah, don't break anything, blah, blah, blah;" Irma summed up the important parts, leaving the cable on the ground. "And why are we the only ones around?"

"Because… we're the only ones interested?" Martin asked sheepishly alongside a silly grin.

 _Yeah, why don't I buy into that?_ Irma thought, but in the end she decided to not voice her question. _Agh… and to think I left Jade to do this_. Instead, the brunette sighed and pointed to the cables she had brought. "Where do we put these?"

If took them more than they had thought at first, but they ended putting everything together, connecting every cable where it needed to be. Then, as they checked everything up again, Irma made a gesture towards Martin.

"Alright, lights on;" she told the bespectacled boy, who flipped a series of switches in a nearby wall. Moments later every single electric device lighted up, working as expected. "Yeah! Teamwork!" Martin approached her and both teens shared a high five, looking proudly at the product of their work. "Good work, Martin!"

"Thanks," the bespectacled boy said, blushing a bit and rubbing the back of his head. "Hey, do you want to give it a try? I mean, I'm sure we can't broadcast yet, but we could…"

"Press buttons and see what happens?" Irma joked, letting out a weird laughter.

"Eh… I wasn't going to phrase it like that, but…" a worried Martin said. "Uhm, we're going to be careful with the equipment, right?"

"Yeah sure," Irma declared, grinning happily, her eyes gleaming as she looked over all the machines. "Oh, this is gonna be fun!"

They both spent almost the next hour playing a bunch of mixtapes, recording their voices and then adding weird sound effects over them. Even though they couldn't broadcast yet, Irma had to admit that Martin had had quite the good idea with this, and she felt actually grateful that he had asked her to join this little project. Of course they would need more people, and a name; something like… 'Lair on the Air'. Martin Tubbs could be kind of annoying (alright, actually _really_ annoying) sometimes, but right now? Right now both teens were relaxed. Of course, something had to happen that made it awkward.

"Okay, let me try this one;" Martin said, putting on another tape; this one extracted directly from his pockets.

"And what's that?" a still happy Irma wondered.

"It's a song I wrote," Martin told her.

"You write songs?" a surprised Irma asked. She could have expected that from people like Matt Olsen, but not from Martin. "About what?"

"About you," Martin replied happily, starting the music.

The tune started slowly, a single simple set of notes played in a guitar that repeated itself again and again. Then Martin's voice joined in, clearly not the most pleasant of sounds to the ears. The lyrics of the song were the worst part, being nothing but description after description of how awesome Irma was. Okay, maybe that wasn't the worst part, but the way in which those were being phrased… As the song advanced, Irma's expression changed from one of happiness to one of disgust.

"If I had my computer here I could show you the video that goes with this," Martin, oblivious to Irma's emotions, said happily. "It's just a bunch of photos I took from you…"

 _Okay, that does it_ ; Irma thought, stopping the song. "Martin?"

"Yes?" the boy asked hopefully, just for Irma to punch him in the arm ratter violently, making him tumble and fall to the ground. "Ouch! What was that for?!"

"I told you that if this was just another excuse to hit on me, I was gonna punch you!" Irma declared angrily, glaring furiously at the other teen. "And I don't know from which crappy film you took the idea, but writing weird songs and taking photos of the people you like isn't something romantic or some similar bullshit, it's freaking creepy!"

"Okay, sorry!" Martin told her, still on the ground. "And I took those photos on Sheffield; I wasn't stalking you or something!"

"That doesn't make it any better!" Irma retorted. "Look, I'm done. We're gonna talk about this, and we're gonna sort out this, and we're gonna do it in such a way that it finally breaks through that skull of yours. I! Don't! Want! To! Date! You!"

"Why?!" Martin asked, not even bothering to stand up, instead sitting on the ground. "What's so wrong with dating me?!"

"Nothing!" Irma said. "I never said there was anything wrong with you! I just said I didn't want to date you! Can't we just be friends?! Would that be so freaking weird?!"

"But I like you," Martin said in a much calmer voice. "You're funny, you're bold and you don't bite your tongue for anything! I like that! And if you say you don't have a problem with me, why don't give me a chance?"

"That's… that's not gonna happen, Martin;" Irma, also in a much calmer way, told the teenage boy.

"Why not?" Martin asked, now his voice starting to sound a bit angry. "You just stand there, telling me that you don't want to give me a chance and don't want to date me, and that there's nothing wrong with me… because reasons?"

"You should respect my decision;" Irma told him, folding her arms over her bust, looking sideways.

"I do!" Martin said. "But at least I deserve an explanation! Is it my glasses, my hair, the way I dress? Is it because you like another guy?"

"No!" Irma said quickly. "It's just… I don't…"

"Then why? You could just tell me, and then I'd stop and you could go and do whatever you want!" Martin said, anger growing. "But I deserve an answer!"

"Because I like girls, okay?!"

The phrase lingered in the air for several seconds, which of course both teens spent silent. Martin looked at Irma, his face softening, all traces of anger slowly disappearing. As for Irma, she approached the room's nearest wall and sat on the ground like Martin was doing, resting her back against the wooden wall.

"Oh!" Martin exclaimed after a while. "Oh…"

"Don't 'oh' me, Tubbs;" Irma said. "There you go; you got your freaking reason."

"You're a lesbian?" Martin asked.

"I suppose," Irma said, shrugging a bit.

"Why… why didn't you say anything sooner?" Martin asked. After a few seconds, he added; "I mean, we live in the twenty first century. It's not that people would look down on you or something like that."

"I know, I know…" Irma said. "But it's not so easy, either. Look, one day I was a kid, running around with my friends, laughing, having fun… and then one day after we started high school, we were at gym class, and then Mrs. Rivera said 'Hit the showers!' and then… BOOM! I like girls, apparently." Irma let out a chuckle that was somehow half sad and half humorous. "And then it was a whole new world for me. You think that you guys got it bad with puberty and asking girls out? Try having sleepovers with Cornelia Hale and Taranee Cook and we'll talk."

"Wait, wait;" Martin said, chuckling a bit on his own. "You have crushes on Cornelia _and_ Taranee?"

"I _had_ , in the past tense;" Irma remarked. "And it's not a crush, it's a… interest, or attraction, or something. And I had it on everything with a skirt."

"Yeah, I know that feeling;" Martin joked.

"Oh, ha, ha;" Irma laughed drily. "Very funny."

Martin lowered his gaze for a few moments. "But I still don't get why not say…"

"I don't know why I didn't say anything," Irma told him before he even had a chance of finishing the phrase. "I guess when all this started I was a bit confused about how it worked. Maybe I should've talked about it back then. Maybe I should've talked with my mom and my dad about it. But then all my friends started to say 'Oh, that boy's so cute!' or 'Oh, that guy's so hot!' and things like that; so I kinda started to say similar things too. Then I think I developed _these_ earlier than when's supposed to happen, or maybe it's my mom's genes taking action;" Irma said, gesturing to her breast, quite generous for a thirteen year old girl; also having into account that her mother was quite big in that area too. "And then boys started to like me, and give me looks. And if you guys think you're subtle about it, then you aren't. Heck, I think you're even less subtle just 'cause you think you're."

Martin gulped a bit. "Noted," he muttered.

"And that's it;" Irma said, letting out a long sigh afterwards. "That's why you should stop with all these 'asking me out' things. It's not gonna work. And they make you look like a loser."

"That last one was a bit unnecessary, but… thanks, Irma;" Martin said after a while. "For telling me this," afterwards he raised one hand, as if he was in court; "and I swear, I'll be a good friend and I won't tell anybody until you're ready to tell them yourself."

"Thanks. For that and for listening…" the Water Guardian told her friend. Friend, uh? Yeah, that had been the word he had used to refer to her, why wouldn't she use the same for him? "And thanks for understanding too."

They both remained where they were for several moments, not sharing more words. When they spoke again, the tension had almost entirely disappeared. After a while, they shut down the improvised radio station and left Sheffield's grounds. They bid farewell to each other and departed on opposite directions, the Water Guardian feeling that her mind was much clearer now. Shortly after, Irma received a call on her telephone. Moments later, she was running.

* * *

 ** _Fifteen minutes later_**

 _A sleepover_ , Cornelia Hale thought as she walked through the streets of Heatherfield. The sun was starting to set but there was still some light, thank everything that the days were already lengthening thanks to being spring. _Some day that excuse it's going to get old. Especially if we hold them in Jade's flat, like this time. The place's actually pretty small for all of us_.

The blonde and her family had returned to Heatherfield from their trip not even two hours ago. Cornelia had proceeded to take a shower and sit in the couch, not feeling like doing anything. Then, after a time, her phone had rang, and she had found herself informing her mother of the sleepover, dressing up again and heading towards Jade's home. As she walked, she spotted a familiar figure ahead, walking in the same direction as she was. Speeding up, the blonde caught up with her.

"Will!" Cornelia called for the redhead, tapping her shoulder.

The Keeper of the Heart jumped a bit thanks to the surprise, but quickly remained her composure. "Hey, Cornelia;" the redhead greeted her. "You got the call too?"

"Yes," the blonde answered flatly. "Are you… alright?" she asked of Will. Now that she focused into the redhead, she seemed to be in a kind of a… grumpy mood.

"Just one time, I'd like to end one of my dates with Matt when the date has finished;" Will complained.

"Oh, you were having a date?" Cornelia asked. "Sorry."

"It's nothing. I needed to relax, and Matt had just finished band practice. I suppose saving the world takes priority over that. I just hope Matt doesn't get too mad at me." Will declared. Both teens stopped at the entrance of a building. "There it is, let's go."

* * *

 ** _Chan flat_**

"This has to be the weirdest situation I've ever been in;" Taranee Cook stated.

Nobody else could disagree with the Fire Guardian's words, interestingly. This was probably one of the weirdest scenes any of them had seen, and considering how their life had been playing out lately; that was saying something.

The five Guardians of Kandrakar were in the flat the Chan Clan lived in on Heatherfield; alongside Jade, Uncle, Tohru, Jackie and Viper. The last two were the focus of the attention of all the people in there, the man and woman sitting in the couch while the others stood up around them. Tohru maintained himself the farthest from the pair, still having the willies from time to time. The six girls were standing much nearer, either with concern or puzzlement in their faces. As for Uncle, he was inspecting Jackie and Viper... whose faces were the core problem.

Jackie's otherwise Chinese and mature yet kind visage had been taken by a stern one, his face now of a yellow color, its most prominent feature the large horn that was now in his forehead. As for Viper, her lovely, beautiful tanned face had been twisted into one of a sickly orange color, her feminine features supplanted by sharp, feline ones. Her black mane had traces of purple hair on it now thanks to being mixed with the Oni's own hair.

The archeologist was sitting with his arms crossed and back firm, not moving a muscle; while the ex-thief was sitting in a much relaxed position, legs opened and a bored expression on her face.

"How the heck did this happen?!" a still shocked Jade inquired.

"We already told you," Jackie said in a far less gentle voice than usual. "Tarakudo appeared and put these Masks on us."

"And where's he?" the black haired Chan girl continued to talk.

"He disappeared after he put these things on us," Viper was the one to answer, gesturing to her Mask. Christ, their voices were so… weird. As if there was someone else in there, talking at the same time as they did, with far more monstrous voices.

"But that doesn't make sense," Will broke in. "Why would he go after you two and put those Masks on you just to leave you to do whatever you wanted?"

"Maybe he wanted to make them fight us?" Taranee wondered. "I know I wouldn't give it my all if I was fighting Jackie."

Before Jade could continue with another question, Uncle inserted a tiny wooden stick into his nephew's mouth, giving a look inside. "Uhm… interesting," the elder muttered, noticing how his nephew's teeth seemed to be sharper. Not as sharp as an animal's fangs, but something similar. "Does nephew feel different?" Uncle asked, getting the stick out of Jackie's mouth and then holding his head between his hands, forcing Jackie to move it left and right. "Voices in head? Urge to destroy anything?" Uncle then pocked at the horn for a couple of times.

"I'm hungry;" Jackie said nonchalantly. "And I would like to make tea."

"Since when do you prepare tea?" Jade asked of her Mask-wearing uncle Jackie, who just tilted his head.

"I… don't know;" Jackie answered. "But seriously, I'm hungry. Can I go to the kitchen and take something from the fridge?"

"Nephew will go and take something to eat when Uncle has determined he is not being controlled by Japanese demon!" the old Chi Wizard snapped at him, and then turned his attention to Viper. "Thief, are you…?"

"First, I'm not a thief anymore;" Viper said calmly, and then she showed her Mask's fangs at him. "Second, put that thing in my mouth and I'll rip your arm off, old man!"

"Wow, ma'am!" Irma said in shock. "Kind of extreme, you know?"

"I'm sorry, I'm sorry;" Viper said, rubbing her now orange temples. "It's this damn thing in my face! I swear I have the feeling that if I wasn't here I'd have assaulted a museum already."

"What? Why?" Cornelia asked of the woman, who just shrugged.

"I don't know," Viper said. "It's just… there are a lot of old memories coming back now. The adrenaline, the emotion, the feeling of power… I think the Mask is trying to convince me that I miss it."

"I still want to eat something;" Jackie said again, practically not paying attention to what Viper had just said. "I'm serious about being hungry, Uncle. I need to eat something. I could make some nice tea, put it in nice cups, and then I could rip a brain out of one of your skulls and make some nice tempura with… what?"

All the girls were now looking at Jackie with either puzzlement or fear. Jade gave a couple of long breaths before talking to her uncle. "Jackie… I'm gonna give you a couple of minutes to realize what you just said."

"I just said I wanted to eat your… oh," Jackie said, his expression changing to a frantic one afterwards. "Oh no, I'm turning into a monster! Ouch!"

"Aiyah! Nephew should calm down," Uncle ordered him after giving the archeologist a dope slap. "It's clear that the Oni inside the Masks are trying to influence you two. Apprentice! Ideas!"

"Uh…" Tohru babbled for a few moments. "As long as they don't summon Shadowkhan, they should be able to resist the possession and not end like Lothar and Hak Foo did. We should gather the two key ingredients and prepare the pair of potions as soon as we can, and remove the Masks."

"And those ingredients are…?"

"The tentacle of a Japanese octopus," Tohru said. "And, ugh, fish. I already called Captain Black to see if he can send us something from San Francisco or via one of his contacts. Fish should be able to be bought in any supermarket."

"Uh… maybe my dad can help with this?" Cornelia asked. "I mean, he's still technically the leader of a part of a global criminal organization."

"Or, to keep it simple;" Taranee said, checking her phone. "One of us could go to a Japanese food store and buy an octopus. " The Fire Guardian's phone emitted a sound. "Look, there's one just a bunch of streets from here."

"Very well," Uncle declared. "Uncle will go and buy fish and octopus. Meanwhile, apprentice will stay here with Guardians and niece and keep nephew and thief under control."

"What?" Tohru asked. "Sensei, shouldn't I accompany you?"

"Stay still, my apprentice;" Uncle instructed, calmly walking towards Tohru and delivering a dope slap to his forehead. "Does Uncle have willies with Japanese demons? No, apprentice does. Does Uncle know ways of dealing with Tarakudo if he comes back? No, apprentice does. And one more thing! Niece and Guardians are very powerful. They can deal with Shadowkhan if either nephew or thief summon them by accident."

"I said I'm not a thief anymore!" Viper complained. "Does he ever listen?" she asked to the masked Jackie.

"Very few times," he answered, and afterwards rose from the couch. "Alright Uncle, you go and buy the ingredients; Tohru and the girls will keep us under control. Now, who wants some tea?" he asked too much gleefully.

"This is going to be a very long night, isn't it?" Hay Lin asked, stretching herself.

* * *

 ** _Across the Veil; Meridian, the Castle at night_**

Miranda's chambers weren't as big as her own. However, they were located in one of the castle's highest towers, and were accessible by a set of different windows. If she was the one that was some kind of giant spider-like creature that could jump from rooftop to rooftop, Elyon supposed that she would find this place to be the most suited to be her room too, since it was very accessible from the outside.

On top of being smaller than her chambers, the Princess found the bed to be far simpler than hers. There was a little table with a pair of chairs too, and over it a book that Miranda must be reading, judging by the fact that Elyon could see a piece of blackish paper in between the pages, marking a page in particular. The Princess opened the book; a tome which's cover read 'Meridian's legendary artifacts', and read a bit of the same page Miranda was reading.

The Horn of Hypnos is a relic of meridianite lore that allows the user to control the will of others; the Princess read in her head. The artifact was apparently crafted on the earthly realm, by using the remnants of a demon's corpse. The only way to break the control it exerts over people is to play a tune in a string instrument. The tune is described bellow…

Elyon stopped reading out of boredom and decided to continue waiting. Miranda had gone to inform either her brother, Cedric or both of what had happened in the streets. Great, just what she needed. First time to leave the castle and some crazy lady had tried to kill her. But it had been what she had said and how she had done so what had disturbed Elyon the most. The way in which she had looked at her, with both anger and despair dripping from her eyes, telling her that she didn't have any right to show up here after all these years. In that regard, wasn't she kind of right? Elyon had been kept away from her true home for more than a decade. She supposed it was hard for some of her subjects, who probably had suffered a lot thanks to the war that the upstarts that had rebelled against her brother had created; to accept her. But everything had been going so well until that! She had enjoyed herself, she had made two new friends, and she had cured a crippled man! How good was that for a Princess first day amongst the commoners?

 _But I guess I'll have to do better_ ; Elyon thought as she approached one of the room's windows and looked at the black, starless sky. Meridian was weird. The sky of the Capital was yellowish during the day, and then it was always clouded during night. Her brother had told her that once she had complete mastery of her powers she could solve it, but she would need more practice. _Yes, I'll do better, you'll see. And when this is all over, I'll be the best Queen this world has ever had_.

"Elyon!" a concerned voice sounded from the window, forcing her to turn around to meet her brother and Cedric, who had just entered. "Are you alright?" her brother asked, always so worried, always so tender. He rushed towards her, embracing the girl without a doubt.

"Yes, big brother;" Elyon answered with a happy smile. "I'm alright, thank you."

 _Her power seems to be intact, her body has not suffered any injuries_ ; Phobos thought, concerned not with his sister's well being; but yes with the power her body held inside it. he broke the hug as soon as he could, and contained a shudder. He hated this entire situation about having to touch his sister. "I told you it could be dangerous to go outside."

"I'm sorry, I just…" Elyon said as she distanced herself from her brother. "I just wanted to help…"

"Miranda informed us about what you did for that merchant, my Princess;" Cedric said in a musical voice. "An act of pure nobility, if I must say."

"Thanks," she told the blond lord. "And I didn't thank Miranda and Tristan for basically saving my life. Where're they?"

"Miranda has things to attend to, and Tristan has yet to return;" the Snake of Cavigor informed the girl. "You will be able to thank them, don't worry."

"Okay…" Elyon said sheepishly, and then looked at her big brother again. "I'll understand if you told me not to go to the streets again…"

Phobos breathed deeply. "Sister, if you desire to help the realm, then maybe there is a way by which you could do so."

"Really?" Elyon asked, her eyes lighting up with enthusiasm and hope. "How?"

"The Rebellion has more allies on Earth than the Guardians," Phobos told her, putting on a false smile. "There is a man to whom the smallfolk refer to as King Smuggler, called Charles Ludmoore. He makes a life out of making deals with the rebels, selling them information that his spies gather, or even weaponry. In a few days, a platoon of Lurdens directed by Cedric and Archmage Wong will depart to Earth and attack him. You will go with them and aid in the attack with your powers."

"Seriously?!" an amazed Elyon asked. Now this was it! What better way of making a difference and helping her people than stopping a criminal? "Of course I'll help!"

"A fantastic idea, my liege;" Cedric flattered the Prince. Even so, he couldn't hide his smirk. "As always."

* * *

 ** _Across the Veil; Chan flat_**

Tohru was disturbed to the extreme, a feeling that he supposed the six girls that were in the room with him shared. In order to make enough space for everyone, the sumo had taken the couch out of the living room, and he, the sextet of girls, Jackie and Viper were having an improvised dinner while sitting on the ground. While at first the sumo had prepared something simple for everyone, once he had finished eating Jackie had taken a bunch of raw pork ribs that Tohru had bought in the morning from the fridge and had proceeded to cook them; eating them all by himself, except for a pair that Viper had snatched from his place. Then he had gone back to the kitchen and come back after several minutes, carrying two pots full of fuming liquids.

"There we go," Jackie said, leaving the pots in the middle of the circle the girls and the adults had formed. Each of the girls was now clad in her pajamas, but hey; if you are going to fight monsters, then at least is better if you're comfortable doing it. If Tohru could put on his pajamas, he would, but he didn't have the advantage of a transformation that gave him new clothing or that transformed him into a giant wolf. "But I think you shouldn't allow me in the kitchen anymore;" the archeologist told them all.

"Why's that?" Jade asked, looking at the two tea pots.

"Well, this pot here;" Jackie said, pointing to one of them; "is full of what I think is very good tea."

"And the other one?" Hay Lin wondered, extending her hand towards the second tea pot.

Jackie chuckled in a way neither Jade nor Tohru had heard him do before. "Ah, I'm pretty proud of this one. See, I think I improvised a kind of paralyzing poison using some of the ingredients in the kitchen."

"Excuse me, _what_?" Cornelia asked flatly, while Hay Lin decided that touching the pot wasn't the brightest of ideas.

"Poison? You created poison with the things in our kitchen?" Jade asked of her uncle who sat down and served himself a cup of tea from the first teapot. "How do you know how to make poison?!"

"The Mask told me," Jackie said as if it was the most normal thing ever. "It also told me what the best way to cook the ribs was. And they didn't disappoint."

"The Mask… is talking to you. And it's giving you cooking advice on top of telling you how to make poison with mundane…" Will stated slowly, sighing and rubbing her forehead a couple of times. The Heart of Kandrakar was hanging over her clothes, ready to be used if needed. Her eyes left Jackie and focused on Viper. "What about you, Ms. Viper?"

"Drop the 'Miss', girl." Viper told Will nicely. "Seriously, it's too serious for me. But if you want to know if the Mask is talking to me or not… do you know that almost all human adults have 206 bones in their bodies, most of them are located in hands and feet, and that I somehow know 63 different ways to break them and bring out as most pain as possible? Do you know what's the best way to leave a person flayed without killing him or her? because I do now."

Silence took over the room, the only sound hearable the one Jackie made by drinking from his teacup. That… that had been _incredibly_ disturbing to hear. Irma raised one hand afterwards, as if she was in class.

"Let me guess;" the brunette said; "the Mask told you."

The masked Viper nodded in affirmation. "And that's not the most disturbing part. From time to time, it tells me I got a nice rack and ass. I think this demon's a pervert."

 _Well, he's not exactly wrong_ ; both Irma and Jade shared a thought without knowing it.

"I think I'm starting to get it;" Taranee said, adjusting her glasses. "Maybe the General in Jackie's Mask is some kind of poison expert, while the one in Viper's must be some kind of… torturer."

Jade took one hand over her shoulder and scratched a part of her back. The scars had begun to itch, memories of a whip hitting her, ripping her skin and flesh apart; flashed through her mind. The mere thought about torture was enough to make her to feel angry.

"Any idea why these Masks are influencing them so quick, but that Hak Foo guy's took so long to take control of him?" Hay Lin asked of Tohru, who was making annotations in a little notebook. Whatever the situation was, Uncle had taught the mountain of a man that any moment was good for research if new information could be gathered.

"The Oni General that ended possessing Hak Foo identified himself as lazy at some point;" the wizard apprentice stated. "Maybe none of these two is lazy. Maybe they are trying their hardest to take control of their hosts. But as I said, as long as they don't summon Shadowkhan, everything should be… augh!" Tohru stopped in the middle of his sentence, shivering. "The willies…"

"You sure you don't wanna leave the room, T?" Jade asked of the sumo. "I mean, we got two Oni…"

"No! It's not them, it's…" a shocked Tohru said, shivering again. "It's _him_ …"

Before any of them had any time to react, every single window of the flat shot open. Then without any warning, all of them found themselves in the air, as if pulled by an invisible set of chains that took them from the apartment and threw them into the streets… or more accurately, into Heatherfield's night sky, since the Chans lived in quite the high flat.

"Bad day!" Jackie and Jade yelled in unison. Meanwhile, Will was able to think quickly, grabbing the Heart of Kandrakar that hanged from her neck and rising it up.

"Guardians, unite!"

After the usual flash of pinkish light, Jade, Jackie, Tohru and Viper stopped falling in midair, Irma, Hay Lin, Cornelia and Taranee holding each of them respectively. The flying girls let the others in the ground gently and then landed too. The street was completely empty at night, something both Guardians and Chan Clan were grateful for. The last thing they needed right now was for innocent bystanders to get in the middle of a fight.

"What the hell?!" the masked Viper shrieked. "Is too much to ask for a tranquil night?!"

"Everyone alright?" Will asked of her companions, who nodded. Tohru, meanwhile, got more willies.

"Good evening, gentlemen and ladies!" a voice boomed through the skies. Slowly, some kind of distortion took place over them, Tarakudo's gigantic, ethereal head taking form and looking at them. "I'm sorry for interrupting your dinner, but I thought this was a moment as good as any other to indulge into some… nighttime exercises." Tarakudo declared, grinning.

"You!" Viper yelled at the Oni. "Get these thing out of my and Jackie's faces! Now!"

"Wait a second, that's the King of the Oni?" Irma asked, crooking a brow. "I… I know he should be scary, but he looks kind of ridiculous. It's as if someone had drawn a weird face in a basketball ball."

"My apologies for not meeting your expectations, Guardian;" Tarakudo told Irma. "As for you," he directed himself to Viper, descending until his ethereal giant head was at the Guardians and Chan Clan's level; "a Mask can only be removed by, ugh;" Tarakudo grimaced; "those horrible chi spells. But I suppose that if you were dead… here, let me help you with that."

Tarakudo unleashed a telekinetic wave, hitting all his enemies and sending them flying. The Guardians remained in the air thanks to their wings, while Tohru, Viper and Jackie fell to the ground. Jade, meanwhile, was able to balance herself in the air and land on her feet. The two adults with the Masks were quick to go back to their feet, while Tohru extracted his blowfish from his pocket and lasted a few more seconds in the ground.

Tarakudo, meanwhile, hadn't wasted his time and had used his telekinesis to lift several trash cans from the vicinity, alongside some sewer covers and even a car. He proceeded to throw them all in their direction, The Guardians either evading some of them or blasting them with their elements. The car was directed directly at Viper, who evaded it just in time to not get hit. Roaring, the woman approached the trashed car and ripped apart one of its doors with the same ease a kid would rip an insect's wings off. She threw the door at Tarakudo, which of course didn't do anything but go though him without leaving a scratch.

The King of all Oni laughed, mocking the former thief. "That's the best you can do? I give you a Mask that would increase the abilities of the most mediocre of humans to the level of the most talented of warriors, and you throw a door at me? Ha!"

"Tarakudo!" Will yelled, and the King soon found himself surrounded by the five Guardians of Kandrakar. "You're an idiot coming here! You're alone against all of us!"

"I believe it was someone wise who once said that quality beats up quantity, and that experience is more important than power;" Tarakudo declared.

"You're still one against nine, Butt-Head;" Irma told the Oni. "It doesn't matter how much experience you got, we'll still beat your ass."

"Really?" Tarakudo said, grinning a bit. "The lady with the anger issues below us would like to differ on that."

Only then Will took her sight out of the Oni floating head and focused on Viper, who was standing still in the street, near the trashed car and basically growling. Around her, large shadows danced in circles; while Jade was trying to talk to her.

"Viper, listen;" the Chan girl began. "That Mask's messing with your head. You need to calm down. Summoning Shadowkhan it's not going to help anyone…"

"Shut up!" Viper yelled, the shadows on the ground stopping their movements. "I was having a pretty normal day until that asshole put this thing on my face! I was having a pretty normal life until I came to this city! But screw all that! A normal life's not for this woman, so I think I'm going to go back to how I was before, and I think I'm going to start by taking that jewel that your friend's got!"

Viper proceeded to roar then, and from each of the shadows surrounding her appeared a large, slippery creature. In mere seconds, ten Shadowkhan belonging to a completely new tribe were standing around Viper. Each of them was a tall, large creature with a body resembling the one of a gigantic eel, with no legs and four large tentacles instead of arms. Their head had one single red eye; very similar as to how the Mantis Khan had looked.

"Oh boy, squids now? Squid Khan?" Jade wondered, slowly walking backwards and away from the newly baptized Shadowkhan. One of them started to creep towards her, raising its tentacles with clearly not the best of intentions. "I liked the Shadowkhan more when they were just ninjas!"

The Shadowkhan shot its tentacles towards her, forcing the girl to dodge the next attack. The tentacles smashed against the ground, cracking it open. Jade was then able to shot a blast of red chi from one of her palms towards the Shadowkhan, forcing the creature to be the one dodging this time. The attack hit one of its tentacle pairs, and letting out a shriek of pain, the creature lost two tentacles, which fell to the ground and dissolved. Narrowing its glowing red eye at Jade, the Shadowkhan proceeded to contort itself, its torso enlarging as if it was made of rubber and wrapping itself around Jade with the intention of suffocating her. Jade coated her entire body in blood-red chi, making the Shadowkhan to let out another scream and free her, the creature of shadow considerably damaged.

"What are you waiting for?" Viper told to the rest of her Shadowkhan. "Go and help him, you tentacle morons!"

The other Shadowkhan joined their brethren, while Viper looked at them obeying her with an amused expression. As the other Shadowkhan started to fight Jade, Tohru joined the battle and blasts of green chi joined the red ones. Tilting her masked head, the ex-thief looked at two of her minions to be defeated. "More?" she asked, and then another small pack of Shadowkhan rose from the shadows and joined the others. "More!" she said again, summoning another ten, which also joined the battle. Before she could call for more of the shadow cephalopods, however, a hand grabbed her wrist.

"You can't do this, Viper;" the masked Jackie Chan told the woman, holding her hand down and preventing her from summoning more Shadowkhan. "It's not right! You will hurt them!"

"I can't do this?" Viper asked, grabbing Jackie's hand with her own and forcing him to let go of her wrist. "Sorry Tiger, but you can't tell me what to do. Nobody can!" she exclaimed, and the proceeded to kick Jackie in the gut, sending him flying and colliding into a nearby streetlight that got dented and shut down.

Meanwhile, in the air, Tarakudo looked at the ongoing battle, and smirked at Will. "Are you sure the numeric advantage is still yours, Keeper of the Heart?"

"Damn it!" Will cursed, glaring angrily at the still proudly smirking Tarakudo. "Everyone, with me!" she yelled, the five teenage girls flying downwards at top speed.

"And that takes care of that issue," Tarakudo declared as he saw how the Guardians joined the fight below. Then he searched for the fallen Jackie, still on the ground. "Now, for the other one;" the King declared, floating towards Jackie.

"Hello there, Mr. Chan;" Tarakudo told the half-conscious masked man. "That woman took you by surprise, didn't she? And look at the girls," Tarakudo said as he floated behind Jackie, practically speaking into his ear. "Look at them fighting against the Shadowkhan." Jackie did as told, eyeing the ongoing battle with worry in his eyes. "Your Uncle has departed in order to find the ingredients for the potions that need to be used for the chi spell, and those children won't be able to fight with complete determination somebody they consider an ally;" as Tarakudo spoke Jackie's eyes widened. "If only there was anyone around here with access to his own tribe of Shadowkhan…"

"I do!" Jackie said, standing up in one swift jump.

"Remember, Mr. Chan," Tarakudo said as he floated away. "Darkness within! Concentrate in your own negative emotions!" the King proclaimed. _Controlling humans when they are wearing these Masks is just too easy_ , the Oni thought. _Then again, Takahiro wasn't only a genius poisoning the body, but also the mind_.

 _Focus, human, focus_ ; a voice inside Jackie's head said. _Focus on the hunger, the desire to consume and swallow every single thing, just like the shadows do…_

Jackie roared; something that got Tohru and the girls' attention. Blasting another Squid Khan, the sumo approached Jackie, blowfish bright with green chi and ready to attack.

"Jackie, what are you doing?!" an angered Tohru demanded to know of his friend.

"Helping!" Jackie declared, raising his arms upwards.

Around him, more shadows had started to dance. From each of the shadows emerged a new Shadowkhan, each pitch black, with a body-shape similar to the one of little sharks, standing over four legs and with a fanged mouth being the only thing in their face. And each of them weren't bigger than an adult man's fist.

Each single combatant stopped fighting, even the Squid Khan stopped swinging their tentacles around, taken aback by the sudden appearance of the new type of Shadowkhan, and how ridiculous they seemed in comparison with the weird and imposing Squid Khan.

Viper couldn't avoid chucking at the sight. "Don't worry, Tiger. Size isn't all that important."

"Cute! They're like... tiny Shadowkhan!" Hay Lin cheered. "Mini Shadowkhan! No, Mini Khan!"

"Hay-Hay, I don't think that cute is the best way to describe them;" Irma stated, getting a bit disturbed by the appearance of the little things.

"This has to be some kind of joke;" Jackie lamented, looking at his small Shadowkhan.

"Jackie, I told you that you must not summon Shadowkhan, I...! I..." Tohru trailed of, getting dizzy. He took one hand to his head and tumbled a bit backwards. The sumo fell to his knees afterwards, his blowfish slipping from his hands. The archeologist rushed to his side, holding him in his arms as the mountain of a man continued to fall. Jackie watched in horror as he discovered what he thought was probably the reason why Tohru was falling unconscious.

The Mini Khan, his Shadowkhan (or at least the bunch of them he had summoned) were eating the large man's shadow. They were feeding on it with the same anxiety a herd of pigs feed in their fodder. And as Tohru's shadow was consumed, the Shadowkhan grew. Their bodies became fatter and bigger, and after devouring the sumo's entire shadow, each of them was as big as a small dog. Their appearance was far less cute than before, as their mouths were bigger than before, occupying almost their entire face; and their teeth were now larger and sharper.

"Tohru..." Jackie said as he deposited the sumo in the ground. The martial artist checked his friend's breathing. "He is... he is unconscious."

"Those who have their shadows eaten by the Shadow Eaters are trapped in eternal sleep until their shadow is returned. And the more shadows these Shadowkhan consume, the bigger and stronger they get. Takahiro was really inspired when he created these things. I believe he based them in leeches." Tarakudo informed. "And devouring the shadows of humans is not their only trick. For example..."

Tarakudo whistled, and the band of grown up Mini Khan launched themselves towards the nearest Squid Khan, proceeding to tear it apart with their mandibles, eat it and grow even more, reaching an even bigger height than Jackie's.

"Gross!" Cornelia shouted.

"They're cannibals?!" a shocked Taranee asked. It did make sense, though. Shaped like squids or not, shadows were still shadows.

"They can eat other Shadowkhan..." Jackie started to say. "And if they eat a person's shadow, that person falls into a coma... that's it! I can't believe it's so simple!"

"Jackie?" Jade asked with concern. The black haired girl was really disturbed by the maniacal glee Jackie had pronounced those words with.

"Don't you understand? If I put you all in a coma forever," the archeologist declared with conviction; "then none of you will get harmed again! It's brilliant!"

Jade hit her forehead with her palm. "Are you listening to yourself?!"

"I am," Jackie said in a much more serious tone, more Mini Khan appearing around him. "I think _you_ are the one that's not listening. Always wanting to do as you pleased, never listening to what I say when I'm just trying to help you! The only reason you have those scars in your back is because you didn't do as I told you! Do you have any idea how worried I get each time any of you six go to Meridian?! Do you have any idea how scared I am each time that I think of the possibility of some of you actually losing your lives?! What do I tell your parents then, how do I explain it?! It's my responsibility, Jade! You are _my_ responsibility! And if you don't let me protect and help you…" Jackie yelled at his niece, his Shadow Eaters, both the big and the little ones; starting to march quite quickly in her and her friends' direction. "Then I will force you to let me!"

Jackie's words hit stronger than any blow from any Shadowkhan; but Jade didn't get any moment to make a counterargument. The Mini Khan were already reaching them, and so the Guardians took to the skies, and Jade shifted into her wolf form. While she dedicated herself to deal with the grown up Shadow Eaters, the Guardians were locked in a fight with the Squid Khan, which due to their stretching capabilities could reach and attack them perfectly from the ground. More Shadowkhan of both tribes appeared from time to time, some of them attacking the girls while others fought each other. A Squid Khan caught a Mini Khan with his tentacles crushing it until it dissolved in a small mass of shadows. A pair of Mini Khan bit a Squid Khan's tentacles and ate them, proceeding to eat the entire creature afterwards, and growing in size as a consequence of it.

"You think you can mess with _my_ fun, Tiger?" the masked Viper said as she approached the masked Jackie.

"Viper, I'm just trying to help you all;" the archeologist declared. "Please, let my Shadowkhan devour your shadow and fall in a coma without making a scene. I don't want to fight you."

"Pity," Viper said, licking her masked lips and grinning. "Because for old time's sake… I think I do!" the ex-thief declared, rushing towards the archeologist and delivering an ascending kick. Jackie blocked it with ease, not being caught by surprise this time; and then punched Viper in the ribs. Due to wearing an Oni Mask, Jackie's already outstanding strength was only multiplied. This time, it was Viper who was sent flying and tumbling to the ground, from where she raised quite quickly, and laughing.

"Not bad, Tiger!" Viper declared, her smile quite disturbing thanks to the feline features of the Mask she was wearing. "But I'm not going down so easily!"

Jackie was the next one to start the attack, Viper answering by dodging some of his punches and kicks and hitting him here and there. While it was clear Jackie was the most skilled of the pair in combat (after all his training was purely dedicated to fighting, while Viper's was to stealth) Viper seemed much faster and flexible than him, both in body and in mind.

"And to think I was angry with that giant head for putting this Mask on me!" Viper commented. "This thing is amazing! I've never felt so alive!"

And speaking of said giant head, Tarakudo was just enjoying himself, looking at how the battle was developing. He had chosen well giving the Masks to those two; their chi and bodies were strong enough to keep summoning Shadowkhan while still fighting. The Guardians and the Ben-Shui reincarnation where locked in a fight against the pair of Shadowkhan tribes (even if those were also fighting each other) and the Chi Wizard was unconscious. How long would take for the other wizard to return?

 _Irrelevant_ ; Tarakudo thought as he started to float away from the battle and towards the Chan Flat. _I would love to stay and enjoy the thrill of combat a little longer, but I have more important things to do_.

* * *

 ** _Meanwhile…_**

Oblivious to the fighting going on, walking at a slow pace through Heatherfield's streets, with only the light from the streetlights lighting his way; was Matt Olsen. The teen had been having a date with Will Vandom just hours before, but as the afternoon had reached its end, the redhead had gotten a call, and she had left him, saying that it was an " _urgent emergency_ ". Again. Man, what was going on with her? One day she kisses him, then the other she just leaves him alone without an explanation…

"Matt? Matt Olsen?"

"Whoa! Who's there?! I've got a flashlight, you know?!" Matt said loudly.

"Calm down, it's me;" he heard the voice again. The voice of a… girl? Focusing ahead, he spotted someone standing by the nearest streetlight. It was a petite girl with reddish brown hair; dressed in a pair of pink trousers and a green sweater. "I'm Alchemy, Alchemy Ethel. We go together to Sheffield."

"Oh, yes!" Matt said, finally recognizing her. "You're one of Cornelia's friends, right?"

Alchemy sighed, giving Matt the impression that being recognized as ' _Cornelia's friend_ ' wasn't something she liked too much. Clearing his throat, the teen started to walk alongside the girl.

"So… what are you doing here?" Matt asked Alchemy. "I mean, it's none of my business what you're doing or where are you going, but it's kinda late."

"Couldn't that be applicable to you too?" Alchemy asked of Matt, who nervously evaded the question for as long as he could. "It's okay; I think we're going to the same place. You're looking for Jade's flat too, right?"

"How do you know…?"

"You're Will's boyfriend, that's what everyone at Sheffield says;" Alchemy told him. "And I know that Will's at that apartment because Cornelia's there too, or at least that's what her mom told me. Do you want to see Will?"

"We were… kind of having a date today;" Matt told the petite girl. "But then Will left because…"

"They're having a sleepover, or that's what Mrs. Hale told me;" Alchemy told him.

"What?" a dumbfounded Matt inquired. "But that's not what Will told me! Oh man, oh man… does she want to break up with me? I need to speak with her about this right now!"

"You can do that as soon as we get to Jade's home;" Alchemy said, scratching her neck a bit.

Both teenagers continued their walk in silence for the next minutes. "Say," Matt broke the silence; "why are you going there?"

"I want to talk to Cornelia;" Alchemy explained; "about Elyon."

"Elyon?"

"I'm worried about her," Alchemy answered. "I've been trying to get in contact with her for the last week, but nothing. I went to her home, and it's empty. I thought that maybe she's on vacation, but she won't answer my calls. With everything that's been going on between Cornelia and her lately… I'm worried. I just want to… wait, did you heard that?"

"Hear what?" Matt asked.

"That," Alchemy said; stopping in her tracks and making signs to Matt to stay quiet and listen. "That sound. Don't you hear it?"

"I don't… wait, now I do. It sounds kinda like… explosions?" Matt wondered. "it's from the end of the street, elt's go!" Matt declared, starting to run.

"What?" Alchemy asked, running after him. "Are you crazy? What if it's dangerous?!"

"If it's dangerous, people might need help!" Matt told her as he turned around a street's corner. "Besides, isn't Jade's apartment just around...? Holly Christ!"

"What?!" Alchemy asked as she also turned around the corner. "What's wro- AH!"

The reactions of both teens were pretty justified, considering the bizarre scene they were witnessing and that was taking place at the end of the street they had just entered. Five winged teenage girls flying and shooting elemental attacks against an horde of monsters that were, at the same time, being fought in the ground by the biggest wolf they had ever seen. And of top of all of that, what seemed to be a man wearing a bluish pullover and khaki pants and a woman wearing a pinkish t-shirt and dark short pants were fighting.

What drew most of their attention, however; was the fact that they recognized the teenagers that were flying around and firing blasts of fire, air, water and making plants to sprout out of the ground.

"Will?!" Matt exclaimed, as he spotted his girlfriend descending at match speed towards the ground, evading tentacles and jaws, taking a grown Mini Khan by the back of its head and hoisting it up in the air, the creature dissolving in a mass of shadows in the moment it fell to the ground.

"Cornelia?!" Alchemy said with a voice that matched Matt's intensity, as she saw her friend, clad in pink and greenish blue clothes resembling the ones of a magical girl attack one of the tentacle black creatures by raising her hand and making several vines to sprout out of the ground.

None of both teens got any opportunity to say anything else, as in that moment a Squid Khan launched a grown Shadow Eater across the street, the creature landing around five meters away from Alchemy and Matt. The gigantic shark-like leech Shadowkhan shook its head a couple of times, before sniffing the air. With a grin, it started to walk in Matt and Alchemy's direction.

Both teens frozen by fear and shock, neither was able to say a single word, not even when the Shadow Eater, bigger than both of them now thanks to consuming many of its Squid counterparts, was mere inches away from their faces. Sniffing the air again, the grown Mini Khan opened its jaws with the intention of getting a taste of one of the youngsters.

Fortunately for both Matt Olsen and Alchemy Ethel, a blast of green energy hit the creature of shadow moments before, making it to scream in pain and dissolve into a puddle of darkness. As the Shadowkhan disappeared, old Uncle Chan stepped out from behind them, carrying his dried blowfish in one hand and a plastic bag full of supermarket products.

"Good night," Uncle greeted the pair of teens plainly. Without wasting more time, the elder slowly walked ahead of them, almost as if he wasn't focusing on what was going on

"W-Wha… what was that?!" a terrified Matt asked to nobody in particular. "What just happened?!"

Alchemy couldn't bring herself to say anything. Instead she kept watching the fight, trying to take in the fact that Cornelia and the rest of the girls she had known for most of her life were flying and fighting monsters.

* * *

 ** _On the fight…_**

Fighting a single tribe of Shadowkhan is, using really simple terms, difficult. When you face Shadowkhan, you aren't facing against normal soldiers, who will either tire with time, lay down when defeated, or die after a fatal blow. Shadowkhan don't tire, and if they are destroyed, more can occupy the vacuum their fallen brethren have left. As such, if you lack any kind of special ability like magic (be it Raw or Chi based) or you aren't an exceptional combatant, fighting a Shadowkhan tribe and winning, let alone surviving, is nearly impossible. So… what would you call fighting two tribes at the same time? The most appropriate word for that would be hellish.

And hellish was the word that described best the situation in which the five Guardians of Kandrakar and Jade Chan found themselves in right now. The four Guardians that had access to their elements were blasting Shadowkhan after Shadowkhan, having to be very careful that the Squid Khan's tentacles didn't grab them. The advantage that flying gave you in a fight wasn't all that great when your enemy could stretch himself to reach you. Meanwhile, Will Vandom did her best to strike some blows into the Shadowkhan she could, careful to evade both tentacles and jaws. Jade was the one doing best against her foes, mainly thanks to her Ben-Shui Chi Degradation abilities, which in combination with her wolf form made her enough of a match for several Shadowkhan at the same time. However, the Shadowkhan weren't just focusing on the girls. Each tribe alternated from fighting the Guardians and Jade and fighting each other, Squid Khan crushing some Mini Khan, while Shadow Eaters dedicated themselves to consume the shadow cephalopods. And ignoring this chaotic development of events were Jackie and Viper, still fighting each other, and becoming more and more violent with each minute that passed.

"Viper, you must listen to me!" the masked archeologist yelled as he blocked a punch from the woman. "If you just stopped and let me put you to sleep… ugh!"

Viper's fist connected with the archeologist's face. "Sleep?" the former thief asked. "Sorry Tiger, but you will have to take me on a couple of more dates first!"

Viper threw another punch, this one easily stopped by Jackie. "Alright, no more Mr. Nice Archeologist;" Jackie declared, punching Viper in the gut and pushing her backwards, near the thrashed car Tarakudo had attacked them with before.

Bending over herself a bit, Viper dedicated a grinning face to Jackie after the blow. "Oh! Kinky!" she said, approaching the car and ripping another door and a wheel from it this time; throwing them as Jackie as if they were projectiles.

Jackie stopped the incoming wheel with a hand, while he jumped in the air and kicked the door as it was coming to him, shattering it in two. "Is that your best?" he asked afterwards. "And I thought that you were as strong as beautiful."

"I'll show you how strong I am, pretty face!" Viper yelled, rushing towards him and restarting their close combat.

"But are they fighting or flirting?!" Cornelia asked as she got a look at the fight, dodging the attack of another Squid Khan.

 _Asking for this since I met Viper, and the only time I get them to consider hooking up it's because they're fighting and manipulated by demons…_ Jade thought. As she sank her teeth into another Shadowkhan, she noticed how their numbers weren't decreasing in the slightest. "Will!" the Chan girl called for the redhead. "Get everyone out of here, I can get rid of them!"

"Okay!" Will yelled. "Everyone, out of the fight, give Jade room to act!"

As the Guardians flew away, Jade started to concentrate her chi and revert back to her human form. Once shifted back, she had her palms pushed against one another, generating a cube of red chi between them. Muttering words in Japanese, Jade let the horde of two different types of Shadowkhan to attack her at the same time.

 _Murasaki, I so hope this works_ ; Jade thought as she separated her palms and opened her arms, unleashing the cube, which expanded until covering the entire area and casting a reddish glow over it. At first nothing happened, but then the Shadowkhan started to dissolve into puddles of darkness, Jade having trapped them inside an area affected by her Chi Degradation powers. After several minutes of being casted and the Shadowkhan were gone, the Chan girl fell to her knees, exhausted and panting.

"Jade!" she heard Will's voice, the redhead and her other four friends descending to her aid.

"It's okay," Jade told them between pants, Irma and Hay Lin helping her to incorporate. "I'm just… a little tired. That spell consumed too much stamina."

"What was that, by the way?" Taranee asked.

"It's one of Murasaki's… one of my past lives' spells;" Jade explained. "I thought, since she fought Oni, I could ask her for… can I drink something?" Irma made a ball of water to appear in her palm, Jade drinking from it. "Thanks."

"What did you do?!" a demonic voice bellowed through the night.

As it turned out, the whole scene had been enough to get Jackie and Viper's attention, the adults having stopped their fighting and walking towards the sextet of girls.

"Hey, Tiger;" Viper told Jackie. "New idea here. We deal with the naughty kids first, you get to put them to sleep, I get that pretty pink jewel, then we get back to pounding each other."

"Agreed," Jackie told the ex-thief, both of them rising up one hand, making several Squid and Mini Khan to appear. This time, some Squid Khan let some Mini Khan to devour them, the Shadow Eaters growing proportionally to a Squid Khan's size. Both tribes of Shadowkhan surrounded the girls, while their masters stood side by side, ready to attack.

"Oh, c'mon!" Irma let out a cry as she and her friends formed a circle formation.

"Shadowkhan," Viper and Jackie said in unison. "Attack!"

"Mega-bad day!" Jade mustered enough strength to scream as she fell into a fighting stance.

The Squid Khan and the Shadow Eaters attacked now in unison, the Guardians doing their best to defend themselves from the initial wave of attacks. Then Jackie and Viper joined the fight, colliding with Jade and Will, respectively.

"Jackie, you gotta stop being crazy now!" Jade told her uncle. "Look at what your Shadowkhan did to Tohru!" she said, gesturing to the unconscious sumo.

"And now that he isn't fighting, he isn't in any danger!" Jackie retorted to her. "Same as you won't be!"

"Listen to your elders, kid;" Viper said as she looked at how Will flew some centimeters over the ground. And you! Give me that jewel!"

"What do you want the Heart of Kandrakar for?!" Will inquired of the ex-thief.

"One of the strongest artifacts in the universe?" Viper wondered, taking two fingers to her now orange chin. "What better way to make my comeback to the underworld than stealing it! I could even get into the Dark Hand with it! I could tell them that Harold's a spy and take his place!"

"Okay, first I'm not going to let you do that;" Will said, adopting her own fighting stance. Jade and Jackie had begun fighting too, Jade using quick chi-fueled strikes against her strengthened uncle; "and second, a Heart must be freely given, never taken."

Viper smirked cruelly. "Then I will make you want to give it to me;" the masked woman declared, a Squid Khan manifesting through her shadow and striking the ground with its tentacles, emulating the motion of whips.

Before the creature could attack the redhead, however, a green energy beam hit it, making it explode into tiny pieces of shadows. Gaining the attention of not only Viper and Will, but also Jackie and Jade; stood Uncle, a plastic bowl full of green liquid that seemed to be boiling without the necessity of any fire resting at his feet.

"Aiyah! Uncle leaves for a couple of hours;" the elder said; "and nephew and thief go insane! One more thing! They summon very filthy-looking Shadowkhan! One more thing!" he said, looking at the unconscious Tohru. "You hurt Uncle's apprentice. You are going to payyyyyy for that!"

"What are you going to do, old man?" Viper asked, putting her hands on her hips. "Lecture us to death?"

"Don't tempt him…" the masked Jackie muttered.

"Aiyah! Disrespectful thief will have to eat her words," Uncle said, holding a small fish in one hand an octopus tentacle in another; "because Japanese store had very good prices on fish! _Nukeru He Men Ja'aku… Nukeru He Men Ja'aku…_ "

"What in the…?" a confused Viper asked as Uncle started to chant.

"It's the incantation to remove an Oni Mask!" Jackie, blocking another of Jade's attacks as best as he could, told the woman.

"Stop him!" both Jackie and Viper yelled to their Shadowkhan, the creatures going after Uncle en masse. They were stopped when a wall of fire rose in front of them, incinerating most of their forces and stopping the rest.

"Forgetting about someone?" Taranee asked as she and Hay Lin landed in front of the dying wall of fire.

"I think they do!" Irma said as she and Cornelia landed near Will and Jade, blasting both Jackie and Viper with water, sending them to the ground.

As Uncle finished his spell, each of the key ingredients gleamed with green energy, shooting beams towards Jade and Will, whose hands lighted in green chi.

"Stupid nephew for niece!" Uncle informed. "Stupid thief for Keeper of the Heart!"

"Hey! Who're you calling stupid, you old goat?!" Viper was able to say before a smiling Will took her by her head, pulling at the Mask over her face. "No!" a voice far raspier than Viper's, and that was clearly not hers, took over. "Please! I beg of you, Guardian; don't make me relinquish this body! I have breasts!" With a disgusted expression, Will continued to pull on the Mask, ignoring the demon's plea. "Filthy Guardian! Next time I meet you, I will rip your wings from your body, I will break your every bone, I will take your skin, I will…!"

"Would you just shut up already?!" Will yelled, pulling the Mask completely out of Viper's face. The thief, returned to normal, fell completely in her back, groaning. As for the shadow cephalopods, they banished in a poof of black smoke.

As for Jade, she was doing the exactly same thing to Jackie, the archeologist fighting with all his strength. "Jade! Please, don't do this! I need this power!"

"Sorry, uncle Jackie;" Jade said, grabbing the Oni Mask by its horn. "But this is for your own good!"

"Well," a deeper, more refined voice than Jackie's said calmly as the Mask came off. "At least, we all enjoyed some tea." As the Mask finally came off the man's face, the remaining Shadow Eaters disappeared, just like the Squid Khan had done before them.

"W-We did it!" Hay Lin cheered, throwing her arms up.

"How did Japan and Meridian handle _nine_ of these guys?" Taranee wondered as she flew towards her friends.

"Ugh… hello?" Tohru, finally recovering from being unconscious and back with his shadow on his body, asked. "Is everyone alright? Ouch!"

"Apprentice!" Uncle, having approached the waking sumo and dope slapped him, yelled. "You fell during battle! Uncle is very disappointed!"

"Sorry, sensei;" Tohru said. "I lowered my guard for a second and…"

"Tohru didn't let Uncle finish!" the elder interrupted him. He cleared his throat. "Uncle is grateful that apprentice is safe and well."

"I…" a surprised Tohru said, incorporating. It was weird for the sumo to hear the old man say something without a witty or harsh remark afterwards. "Thank you, sensei. What about them?"

On the ground, Viper and Jackie continued to groan, slowly coming to their senses, rubbing different spots of their bodies.

"Ough… my poor head;" Viper complained. "What just happened?"

"You two went cuckoo;" Irma informed her.

"Jackie?" a concerned Jade asked of her uncle.

"I'm alright, gack!" Jackie said, but while he tried to incorporate he let out the weirdest of sounds, grabbing his side. "I think…"

"We should get you two to a hospital;" Taranee said. And that would mean for more excuses to be crafted, more lies to be told. Well, at least they had won… "Wait, what happened to Tarakudo?"

"Ugh… I think that he just went away when he managed to make me summon Shadowkhan;" Jackie explained.

"You let King of Oni to do as he pleases?!" Uncle shrieked. "Aiyah! Not only does nephew summon Shadowkhan, but he lets veeery powerful demon to get away!"

"But, this doesn't make sense;" Will said, still holding the orange Oni Mask. "Why didn't Tarakudo help you two to fight if he went into all the trouble to put those Masks on you and force you to summon Shadowkhan?"

"Maybe he just wanted for Jackie and Viper to beat us up;" Irma suggested.

"Irma's right," Cornelia continued, hoping this would be the last time she said something like that. "He just wanted us fighting someone we know so we won't use our full strength. And just like that, no more Guardians, especially if one of Jackie's gross little monsters caught us."

"Unless he wasn't counting on Jackie and Viper beating us," Jade said, looking at the horned yellow Oni Mask. "Unless the whole fight was just a… distraction. A distraction for what exactly?"

In that moment, Tohru went pale. Realization hitting him, the sumo ran as fast as he could in the direction of the nearby building, the one in which their flat was located. Uncle was quick to follow in his steps.

"Hey!" the girls called for the pair of wizards, but none of them halted or decreased their speed to give an explanation.

"Alright, I think that's enough fighting for a night;" Will declared, holding the Heart of Kandrakar up and making the five girls to go back to their human form. "Let's help Jackie and Viper inside so we can…"

"That was awesome!"

The affirmation, clearly praising, caught all six teenagers and two adults by surprise. However, in Will's case, that surprise was doubled as she recognized that voice very well. She had been hearing it for the past months every time she left her home and didn't go to Sheffield or to her swimming practice.

"Matt?!" Will shouted as she looked at the teenage boy, who was standing a roughly fifteen meters away from them all, with a gleeful expression on his face that matched the one of a kid that has just seen the most recent superhero movie.

The Earth Guardian, meanwhile, was far more focused on the girl with the reddish brown hair that was standing at Matt's left. She stood with a neutral expression, holding her right arm with her left hand.

"Alchemy?!" the blonde Guardian asked.

"Hi," the girl replied, waving her hand at them all.

"Busted," Jade whispered.

* * *

 ** _Chan flat_**

"Apprentice! Apprentice, wait for Uncle!" the elder called for his large student. Seriously, for all his girth and muscle, Tohru could be quite fast when he wanted to. Or maybe it was just that Uncle wasn't all that young anymore? Nevertheless, he entered their apartment and called for the mountain of a man. Only after a couple of second Uncle noticed that the apartment was very disordered, as if someone had been searching for something.

"I'm here, sensei;" Tohru's voice came from the elder's room.

"What? What is Tohru doing in Uncle's room?" the elder asked, walking towards his bedroom. "There are private things of Uncle there!"

"Sensei," Tohru, standing near Uncle's bed, said in a somber tone. "They are gone."

"What is gone, Tohru?" Uncle asked nicely, noticing his apprentice's dark mood.

"The Hana Fuda cards," Tohru answered. "Tarakudo must have stolen them while we fought Jackie and Viper."

Uncle let out a long breath as the words his apprentice had pronounced sank in his mind. "But we still have the key ingredients for all the previous Masks we have fought, and for the ones Captain Black has been retrieving with our assistance."

"But Japanese folklore and meridianite legend speak of _nine_ Oni Generals. So there must be nine masks;" Tohru explained, sitting on the elder's bed. "Having the two we have retrieved into account; that makes six in our possession. Which means..."

"Which means there are yet three Oni Masks to be found, and that we lack the means to get them out of any host's face;" Uncle ended the phrase for his pupil. Afterwards, slowly, he walked until he reached the small window his room had. He contemplated the night of Heatherfield through it. "Apprentice, Uncle is starting to think… that Tarakudo may be the most dangerous demon that Earth has ever faced."

And as the two wizards remained there, they could have sworn that, from every shadow, they could hear the King of all Oni laughing.

* * *

 _Masquerades are funny that way, you know? You put on a mask, and you can do and say and act as you please, since nobody can know that it's you behind the disguise. But as time passes, and you look around you, you start wondering… which one's the real mask? The one that hides your face? Or the one that is your face? Perhaps, all this time, you have only been looking where others wanted you to look at._ Cyrus Ludmoore/Drake

* * *

 **Author's Notes: Oh look, biggest chapter in the story so far! Oh look, more teenage drama! Also fights, politics, and plans advancing! I really wanted to leave this chapter here, even if it turned out bigger than intended, since I think this is the last time this season we see Tarakudo… no, I lie, there is another moment. And also because I think I won't be updating in a while. Anyway, yeah, Matt AND Alchemy know the big secret now. What? A lot of you should be aware this story is going kind on a different route than canon. I love Matt as a character (at least the animation one) and Alchemy has a lot of potential for the story I'm setting up here. So having said that, hope you enjoyed this very long chapter, please leave a review and until next time.**

 **Bye, bye.**


	23. Steps towards Catastrophe

**Disclaimer: I own neither the WITCH cartoon-show nor Jackie Chan Adventures; they are the property of their respective creators, writers, and producers.**

 **A/N: After a _waaaay_ longer than usual pause for this story, here I come back. As always, from the bottom of my heart, thanks to all the people that take their time to read this story and leave their opinion in the comments, or send me a PM with ideas or questions. You all are incredible, and I wouldn't have made it this far without you. As I always tell you all, enjoy your read, because sans one action scene, this chapter's pretty tranquil.**

* * *

Guardians, Wizards and Kung-Fu Fighters

Episode Twenty three

Steps towards Catastrophe

* * *

 ** _Shadow Realm_**

Tarakudo had ditched his ethereal form, instead opting for handling this situation with his real, far more powerful and physical form. And thus there he stood, or more accurately floated, since there was nothing beneath his feet; in the reddish and black endless void that was the Shadow Realm. He found somehow appropriate that his style of clothing (black with reddish trimming) resembled the color scheme of this place, since this was the source of his and his Generals' powers over shadow. Around him, the Hana Fuda cards floated without following any certain direction.

All in all, last night's operation had been a success. Yes, Shiryū and Takahiro's Masks would surely meet the same fate as the other ones those humans had collected, but that didn't play against him either. And he had taken the cards, not only as a means of preventing the wizards from claiming more of his companions without more effort, but as a distraction. The Keeper of the Heart and that Ben-Shui child were growing smarter, and that was something very few seemed to be noticing. The King knew that they wouldn't have any problem figuring out his long term scheme if they actually noticed that he didn't seem very bothered with losing a Mask or two and not take anything else as a consolation prize. Not only did stealing the Hana Fuda play against his enemies' favor, but it also was a perfect diversion. The cherry on top of it all had been the opportunity to measure the strength of the Guardians of Kandrakar and Murasaki's reincarnation firsthand. And speaking of the current and young Ben-Shui…

Tarakudo floated down, or what he perceived as down. It was always difficult to say with this place. As he descended, leaving the Hana Fuda behind (finding them wouldn't be a problem at all, and they could do no harm to him here), he met a trio of those small shadow creatures that resembled a cross between a snake and a moray eel, which of course put as much distance as they could between themselves and him as soon as they sensed his presence. It didn't take too long for the King until he reached his destination, the mad and monstrous giggling becoming louder and louder by every second. The Oni stopped then, positioning himself over the monsters, which were moving as if they were fishes in a frenzy.

" _Hihihihihihihi! The King! Mighty King!_ " the horde giggled from below. " _Come to sing with us? No? Perhaps he just wants to play a game?_ " A pair of tentacles shot from below, each of them sporting multiple mouths and eyes each of them feathered now and scaled the moment after. Tarakudo evaded them with ease. But then again, striking him hadn't been their goal. " _Hihihi! What's this? No roar, no prideful declaration? He doesn't want to give us a hug! Why is he here then?!_ " after which they giggled monstrously again.

The Cavalcade of Horrors had always intrigued Tarakudo. Not only because of the fact that the smallest of them was at least as big as a whale, or due to how bizarrely their bodies seemed to work, but because of how they treated… everything. For the Cavalcade everything was nothing else but some kind of sick joke that only them seemed to understand. Tarakudo sometimes wondered if they were really actively malicious or instead their minds resembled more the ones of cruel children, and thus what smaller beings than them perceived as malevolent acts of madness and destruction were nothing but games and jests for them. Not that he had come here to find answer to that. No, he was hoping for a more… serious interlocutor.

"I have come to speak with your master," Tarakudo declared, folding his arms and gazing below.

And then the giggling stopped. And the movements resembling frenzied fish stopped. And the King of all Oni felt a thousand million eyes staring at him. Slowly, the Cavalcade started to move. Then, suddenly, their speed increased and they shot upwards, surrounding Tarakudo and entrapping him in a cylinder made out of their own bodies. It had been so quick that the King had not been able to see it. And then they stopped again. Their flesh continued to endlessly shift, but they stood still, not moving a single part of their bodies. Afterwards, followed the heartbeat. Bump-bump, bump-bump, bump-bump… echoing through the entirety of the Shadow Realm, making a primeval fear to stir up in the deepest part of Tarakudo's soul. And in the end came the voice, from down below, deep as a black hole and colder than a gravestone in winter.

 **WHAT DO YOU DESIRE TO ASK, TARAKUDO; TWO TIMES MET, TWO TIMES AIDED?**

The King breathed deeply, arms folded and eyes closed. As he opened them slightly, he answered the question. "I recently met with the reincarnation of Murasaki Shikibu, an old enemy of mine that played a key part on expulsing me and my Generals from Japan and Earth. The Ben-Shui Chosen One."

 **I REMEMBER. YOU HAD CRAFTED THE SHADOWKHAN ARMIES FROM THE POWER YOU SIPHONED FROM THE SHADOW REALM USING CHI MAGIC. I BELIEVE SHE PROVED TO BE QUITE A THORN ON YOUR SIDE DUE TO THAT AND HER CHI DEGRADATION ABILITIES.**

"Yes, she was;" Tarakudo admitted. His red face was now sporting a frown, the Oni's mind playing with a lot of thoughts. "A few days ago I had an interesting conversation regarding fate, about how mere mortals can't fight against it. However, you aren't a mortal. And now that I think about it, if I hadn't been defeated by Murasaki and her companions, if they hadn't driven us out of Japan and Earth, I wouldn't have ended on Meridian. And I wouldn't have performed the ritual that let me to dwell even more into the Shadow Realm's power… and met you. You wouldn't have given me the power to equal a Heart-wielder; there would have been no war with Escanor and Leryn… and many of the things that had resulted into the Universe being what it is today wouldn't have happened."

 **INDEED. EVERYTHING YOU HAVE SAID IS NOTHING BUT TRUE.**

"The Ben-Shui reincarnation, that wolf-girl;" Tarakudo continued, slightly disturbed by the glares of the Cavalcade. "She wore my Mark in her skin; I could feel so during our brief encounter. That alone should have transformed her into my thrall in exchange of control over some of Uta's Shadowkhan, but even if my Mark was removed before that, the exhaustion of her chi should have killed her anyway."

 **THEN SHE SHOULD BE DEAD, SHOULD NOT SHE?**

Tarakudo grinded his teeth, arms unfolding and fists clenching upon the slight hint of… sarcasm in the being's voice. "Is she… important to you? In the same way Nimue is?"

 **IMPORTANT? YES, WITHOUT A DOUBT. JUST TO ME? TARAKUDO, SHE IS IMPORTANT FOR ALL OF US, AND IN A MUCH GRANDER ESCALE THAN NIMUE. THAT MEANS SHE IS IMPORTANT TO YOU TOO. AFTER ALL, WITHOUT THAT GIRL YOU WOULD NOT BE HERE.**

Tarakudo noted how the eyes of the Cavalcade of Horrors had stopped looking at him, the abominations starting to move downwards again, freeing him from the flesh cylinder. An invitation for him to go away, and also a clear indication. The girl must not be harmed; the girl must not be killed. Could she even be killed? Tarakudo knew that his power was nothing but a reflection of a fraction of this being's power. Could any deadly harm come to that girl if she was under the protection of this being? Having acquired and understood his answer, the King floated upwards, leaving the deepest sections of the Shadow Realm after a while. After his departure, the Cavalcade resumed its giggling, and their Master let out one last sentence.

 **AND NEITHER WOULD I**

* * *

 ** _Heatherfield in the morning; Danny Ashcroft's cafeteria_**

" _Good morning, Heatherfield!_ " a balding black man sitting behind a desk and appearing in the screen of a TV that hanged by the one of the walls of the cafeteria greeted whoever was watching him so early in the morning. " _We have another sunny and sweet day of spring ahead of us, and the traffic seems to be doing fine! You know what that means! Yes, lines are open for whoever wants to give us a call and propose any theme or request any song, so… ugh? Oh, we seem to have our first call of the day already! Yes?_ "

" _Hello, Robbie;_ " a male voice said, though of course nobody could see his face. " _Frank here_."

" _Good morning, Frank!_ " the black, balding man apparently named Robbie told his new interlocutor. " _So, what's what you want to speak about?_ "

" _There're angels amongst us!_ " Frank's sudden and blunt statement resonated with strength and conviction, surprising Robbie and any other who may be watching the program at that moment.

" _Excuse… you?_ " a shocked Robbie mastered to ask after a silence that lasted far too long.

" _Angels! Winged creatures with magnificent power! Five of them!_ " Frank's voice sounded even more frantic now. " _I saw them! They were fighting demons in front of the alley I sleep in! It's a sign that our reckoning is near! Accept the Almighty in your life or your soul will be condemned to Hell for all eternity!_ "

" _Why must all the crazy hobos call to my program?_ " Robbie muttered, and then he spoke with a clearer voice. " _Look… Frank, buddy… I think you should calm down and…_ "

" _This is our punishment for all of our hatred and materialism! Repent, sinners! Repent!_ " Frank continued to say. " _This is what telephones and television have earned us!_ "

" _But you are using a telephone to speak in television…_ " Robbie said exasperatedly, but if he said something afterwards; that the three men inside the cafeteria owned by Daniel Ashcroft didn't get to know, since the bartender used the remote to change to a channel that only played music.

"I think we just witnessed the end of that show;" Raphael Silla said, holding a cup of coffee in his left hand, a bit disappointed that Danny had changed the channel.

"Meh, it never was that good to begin with;" the bartender complained; stretching his limbs. "What do you say, Mr. Olsen?"

Old Herbert adjusted his glasses after checking his watch. He still had time to spare. "I don't care that much, Danny. It's just TV."

"My old man used to say something like that;" Silla commented. "But he also believed that by this year we'd have flying cars. So I don't think that's very… Excuse me for a second;" Silla told the other two men as his phone started to ring, picking it up almost instantly. "Yes? Good morning boss;" Silla said on the phone. "Uhm? The Horse? Yeah… yeah… I'll be there to pick it up, don't worry. Yes. Okay, in the airport in two hours. Uhm? Oh, he's doing alright. Bit of stressed with paperwork, I believe. Understood;" Silla said, ending his call and drinking the rest of the coffee in his mug as fast as he could. He left two dollars over the bar. "Sorry pals, work emergency. Need to go. Keep the change, Danny-boy."

"Call me Danny-boy again, Raphael;" Danny said as he took the payment; "and your next coffee will have a surprise."

"Okay, okay," Silla said, laughing a bit as he approached the door. "See ya'."

With Raphael Silla gone, only Herbert Olsen and Daniel Ashcroft were left in the café, the old man drinking his coffee, his younger friend already getting prepared for when the rest of his customers started to appear as the morning advanced.

"I didn't know Silla worked with animals too," Herbert offhandedly declared.

"What?" Danny asked.

"I mean, he did mention a horse just now;" Herbert retorted.

"Well, I don't think it's got to be a real horse;" Danny told the elder. "He works with computers, doesn't he? Maybe it's some kind of codename for a program."

"I guess," Herbert commented as he finished his coffee. Even if he always tended to leave a time margin wide enough for him to take things with calmness, it wouldn't be such a bad idea to start moving. Good thing Matt had yet a couple of days before returning to classes, having a pair of young hands in the shop was really helpful.

* * *

 ** _A room in a hospital; several hours later_**

Jackie woke up with a sore body, especially around his ribcage area. At least the bed he was in was comfortable enough to soften the sensation of pain. Where was he? How had he ended…? No, wait. He remembered now, it had happened just yesterday... no, last night. Or at least he thought it had been last night, he wasn't so sure of how many hours he had been sleeping. He was with Viper, then a gigantic, floating head that had turned out to be Tarakudo had appeared in front of them… and then the feeling that his face was being eaten, sucked by a black hole.

 _The Oni Mask_ ; Jackie thought. _And the Shadowkhan_ ; he added in his mind, memories of how he had fought his own niece with the intention of sending her into a coma finally coming to him. Then Jade had gotten the Mask out of his face, then pain… then an ambulance for both him and Viper. He incorporated a bit in his bed, sitting with his legs extended. He finally noticed that his chest had been bandaged, and that he was only dressed in one of those hospital gowns, aside from his underwear. The rest of the room seemed to be empty. At least the bed besides his was. If he had looked at his other side, he would have found out that he was wrong.

"Hi, Jackie;" someone too familiar called for him. The voice of his niece caught him off guard, but the archeologist would lie if he said it wasn't a welcomed sound.

At his bed's other side, just under a large window; there was an armchair. And in said armchair, Jade was sitting, dressed in a simple, ordinary dark tracksuit that the girl seemed to be wearing due to wanting to be as comfortable as possible.

"You finally woke up," Jade told her uncle, who stared at her in silence for several seconds.

"You… you spent the entire night here?" Jackie asked of the black-haired Chinese girl, who dedicated one of her smirks to him.

"Duh, of course not;" the girl said in a joking tone of voice, pointing to her chest with her thumb. "I'm still a minor. Tohru took me here a couple of hours ago. He's talking with the doctors. I mean, I don't think you got anything serious apart from some ribs broken, and we called Captain Black to send us the Horse Talisman… but last guy we took a Mask from was Hak Foo and he's borderline catatonic now, so… yeah, all precaution is little. I wanted to check on you." Jade reclined in the armchair, letting out a long, deep breath of air. "And after this weekend, school starts again. Remember when we thought that this was gonna be easy, when Uncle told us to come to this city?"

"Yes, yes I do;" Jackie said bluntly. _I think of it almost every day_.

"Are you alright?" Jade asked of her uncle. "I mean, aside from the pain. I could call a nurse, or…"

"Jade, I attacked you;" Jackie cut her off, looking at her in the eyes, pronouncing every word in the sentence with the gravity they needed. "I put Tohru on a coma, for the love of…"

"You were possessed;" Jade cut him off this time, holding his stare. "The Mask was messing with your head;" something flickered in her amber eyes for a second. "That was it, right?"

Jackie kept his silence for several moments after that, thinking a bit before answering his niece's inquire. "Not everything. And you know that we should talk about it."

Jade broke the stare contest then, reclining on the armchair even more and crossing her arms over her chest. "Tch," was the only thing to leave her lips. But Jackie didn't utter a word; he wanted, he _needed_ , for her to start this, for her to give the first step.

"You're worried about me, even after everything that's already happened;" Jade began. "Okay, that much I get. And I know that it's not easy putting up with me. That I can be very irresponsible from time to time;" the amber eyed girl looked at her side, putting one of her black bangs of hair behind one of her ears. "And I know it's gotten me into trouble. If I hadn't jumped into that Portal in Ludmoore's mansion, I wouldn't have turned into a wolf. And after everything that happened with... with Tharquin," there it was yet again, the hint of pure hatred in her voice; "after everything Will and I've been doing and we'll do... I understand that you're worried. And I get that you feel responsible not only of me, but of all of us. It's no excuse to try and put us in a coma when a demon gets a hold of your body, though. We can take care of ourselves."

"Jade;" Jackie said, having left the girl finish her words; "when you arrived at San Francisco, I was nervous. A kid? With me? It wasn't something I was looking ahead to; it wasn't something I think I was ready for. A part of me thought that Shen was pulling a joke on me. But I thought I could handle it." Jackie paused for a moment and passed one hand over his dark hair. "But then everything with the Dark Hand started, and then Shendu and his siblings started to show up. My nervousness became worry. And you just… kept disobeying all the time, putting yourself in unnecessarily risky situations. And now you are fighting on a war. I was worried before, but now I'm terrified. What if next time that someone like Tharquin shows up, we are too late to do something?"

Jade made a sound with her throat. It sounded too much like a growl to be anything else. "Maybe if you hadn't treated me like a baby all the time, I wouldn't have disobeyed you all the time!" Jade replied, a bit angry now, her arms still folded. "How many times did I save you, even before I got powers? The only reason you aren't in Po Kong's stomach is thanks to _me_. And that's just one of many cases. Do you know what _I_ was thinking when I arrived in San Francisco? How _I_ felt when one day I arrived at home in Hong Kong and mom and dad told me, ' _Pack your things, you're going to America to live a year with your uncle Jackie_ '? But then I arrived, and you were so amazing, Jackie. It was as if one of the heroes of my Saturday morning cartoons or of some weird kung-fu movie had come to life! And he was my Uncle! How cool is that? It's really all that strange to understand that I wanted to be like you?"

"You… wanted to be like me?" Jackie asked, a bit surprised by that last sentence. Was that it, at its core? The reason behind why Jade had behaved like that all the time?

"Duh!" Jade said, unfolding her arms. "Of course I wanted to be like you! I still want to be like you! Why do you think I insisted so much that you taught me kung-fu? Have you ever looked at yourself? Have you ever looked at what you do? You've saved the world, uncle Jackie! Twice!" Jade cheered, amber eyes practically shining and her lips forming a happy smile. "How many people can say that? And yes, I was irresponsible, and I was too focused into being amazing to actually focus into _how_ being properly amazing. I know. I've scars in my back that'll remind me of how reckless I was for the rest of my life. And I don't want you to worry about me to such a point, or just… dunno, swallow it, or whatever you've been doing until now, hiding it behind that whole ' _No Jade, you can't fight 'cause you're a kid_ ' attitude. Because, seriously, I'm pretty sure I'm _way_ stronger than you now. And if you're so worried about me and the girls, then… why don't you come to Meridian with us more often? The Dark Hand's done for here, so why not?"

Jackie pondered his niece's words, moving a bit in his bed in order to not fall on his back. Hadn't Uncle told him something similar when they had rescued Jade from Tharquin? That he should listen to what she had to say, and start treating her with the respect she deserved? And yet, was he wrong in feeling what he was feeling, thinking what he was thinking? Nervousness had given birth to worry, and under the current circumstances, worry had fallen in love with ignorance and given birth to anger.

"How many?" Jackie asked then.

"How many what?" Jade inquired.

"How many people," Jackie cleared; "aside from Tharquin?"

Jade shivered, her amber eyes directed now to her knees. "I… don't know. And I don't know if that's better or worse, really. Some soldiers that were in Fallbottom. Sometimes I think of what's happened to some of the soldiers I injured in one of the Rebellion's missions or in Torus Filney, but I don't know for sure what happened to them afterwards."

"If I'm going to be with you on Meridian;" Jackie declared with a hint of authority; "that has to stop. No more killing people."

Jade snorted. "Those people have tried and will try to kill me, you know?" the Chan girl declared afterwards.

"And you are far stronger than any of them;" Jackie told the teen, but then he reconsidered his decision before continuing his speech. "No lethal force as long as I am there, and as long as it's not necessary. I'm not going to tell you to hold back against people like Cedric, or Wong, or that Tracker being, or Phobos; but as long as you fight normal soldiers, normal people just trying to live day by day and that are just following orders, then you will contain yourself. If you don't want me to treat you like a baby, then act mature. Understood?"

Jade breathed deep and slowly, her eyes fixed in her uncle once again. "Okay," the girl answered. Afterwards, minutes passed without any of them saying anything.

"Where is Viper?" Jackie asked, deciding to let the silence to pass.

"She got out already," Jade explained. "She wasn't in the same bad shape as you're. Guess you aren't the top of the food chain anymore."

Jackie chuckled a bit over that remark, his body clearly relaxing a bit after hearing that. "Good, that's good;" he said as he decided to lie back again in his bed. Upon resting his head over the pillow, however, he caught a glimpse of his niece's face, the girl displaying a much more devilish smirk than before. "What?"

"Noooooothing," Jade said funnily. "It's just that… you told us that when Tarakudo caught you two, you were on a bar. I mean, I didn't have time to talk about this last night, with all the crazy stuff, but you were together with Viper, on a bar."

"Yes," Jackie answered. "Of course we were, we needed to talk about…"

"It was a date! You were on a date with Viper!" Jade said abruptly, laughing her ass off afterwards, earning herself a scowl from Jackie.

"Jade, we weren't on a date;" Jackie told her seriously.

"C'mon, what else was it then?" Jade asked without dropping the grin. "Eh?" seeing her uncle evade her gaze made Jade's grin to widen even more. "Haha! I knew there was gonna be something between you two sooner or later!"

"It was a meeting for…" Jackie tried to give an explanation, but Jade just ignored him as she rose from the armchair.

"Yeah, yeah, you keep telling yourself that;" Jade said as she approached the door. "I'm gonna see how T is doing."

The thirteen year old girl left the room, leaving Jackie Chan alone. The man stopped struggling against gravity and let the hospital bed to take the entire weigh of his body. Rest, that's what he needed now. And then, one problem at a time.

* * *

 ** _The Silver Dragon's basement; at the same time_**

While Jade and Jackie maintained their conversation in the hospital, another conversation was taking place in the Silver Dragon's basement. The five Guardians of Kandrakar had taken Matt Olsen and Alchemy Ethel there, since the quintet of girls had agreed that it was the best place in which they could talk; the two non-magical teenagers sitting on the couch on the basement and the other five girls either sitting around in normal chairs or standing up. Alchemy and Matt had agreed to wait until the next morning to get a proper explanation, and so here they were the seven of them, Will, Cornelia, Irma, Taranee and Hay Lin doing most of te talking while Matt and Alchemy asked questions. While the girls had omitted some of the more… _gruesome_ details of their adventures, they had been able to clear most of the doubts the other two teens had.

Yes, magic was real. Yes, all of them, including Jade, her old Uncle and the sumo wrestler that was under his tutelage were able to employ said magic. Yes, there were other worlds. Yes, they were fighting on a war in one of those other worlds. Yes, they had kept this all a secret from them for months. And yes, the reason why Elyon seemed to have disappeared in thin air was connected to that.

The reactions from the pair of teens were mixed. For the most part, Alchemy kept her face with a neutral expression, taking in all the information her friends were providing her with, playing with a small lock of her light auburn hair from time to time. Matt, on the other hand, was grinning in excitement for the majority of the girls' tale, as if he were a five year old child listening to stories around a campfire.

"And I think that's all," Taranee, who had been the dominant narrator, said as he recounted the events of last night, finishing when Matt and Alchemy had discovered them fighting the Shadowkhan. The black girl looked first at Matt's face, then focused on Alchemy's. "I know it's _a lot_ to take in."

 _A lot would be a bit of an understatement_ ; Will thought as she looked at her boyfriend's amazed expression. Well, at least he didn't look too shocked.

"So, you're telling me;" Matt began, "that every time we didn't know where you were, every time you all disappeared out of sight… you were fighting the minions of Elyon's evil older brother."

"Kind of a simplification," the Keeper of the Heart told her boyfriend; "but yeah. Among other things."

"That's… that's just so cool!" Matt commented in a merrily tone of voice, making Will to blush a bit. "You're like… superheroes!"

"I wouldn't call us superheroes," the redhead replied, glancing aside for a second.

"Why not?" the still excited Matt asked. "You've got powers, you can transform, and you can fly… sounds like superheroes to me!"

Will blushed even more after those words. She had thought that, after holding the truth away from him, Matt would at least be a little bit angry with her. But that didn't seem to be the case. Instead, her boyfriend was acting as if he had been told that Will was the leader of some kind of rock band.

"Cornelia," Alchemy said a bit more weakly than normal, finally deciding to speak. "Does this mean that every time that Elyon and me got angry at you for not spending time with us you were… saving the world?"

"Okay, we aren't technically saving _this_ world in particular;" the blonde told her friend; "and if we had known that Elyon was the Princess I would've told you two about all this."

"I still don't get why we can't tell at least our families about this whole thing," Irma complained in her usual deadpan tone. "I think it'd solve us a lot of problems. I mean, my parents would probably freak out a bit…"

"Just a bit?" Hay Lin interrupted her friend. "My dad would probably get a heart attack!"

"What about your mom?" Irma asked back.

"She's better at taking big news without losing it," the Air Guardian replied with a smile.

"But, but… but that means that I've been so mean to you;" Alchemy continued to speak, paying almost no attention to the Air and Water Guardians, "and meanwhile you were risking your life!"

"Okay, Alchemy;" Cornelia told the petite girl dressed in green, "you weren't mean to me at all. You were just trying to get things solved between me and Elyon…"

"Oh my God, Elyon!" Alchemy exclaimed, actually jumping from the couch this time. "What… what're we going to do with her?! How're we going to explain all this when we get back to Sheffield?! What happened to her parents?! If we hadn't gone to that bookstore, then that creepy guy…"

"Now she's freaking out;" Irma commented.

"Alchemy, calm down;" Cornelia said, getting up from her chair and taking the auburn haired girl's hands between hers. "We'll… we'll get a way to solve all this."

"How?!" the girl inquired, practically hyperventilating. "Elyon's on another planet, she's got an evil older brother, and you all are fighting in something out the Lord of the Rings!"

"We'll find a way, Alchemy;" Cornelia told her friend. "I'm not going to let one of my girls down so easily."

"Cornelia, I..." Alchemy said before pulling Cornelia into a hug. The blonde hugged her back, enveloping the smaller girl in her arms.

"D'awwwww. That's just adorable;" Irma said with a sly grin, earning herself a little glare from the blonde.

"If there was only a way to talk to her..." Alchemy said as she broke her embrace with the Earth Guardian.

"Good luck with that;" the Water Guardian said drily. "On top of living on a palace filled to the top with monsters, Elyon hates our guts."

"Actually, I don't think that's a bad idea;" Taranee pointed out. "Elyon's angry with us, but I think she'd listen to Alchemy. She has no reason not to do so."

"Yeah, that's a very good idea. So how do we help?" Matt asked of the entire group then, making Will's blushing, which had lasted until now, to fade in mere seconds.

The redhead looked at her boyfriend for several moments. "What?" she asked flatly.

"Help," the teenage boy repeated. "I mean, I'm not going to let you all continue doing this alone if I can contribute somehow. And did you see what you all did last night?!" Matt paused for the smallest of moments, and then he shook his head. "No wait, that's stupid, you all were there. But it was so amazing! We could sneak Alchemy into the castle of that Phobos and..."

Will knew that everyone's eyes were now looking directly at her, at least the ones of her fellow Guardians. Her eyes, however, were fixed on Matt, albeit she wasn't listening to what he was saying. Matt Olsen, the cute, kind boy she had met at her last birthday party; who basically adored her now that he had discovered what she was doing every time she had to cancel some of their dates. Matt Olsen... who, in spite of all the aforementioned things, was just a normal teen. In that moment Will's mind played a trick on her, and instead of seeing Matt as euphoric and well as he was now, she saw him with a sword piercing through his abdomen.

"No," the Keeper of the Heart said plainly, cutting Matt's last sentence. "Just... no."

And now it was time for Matt's excitement to fade a little. "Why not?" the teenaged guitar player inquired, genuinely surprised.

"Matt what we do isn't a game," Will said seriously. "We risk our lives every time we get into one of these fights."

"Then the more reason to help!" Matt protested.

"Matt, we have magic powers;" Will told him with a tone that now was stopping being just serious and was becoming just plain cold; "and you don't. I was once hit with a cannonball, and if I haven't been a Guardian, I'm pretty sure I'll be dead."

"Jade's uncle doesn't have any powers," Matt pointed out, his euphoria slowly being replaced by anger.

"No, but Jackie's got experience fighting not only humans with magic, but also demons;" the redhead declared matter-of-factly. "And that's just on top of years of training on martial arts. You won't put yourself in needless risk. End of discussion."

Matt snorted. "So who're you now, my mom?"

"Okay, okay, that's enough;" Taranee said, putting herself between the two teenagers before things could escalate into something greater. "Sorry to stop your first fight, but if you want to discuss something, this isn't the place or the moment. We came here to give Matt and Alchemy an explanation, and we did it. And if you all remember, we start classes again this Monday, and I've got some homework to finish before that."

Will and Matt shared a look, but they decided that the bespectacled girl was right about this. They would finish their discussion… on another moment.

* * *

 ** _Several hours later, Jackie's hospital room_**

"Here you go, Mr. Chan;" Raphael Silla said, handing the Horse Talisman to Jackie Chan. "Delivered directly from San Francisco by one of Section 13's private jets, ready to make you as good as new."

The room was now perhaps a bit too crowded, with Tohru, Viper, Jade and agent Silla keeping him company. Jackie doubted that the hospital's rules allowed so many people to be on a patient's room at the same time, but as Silla had said: Breaking some silly rules is one of the perks of working for the government.

Without further delay the archeologist took the Talisman, gripping the hexagonal rock until the colored symbol of a horse on it gleamed with magic. Jackie felt a warm sensation going up his arm and then coursing through his entire body, any pain he may be feeling quickly fading away.

"Feeling better?" Jade asked.

"Much better," Jackie remarked, rubbing his ribs and checking that they were now completely healed. "Are you sure you don't want to use it?" he asked of Viper, extending the hand he was holding the Horse Talisman with towards her.

"Don't worry, I'm fine;" Viper told him, tapping her torso a couple of times. "Nothing that a couple of painkillers can't handle."

Jackie turned his attention towards Silla. "I suppose you will be taking this, then;" the archeologist told the agent, holding the Horse Talisman towards the bespectacled blond man.

Silla, however, held both of his hands up and shook his head. Then he took the backpack he was carrying from his back and opened it, extracting a laptop from it. "Actually, Mr. Chan;" the agent said as he opened the laptop and pressed a pair of buttons on it; "you can keep that one. Orders from the Captain, and speaking of him…" Silla said, turning the laptop around. The screen of the device lighted up, an image of Captain Black's upper body appearing on it shortly afterwards.

"Captain Black?" Jackie asked in a bit of disbelief.

"Hello Jackie. Everyone;" Augustus Black directed himself to everyone present. He then smirked upon getting a good look at Jackie. "Nice clothes, friend."

Jackie rolled his eyes upon the man's joke. "I suppose you already know what happened yesterday."

"I do," the Captain confirmed, voice growing serious. "I talked with my superiors about how the situation with the Oni Masks seems to have become far more complicated, and after a bit of… _dialogue_ , they agreed that sending the Horse Talisman to Heatherfield during a prolonged period of time was the best course of action until our problem with the Oni was solved."

"I get it wasn't easy;" Jackie said, reading between his friend's words.

"We already lost three Talismans on Heatherfield, Jackie;" Black said, "all of them with highly offensive capabilities. True, it wasn't your fault, but my superiors have more and more reservations about relying on a civilian like you with every day that passes. And albeit we were able to take Chang down, we have yet to localize Crane, and Ross continues missing. On top of that, we have lost the means by which localize the last three Masks, haven't we?"

"I tried to use a locator spell this morning, in order to see if we could pinpoint the remaining Masks' locations based on the high amount of chi they must possess, but I didn't find anything." Tohru broke into the conversation. "And Sensei is currently contacting some of his old wizard friends from Asia, asking if they can help. But I fear that even if we are lucky to find a new Oni Mask, removing them from any face without the Hana Fuda providing the key ingredient will be impossible."

"Tarakudo played us like idiots," Jade commented, frowning. "I hate it when they do that."

"I will mobilize some of our agents overseas and ask a couple of favors to see if we can find any of the remaining three Oni Masks. I will send some agents to Heatherfield's vicinity to try and localize Ross," Captain Black told the group. "Silla, did you send me…?"

"The information regarding some of the Dark Hand's operations that Mr. Hale gathered should be on your desk tomorrow morning, Captain;" Silla informed Black. "Don't worry; I've got everything under control. That's the reason Mr. Folkner put me here."

"That's good to hear," Black said in relief, the he directed himself to Jackie and the others. "That will be all. You can keep the Horse, but you have to be extremely careful with it. I trust you with this one, but if we lose another Talisman, you can say goodbye to working with Section 13. I will contact you if we find any mask that looks suspicious or if we get new information about Ross or Crane's whereabouts. Black out." And with those words the computer screen turned off.

* * *

 ** _Across the Veil; the Castle's throne room, two days later_**

Elyon was finding her current situation kind of… tiring. Or perhaps the word that described it better was boring. Or maybe it was the two. It was kind of unnerving too; but that was mainly due to the fact that Archmage Wong was in the same room as her. Seriously, the man didn't become less creepy as you spent more time with him. It wasn't that he was old; Elyon had spent her fair amount of time around old people, but that he seemed to be _too_ old, as if the old wizard had lived more than he was supposed to live. Or perhaps it was just her imagination. At least the presence of her brother, Miranda and Tristan eased the feeling.

Anyway, here she was, her brother in his throne, the Archmage standing still at the end of the stairs that led to it, Miranda and Tristan behind her, and she in the center of the beautiful throne room, a small and dead tree in front of her, inside an old flowerpot, trunk and branches dry, blackened and rotten, its leaves long gone. Elyon, clad in her regal robes, looked at the tree as if it was the most challenging of enemies. Her breathing was faster than usual, denoting nervousness. Was it necessary for everyone to be looking at her?! It just made her feel all the more nervous.

"Don't force yourself just because of our presence, Princess;" Wong spoke, trying to employ a sweet and kind voice with her. It made him even more sinister, if that was even possible. At least the old, extremely wrinkled albino wizard was trying to help her. "Concentrate in the tree and your power, in the flow of life that you desire to awaken within it; and forget about us. Remember, nothing too small, but nothing too big either."

 _Nothing too small, nothing too big… is it possible to be more cryptic?_ Elyon thought as she extended her right hand towards the three, trying to not put too much effort into the gesture, thinking there should be a relation between that and the level of power she employed. _Let's give it a try…_ the young Princess declared in her mind as she concentrated.

Feeling and calling the power to her wasn't difficult at all, and frankly, each day made it easier. What proved to be much more difficult was to actually manage the power into small quantities. If she had to make a comparison, her power always felt like coming to her in the form of a warm, big and slow wave in the ocean. She saw it coming from miles away and once it reached her she welcomed it, but stopping it was a complete different story. Now she was trying to not only stop the wave, but actually redirect a small part of it and use it as she pleased. Healing a man's leg was one thing, since it was simple. Just order it to 'heal' itself with her powers. In her head, that wasn't all that complicated, or at least not as complicated as making a dead tree to turn back to life. Or perhaps that was the secret to it? Perhaps she had been able to heal that commoner's leg because she had thought it easy, like she was using her powers to encourage the body to do its job better?

As they say, practice makes the master. So with that thought in mind, Elyon made her power to build up inside of her, slowly directing it towards her extended hand just like her brother had taught her, lessons to which the Archmage had contributed as best as he could. Her limb started to glow, and then a stream of light waves shot from her fingertips towards the dead tree, enveloping it in energy. Her magic didn't take long before making its effects over the tree clear. At first, the trunk and branches started to regain color, the rotten parts regaining their lost strength and life. Then, one by one, the branches started to sprout leaves of a fresh and vibrant green color, alongside a few white flowers. The tree was alive and healthy once again, all signs of rottenness gone from it.

Elyon's eyes flashed with pride and happiness. "I did it!" the Princess proclaimed happily. Of course, this made her to lose a bit of concentration and her powers react to her emotions. The tree then grew several inches beyond its maximum height, some of its roots breaking through the flowerpot and directing themselves towards the ground, eager to sink themselves in the soil that had originally given birth to the plant. Elyon dispelled her power quickly, before the tree grew even more.

"Uhm… technically, I did a better job than expected, right?" the Princess asked awkwardly and with a shy smile.

"Your power is undeniable, Princess;" Wong said afterwards, "but the goal of these exercises is to help you control that power. Raw Magic, especially the one powered by the nearly unlimited energy of a Heart like the one you possess, can be extremely volatile if handled improperly. If you are to accompany Lord Cedric and me in our attack against Ludmoore, you must be prepared." _The last thing I need it's you blasting me before I can take your foolish brother's throne_ , the old Dark Chi wizard added in his thoughts. _Attacking Ludmoore at this point of the war… what is he thinking?_

"You are too quick to criticize my sister, Archmage;" Phobos said in which everyone present except Elyon (whose smile became more warm than shy then) recognized as a feigned sweet tone of voice. "It was nothing but a little flickering on her concentration that will soon be corrected. And besides, I'm not exactly worried about her going all out against someone like Ludmoore."

"Yes, my Prince;" Wong said in false agreement.

"This… Ludmoore guy is tough?" Elyon asked of her older brother.

"He does possess magic," Wong explained, since he knew as much. "But I wouldn't consider him a greater threat than the Guardians in that regard and you already bested them all."

"Right…" Elyon let the word to slip from her lips, remembering how easily she had defeated Cornelia and the others. She had come to realize that, sooner or later, that situation would have to repeat itself.

"Are you feeling well?" Phobos inquired in a neutral tone, eyes narrowing slightly.

"Uhm? No, it's nothing;" Elyon told her older brother. "It's just… I'll have to fight Cornelia and the others at some point, right? They're going to try and hurt you." Cedric had told her as such, how this… 'Kandrakar', whatever it was, had named the girls as 'Guardians' and ordered them to support the rebels that fought against her brother, tasked with making sure the magical wall that maintained her world isolated from the rest that were out there didn't fall until the Rebellion had taken her family's righteous throne. How could they? How could they do that to an entire planet?

Phobos proceeded to put on a false smile. "Don't worry yourself. For now, let us concentrate into getting rid of Ludmoore." Phobos' eyes fell over the tree, and then over his sister again. "You should practice your concentration a bit more. You can go now, sister," the Prince declared.

"Yes, big brother;" Elyon said; leaving the throne room shortly afterwards, Tristan and Miranda following in her steps after the spider Shapeshifter directed one last glance towards the Prince.

Once the trio of teenagers had left, the Prince rose from his throne and started to descend the stairs, his long, pale straw blond hair waving thanks to his body's movements. With each step he gave, the Glamour Zone he had casted over his throne room started to fall. By the time he reached the end of the staircase that connected his throne with the floor, the illusion had completely fallen, and the chamber was dark once again. The Prince approached the tree his sister had revitalized, surveying it with interest.

"My Prince," Wong, who had put quite the distance between the royal and himself, spoke, holding his twisted magic root with both hand; "are you sure it is a good idea to send the Princess with the attack force to the Ludmoore Manor? Putting the Heart of Meridian in the front lines, where she could be harmed, before her power can be claimed?"

His answer didn't come in the form of words, at least not at first. It came in the form of laughter, starting as something similar to a chuckle until it developed into a more regular, yet still sinister, laugh.

"You never tire of being wrong, do you? How many have been already, Archmage Daolon Wong?" Phobos wondered, pronouncing his rank and name mocking and funnily. The man put one of his hands over the tree's trunk, scratching his goatee with the other. "Artificial Shapeshifters, masks that summon Shadowkhan... all of them failures. It makes me wonder why I gave you that title in the first place, or why I accepted you in my employ at all. I suppose you still are more useful than useless, at least in the combat department. It's hard to find servants that know the ways of magic, after all." Phobos shot a glare to Wong over his shoulder. "Make sure you don't fail in that regard too." His eyes returned to be focused on the tree. "As for my sister, she is one of the strongest individuals in the Known Worlds right now. It would be stupid not to use her in battle before I claim her powers for myself. Until then..." Phobos hand gripped the tree's trunk strongly, his nails almost nailing themselves into the wood. Phobos proceeded then to siphon every bit of energy that Elyon had put into the tree, making it to become the rotten, leafless and empty husk it was once again. "Ah..." Phobos almost shivered with pleasure. "Until then these appetizers will suffice. Leave me now, Archmage."

At the Prince's back, Wong frowned, his eyes flaring for a brief second. It could be so easy, even now. He could crush this fool of a brat here and now... and then get crushed himself by the idiot's all-powerful sister. So the old wizard calmed down, dispelling the power of the Pig that was so quick to come to his eyes when he was angry.

"My lord," the Chinese old man said softly. Then he left the throne room, without making any noise as he walked.

* * *

 ** _A balcony_**

There was a part of Elyon's mind that thought that she would never get used to the sight of the inner gardens of the palace. All of them or at least the ones she had seen... or was it _the one_ she had seen? She wasn't very sure if there were many gardens or if there was just a very big one she saw from different points. She would have to check on that later. Regardless of all that, the gardens were glorious, with strange looking plant-life and exotic animals (birds, mainly) populating the place.

" _Elyon… Elyon…_ " she heard a whisper. Focusing on the balcony's railing, she saw a weird climbing plant wrapping itself around it. The plant had many pinkish roses on it, and it seemed that every single rose was whispering her name. " _Elyon… our lost Princess, returned at last…_ " the roses whispered again, and when the climbing plant finally stopped moving, each rose morphed itself into the shape of small, pinkish and feminine fairy-like creatures. Elyon was instantaneously captivated by their appearance.

"And what exactly are you supposed to be, little ones?" Elyon asked of the pretty little rose-creatures.

"Your Highness?" she heard the female voice she had grown more and more used to with each day she passed in her company.

"Oh, hi Miranda;" Elyon greeted the raven haired girl... er, spider-girl? "I mean, hello. I mean, greetings, I… agh;" the Princess tried to correct herself, knowing that she would need to abandon her earthly expressions sooner or later.

Her lady in waiting, however, giggled a bit at that. "It's alright, my lady. A simple 'Hello' will suffice." Miranda's icy blue eyes fell over the pinkish flower creatures afterwards. "And those are called Whisperers. They are some or your brother's many creations."

"They're lovely," Elyon said with a smile, striking the nearest Whisperer's little head. "My brother really loves gardens, doesn't he?"

"Yes… yes, he does;" Miranda said, eyes not leaving the Whisperers. Miranda had always considered them as the most dangerous beings to inhabit the castle and to ever populate Meridian. She doubted that Phobos had actually created the Whisperers, instead thinking that the creatures had been born from a combination of the Prince's paranoia and his obsession with mixing disturbing magic and plants. The Whisperers had one single and simple job, gather as much information as possible and deliver it to Prince Phobos. Due to their small size and silent nature, they could sneak into almost every corner of the palace, unmistakable from normal roses to the ones that walked by. Fortunately, there were several safe spots around the castle, such as some of the deepest parts of the dungeons, Wong's laboratory and Cedric's private chambers. And good thing these creatures couldn't read thoughts.

"Where's Tristan?" Elyon asked, taking Miranda back to reality.

"I asked him to bring us something to eat and drink," The Shapeshifter girl told the Princess.

"Really?" Elyon asked her. "Shouldn't a servant be doing that?"

"With all due respect, lady Elyon;" Tristan's voice came from the corner of the hall the balcony's door was facing. Elyon had been able to convince him to drop the 'Your Highness' and the 'My Princess', but he still referred to her as 'Lady'. Miranda was far more difficult to convince in that department, though. The young, white-haired boy appeared moments after, easily carrying a large fray containing three glasses alongside a pitcher of what seemed to be fresh orange juice and a large bowl full of some fruits that could only be described as a cross between pears and grapes; "but I used to work in the kitchens of this palace before being transformed into a Shapeshifter, so I don't really mind doing this on top of being your bodyguard."

"Okay," the Princess said, accepting the white haired boy's answer. She took one of the glasses and Tristan filled it with the juice. He did the same for Miranda when the spider took one too. He left the tray over the balcony's railing, perfectly balanced. He took the last glass and filled it himself. Before Elyon actually drank her drink, a question popped into her mind. "Wait, did you just said _transformed_ into a Shapeshifter?"

Tristan tilted his head slightly. "I thought that you knew…"

"Tristan is an artificial Shapeshifter, in contrast with natural born ones like Cedric and me;" Miranda interrupted the boy's words. "He was bestowed that ability by Archmage Wong, in order to fight the Rebellion."

"Wow, really?" a slightly amazed Elyon asked, her eyes now completely focused into her new friend. "That's cool."

Tristan dedicated a puzzled look to the Princess. "What does temperature have to do anything with it?"

And upon that question, Elyon giggled. "It's an… expression from Earth," the Princess informed him. "So Wong just… gave those powers to you?"

"I offered myself as a volunteer, my lady;" Tristan cleared out.

"Why?" Elyon asked, but upon seeing how the white haired boy's visage became somber, the thought that maybe she was asking something she shouldn't be asking came to her mind.

Miranda, meanwhile, thought that this was a very good opportunity to erase any doubt the little Princess still had about fighting on her brother's side. "Tristan's tale is a tragic one, my lady. His parents, alongside with almost the entire population of the village they were part of, Carhaiz, were murdered by the Rebellion."

"They did WHAT?!" Elyon shrieked, palling in the process. "Is that true?" the Princess asked then of Tristan, who nodded solemnly. Cedric had told her that the rebels had committed a lot of atrocities during the war, but there was a part of her that still felt a little reluctant to believe that the girls were actually supporting something capable of such things.

"It is true, my lady;" Tristan said sincerely. Memories of the flames flickered before his eyes, which weren't looking to either Elyon or Miranda anymore. "They… they set the entire village ablaze, and the ones who weren't consumed by fire, met their ends by the rebels' axes and blades." Tristan voice trembled a bit after saying that. "My mother… pushed me out of harm's way just to be crushed by some burning debris. My father told me to run away and don't look back… and I did exactly that, even when I knew that he was being killed." Tristan paused for several seconds. Another figure assaulted his memories, the one of a tall, bearded man with brown hair; but he decided to keep that to himself… for the moment. "A platoon of guards arrived before the rebels left, I believe, commanded by Captain Raythor himself. They rescued me and the other few survivors and took us to the Capital, after disposing of the rebels. I started to work in the castle's kitchens at that time. I was always so… angry," a few cracks appeared in the glass he was holding, product of his grip becoming stronger, "so frustrated about that I couldn't do anything to avenge them. When I heard the rumors about the Archmage granting Shapeshifting abilities to people, I offered myself as a volunteer."

"I… I'm so sorry, Tristan;" Elyon told her bodyguard with all the tact and respect she was able to muster. "I… I don't know what to say."

"You don't have to apologize, my lady;" Tristan told the straw blond girl. "It's not your fault. It's theirs."

"This is the truth about the Rebellion, my lady;" Miranda said, not wasting a second to reinforce the negative feelings the Princess already had for the rebels and for her former friends. "They proclaim themselves as defenders of the common folk, but they have no qualms about slaughtering them."

Elyon looked at the glass of juice she was holding. Now she didn't feel like eating and drinking at all. "They're monsters," she said.

And as those words were pronounced, each Whisperer that was contemplating the teenagers' talk let out an inaudible, unnatural, cruel and pleased laugh.

* * *

 ** _A chamber in the Infinite City; at the same time_**

With a loud battle cry coming out of his mouth, Caleb cut the next training dummy in half. The wooden upper half of the improvised enemy fell to the ground without any grace. The young rebel leader was now using a normal sword, while the Sword of Thanatos was still sheathed and tied to his waist alongside a second, empty sheath; and he had ditched his coat and usual clothing in favor of a pair of frayed and tattered pants and a simple, and dirty shirt that in other times must have been brown or white, but that now was of a yellowish dark orange.

He made a swift movement with his blade and shifted his stance so the fallen training dummy ended at his back and he facing a new wooden opponent. Breathing, he held his blade with both hands and over his head. It wasn't that the piece of wood roughly shaped in the form of an armored man was going to attack him, but he knew that those that took even the most rudimentary of training as a joke or a game were fated to lose when entering real battle. So he maintained his guard even though he knew no attack was coming.

Training was good, that was a truth everyone knew. You become better at something by practicing, by honing your skills. That truth, in Caleb's opinion, applied to swordsmanship more than to anything else. Besides, it provided some time to be alone with his thoughts. Except he wasn't exactly alone.

"I know you are there," Caleb said as he delivered a pair of slashes into the second training dummy. "If you want to say something, say it."

"Those are quite hard to make," Vathek's gruff and deep voice came as the blue, bulky Galhot walked into the scarred teenager's field of vision. The large man kicked the fallen dummy, moving it a few centimeters. "These are supposed to be used by the youngest; the ones that are starting to learn how to fight."

"I have spent my entire life fighting with one sword or with a sword and shield;" Caleb explained, lowering his normal blade and sheathing it. "Now I need to get accustomed to using two blades, one of them containing the remnants of a demonic spirit out to consume me every time I use it. And that's without speaking about the additional weight. I believe I need the practice."

"If you say so," Vathek declared, picking the fallen half of the first training dummy and inspecting it, seeing if there was something that could be saved. With a soft crack, the 'head' of the dummy fell from its poor excuse for a pair of shoulders. Vathek proceeded to let the entire torso of the thing to fall with a slightly exasperated sigh. "Wouldn't do you better if you sparred against someone instead of just... cutting wood?"

"I didn't want to bother anyone," Caleb told the blue Galhot.

"You didn't want to bother anyone, or you didn't want to be bothered?" Vathek asked.

"I told you that if you have anything..." the rebel leader began.

"I know about your talk with Sephiria;" Vathek told the fifteen year old. "A lot of people do, actually. They have been talking about it for a day or so."

"Of course they have," Caleb said, rubbing his forehead with one hand's fingers.

"Can you tell me exactly what happened?" Vathek inquired, folding his large arms.

"Well, you see…" the scarred rebel leader began.

* * *

 ** _A few days before_**

He had told Sephiria that he wanted to speak alone, and they were going to speak alone. They were now in a smaller chamber than the one Sephiria and the rest of the Faithful used to treat the wounded. It could have easily passed for a normal room if it wasn't for the greenish and gloomy light that seemed to emanate from every wall of the Infinite City.

"What do you want to talk about?" the green-haired nun asked of the rebel leader, soft and sweetly. And as she did so, the scarred boy focused into the green-haired fourteen year old girl he had in front of him; a girl just a year younger than him, probably even less than that. She was dressed quite simply, with clothes not different from the ones used by commoners, her shirt's sleeves rolled up in order to allow her to treat the wounded easier; which left part of her arms to be seen. Her green hair was tied into a messy topknot. She was just... a normal girl. True, a member of the Faithful, but a girl after all. Had he ever looked at her like that? No, for him she had just been a nun during the years his father had leaded the Rebellion, the representative of the Faithful in the Small Council when he had assumed command. The girl who had said that she loved him when she thought he wasn't hearing. Had she been... harboring those feelings for him all those years? Had he been ignoring them? "Is there something wrong?"

Caleb knew what he wanted to say, but now he found himself unable to phrase it. Come on! What was wrong with him?! He had fought against things that would give nightmares to the most courageous of soldiers! This couldn't be more difficult than that! Alright, let's start with something simple, something easy...

"Do you remember when you were treating my wounds a few weeks ago?" Caleb asked. He looked at how the healer's eyes moved a bit, as if trying to read the answer from an imaginary text that her mind had displayed in front of her. "When I returned from Earth, with this;" the scarred boy said, tapping the pommel of the Sword of Thanatos.

"Oh, yes!" Sephiria let out a perhaps too cheerful cry for the situation. "What about it? Have some of your old wounds been bothering you?"

Caleb breathed deeply. "No, it's not that, it's…" another deep breath. Alright, he had been wrong; this may be harder to do than fighting whatever thing the world threw at him. "When you were treating my wounds, you were speaking. I think that you thought that I was still unconscious, but I heard you. You said… that you loved me."

And then there was silence. Sephiria's expression, however, spoke for itself. He eyes widened and her mouth slightly opened, it would have been stupid to say that the nun wasn't surprised. She averted her gaze from the rebel leader, instead looking to the ground for several seconds.

"You heard wrong," Sephiria said. Her voice seemed to have lost the meek tone she usually spoke with.

"No, I don't think I did;" Caleb said seriously. He had come here to finally address and solve this matter, and he wasn't going to go anywhere until that happened. "You said that you loved me. That is what I heard, and I'm sure that's what you said." Caleb only received more silence as an answer. "Sephiria, please. I need to know."

Sephiria kept silence for another handful of seconds. When she finally raised her eyes again, Caleb thought that they were the ones of a different person.

"And what if I do?" the nun asked. "What if I do love you? Is there something wrong with that?" The nun's lips formed a small smile.

There was the answer he had been seeking. Perhaps not that welcomed now that he had heard it. His next word left his lips faster than he thought. "Why?"

Sephiria let out a short-lived chortle. "Because... because you saved me."

"What?" Caleb inquired.

"Four years ago, more or less;" Sephiria explained. "When I joined the Rebellion, when..." she stopped, trying to get the details right; "there were some Lurdens and some guards too. They attacked the abbey I lived in. And you, you saved me." Sephiria stared at him with a somehow saddened look, even if she kept smiling. "Shouldn't that be enough reason to love someone?"

"I... I don't know. I don't... think so," Caleb told her. Was he right, though? Did he actually know anything about how love worked? But he knew how his love worked, or at least he knew how he wanted his love to work. "Love is… something between two. And Sephiria, I…"

"You don't love me. And you will never feel for me what I have felt for you;" Sephiria told the scarred boy. "You will never feel for me what you feel for _her_."

"You talk about Cornelia," Caleb stated. "The Earth Guardian."

"Do you know that when I first noticed how you looked at her and how she looked back at you I couldn't resist feeling jealous?" Sephiria said alongside a chuckle as short lived as her previous chortle. "She appearing out of nowhere, becoming the object of your affections; something that everyone in the Rebellion seemed to both notice and support… yes, I was envious and also angry. But now that I look back, I can tell that I didn't have any right to be so. I never came and spoke with you; I never told you how I felt. I never wondered… if you really felt something similar. Always meek and soft-spoken Sephiria, just as any proper member of the Faithful should be. But I didn't want to face you with my feelings as much as I did want you to accept them. Perhaps I was afraid that you would say the words you have said to me just now. Or perhaps, what I have felt for you during all this time it's not really love, but something else."

"Sephiria…" Caleb began, but the girl shook her head and moved from her spot in the chamber, heading towards the door.

"You don't have to say anything else," the nun told him, stopping before exiting the chamber. "I don't have any ill feelings towards you for how you feel, that would be ridiculous. I will continue to tend to my duties, and serving the Rebellion as the Faithful's representative in its Small Council. But love or not, Caleb;" the green-haired girl said with a full smile this time, "you will always be my hero."

* * *

 ** _Now_**

"And?" Vathek asked, having heard the rebel leader's entire tale.

"And nothing else," Caleb answered. "She walked out; I remained there for another couple of minutes. Nothing else."

"You asked Sephiria to talk with you alone;" Vathek said, "and it was her who did most of the talking and the one able to come to terms with her feelings faster and easier than you."

"Yes," Caleb answered in quite a plain manner.

Vathek's next response took time to arrive. When it did, it surprised Caleb more than anything else the Galhot had said up until then.

"AHAHAHAHAHA!" the blue Galhot laughed loudly, startling the younger rebel.

"Wha- Hey!" a blushed Caleb told the older man. "Don't laugh at me! This is a serious matter!"

"I'm sorry, I'm sorry..." Vathek said, holding a hand over his mouth. "Able to command an entire Rebellion, and yet you have problems talking about your feelings with a woman. Sometimes I forget too quickly that you are still young."

Caleb couldn't avoid chuckling a bit, finding the bulky man's mood contagious. "Sometimes... I do too."

Vathek put a hand over the boy's shoulder. "Sometimes," the blue Galhot told the boy; "is good to remember it. Is in the nature of youth to not know all the facets of love and that is _not_ a bad thing. What is a bad thing is to lock oneself in a room chopping wood and let rumors to run wild."

"What kind of rumors?" Caleb asked.

"I think... it's better if I don't tell you;" Vathek said, remembering some of the few he had heard. That Sephiria had been crying for an entire day after her talk with Caleb. That Caleb had been the one crying. That Caleb and Sephiria were secretly sleeping with each other. Then there were the ones saying that the rebel leader was secretly a ' _sword swallower_ ', and thus that explained why he hadn't been seen with any woman in all these years. And who knows what else. Yes, it was better if he didn't say those.

Caleb sighed. "And meanwhile, here I have been, moping."

"Moping?" Vathek asked the scarred teen, a bit confused by the word.

"It's a... term, from Earth;" Caleb cleared out. One that, like many others, he had picked from his time with the girls.

Vathek nodded a couple of times. Then he moved and put his entire arm around Caleb's shoulders, forcing the rebel leader to walk alongside him. "Whatever it means, you should stop doing it. Let's get out of here; we both have better things to put our energy into than this."

As they walked out of the training chamber, leaving the chopped and intact dummies behind, Vathek cleared his throat.

"Then... the Earth Guardian, is it?" the blue Galhot asked a bit awkwardly. "You do love her?"

"Why is everyone so concerned about whom I love or not?" Caleb, a bit exasperated by now, asked aloud. He was starting to fear how someone like Drake would act upon learning about this.

"In my case, because I'm concerned about you;" Vathek answered. Then he paused for several seconds. "Did your father ever...?"

"Did my father do what?" Caleb asked as the large Galhot trailed off in his words.

"You know," Vathek said; "when a man and a woman..."

"Light of Meridian, Vathek... yes!" Caleb yelled, realizing what his friend was saying. "I know that much!"

He really feared how Drake was going to react upon learning about this.

* * *

 ** _Meanwhile…_**

One of the first things that you were told when you became a member of the Faithful of the Light of Meridian was to choose a path within the order as fast as you could. You could become a healer, and learn about ointments, bandages, healing spells and how to treat many different types and sub-types of wounds. Most of the people who turned to the Faithful out of necessity chose this path, since it was the option that the priests and priestesses presented as the better to the newcomers. The other path you could choose was to become a scholar, and learn about letters, numbers and Meridian's history and how to transmit that knowledge to the new generations. This last group was less numerous than the one composed by those who chose to become healers, since normally there were needed no more than half a dozen scholars in any abbey (in order to serve as teachers to those in the nearest villages that wanted and could economically afford to learn how to read and write) in comparison with the number of healers needed to attend the population. Scholars were things more akin to the churches that could be found in some of the great cities of Meridian's middle ring and to Lannion's great cathedral, were there was a higher quality of life and there wasn't such a high need for healers.

Of course, there was always a third option. You could choose both of them. After all, you needed to know how to write and read in order to be a proper healer (without those skills there was no way you could learn any healing spell or the way to make any ointment); so why not try and become both? Sephiria, even against the advice of some of her fellow initiated, had chosen this third option. It hadn't been easy, mind you.

Her first memories were always of her mother, Sarah; of the village they both had lived in, and of the abbey that was just outside of it. Nothing spectacular, just a two-story tall building no bigger than one of the Capital's best taverns or inns, with a bell-tower that could barely qualify as a tower. She remembered that one day she had made some sparks with her hands, and next thing she knew her mother had presented her to the Faithful. She had learned how to read, how to write, and then how to use her magic to heal those who needed healing. Then she had wanted to repay them. So she had started to learn how to teach to others what she had been taught. She had been seven then, and even if she ignored it, Meridian was in its sixth year of the war, and the practices of the Faithful had been forbidden by the Prince long ago.

Three years later came a bunch of Lurdens with some guards. The abbey was burned down, and Sephiria was taken prisoner alongside the rest of members of the Faithful that were in the village, ready to be taken to the dreaded Underwater Mines. She didn't see Sarah ever again.

But then there were some noises, followed by a fortuitous attack by the Rebellion. And afterwards, their shackles had been taken from their wrists and ankles. All the monsters were dead, and they had been saved! That had been the moment she met Caleb. Nothing but a boy of eleven, with unkempt brown hair and green eyes, dressed in not the most glamorous or cleaned of clothes, carrying a sword around.

 _Was I really… in love with him?_ Sephiria thought as she applied a small healing spell over the broken arm of a rebel. Carrying out Caleb's order of getting the less wounded treated first so they could be part of the incoming fight with the nobility had been easy t first, but as time passed it became more and more troublesome to discern whose treatment and recovery should be prioritized. _Or was it just mere childish infatuation?_

She had been sure, for all those years; about what she felt for Caleb. But now that he had forced her to confess and confront her feelings, she wasn't so sure anymore. She had been rabidly angry at the Earth Guardian just because she had been able to achieve in mere months what Sephiria had been dreaming of for years. But in all of those years… had she done actually anything to achieve that desire? Had Caleb even known her name until she became a part of the Small Council?

The feelings were still there, a talk of not even half an hour wasn't going to erase something built over the spam of four years. But Caleb had made his feelings as clear as Sephiria had done with hers. And she had to respect that, didn't she?

"Sephiria!" one of her fellow Faithful called for her. "I need a bit of help here!"

"In a moment!" the nun answered, giving a last look to the arm of the injured rebel she was helping. "Made sure not to overexert it," she told her patient, and then moved towards the one that had called her.

She still had her duties, both as a member of the Faithful and as a rebel; and no broken heart was going to change that. She would undertake them as best as she could. And in the meantime, she would try deciphering what she truly felt or not.

* * *

 ** _Across the Veil, Sheffield Institute; some days later_**

Going back to school after the holidays was always hard. The fact that your boyfriend had discovered your secret life as a Guardian, wanted to take part in the war you were fighting in another world, and was angry with you because you weren't accepting that it made things just a lot harder.

"I just don't get why I can't help if I get training," Matt Olsen told Will Vandom as the pair of teens were walking through the halls of Sheffield towards her locker. To his credit, he was speaking softly enough that their conversation wasn't heard by any of the other students around. "You told me that the girls and you got training, and you don't even have a power or element or whatever of your own."

"Yes, Matt;" Will told her boyfriend. "But when transformed I can literally fly, I can survive hits that no human should be able to survive and I'm strong enough to punch iron and dent it. You're none of those things."

"Okay, first of, that whole punching iron part was awesome;" the dark-haired boy said sincerely, making Will to blush slightly. "Second, that doesn't mean I can't help you. Maybe I can learn some magic." he told her as they reached Will's locker, which she opened in order to get a few books out.

"Matt, no;" Will said without looking at him.

"Will, I'm just worried about you!" he said, raising his voice a bit too much.

"And why do you think I don't want you in all this?!" Will said in a slightly louder tone too, forcing herself to lower it afterwards. Her reddish eyes were practically gleaming. "You've got no idea how dangerous this can be. You've got no idea of the things I've seen, of the things very horrible people have wanted and have done to us. You've no idea of the _things_ I've had to do in order to make any progress in this war."

That last sentence caught Matt off guard. Processing the words and not half as angry as before, the teenager scratched his head, glancing aside in an awkward manner before making eye contact with Will once again. "Will… have you… _killed_ someone?"

Will put her attention back into her locker, putting the books she had extracted from it into her schoolbag. She was a bit surprised when she found a letter inside her locker, since she was pretty sure she hadn't put that there. Was this another of Uriah's pranks? Her mind wasn't focused enough on that to actually give a damn about the piece of paper.

"Yes," she slowly answered Matt's question.

"But… they were bad people, right?" Matt asked, smiling awkwardly.

"They were just people, Matt;" Will said somberly, closing her locker and putting her schoolbag at her back. "That's how this whole thing works."

"I…" Matt began. Wow, he had been quite insensitive there, hadn't he? "I… Christ. Sorry, Will."

"Yeah, yeah, I know;" the girl told the boy with a smile. "It's just… look, what we've been forced to do it's not pretty. It needed to be done, but it's not something I go bragging about. And I don't want that to happen to you."

Matt didn't spoke for several seconds, thinking about what his girlfriend had told him. "You know that I'm going to keep insisting into helping you all, right?"

Will laughed a bit at those words. "I know, but that's one of the things I really like about you." The redhead leaned forwards and put a kiss over the boy's lips. "See you after class?"

"I'll be there," Matt told her sweetly before heading towards his classroom, leaving Will alone with her schoolbag and the letter she still had in her hand.

Now without further distractions she actually decided to read it. As she did so, her eyes widened and she couldn't contain a small gasp. This was… this certainly was a surprise. If it was true or not, or advantageous or not, that she didn't know. She would need to discuss it with the girls, later.

* * *

 ** _After classes_**

Just in front of Sheffield, there was a small park. In said park, there was a large tree, under which the girls usually met when they needed to discuss something related to Meridian and there wasn't time to go to the Silver Dragon. Matt and Alchemy had joined their usual band of six, resulting into eight teenagers hearing how Will read the letter that had been given to her. The letter said the following words:

 _Dear Will, I know this may sound strange and suspicious, but I need to talk with you and your fellow Guardians. Yes, I know you are Guardians. I have information related to Meridian and the Princess. Meet me at my home; my address is at the end of this paper. I need your help, and I know that you need mine._

 _Mrs. Rudolph_

"Mrs. Rudolph?" Jade asked as Will ended reading the letter. "As in our Math teacher? That Mrs. Rudolph?"

"Apparently," Will said, shrugging a bit. "At least it's what the letter said; Mrs. Rudolph didn't tell me anything face to face."

"Which means it could be a trap," Taranee pointed out. "It isn't that I want to criticize a teacher, but if Phobos sent one of his servants to spy on us, why not send another?"

"Uh… hasn't Mrs. Rudolph been teaching here for years?" Hay Lin asked. "Maybe she really needs our help. She doesn't look like someone bad to me."

"Yeah, remember the guy we thought was just a hot guy and then turned out to be a giant snake?" Cornelia asked rhetorically. "Looks aren't everything."

"Did I just hear Cornelia Hale saying those words?!" Irma asked, putting on a clearly fake shocked face, even taking her hands to her cheeks. Cornelia shot her an annoyed glare.

"Even if it's a trap, which I don't think so, because then it could be the most obvious one ever;" Will told her friends and boyfriend; "we should go. If it's a trap, then we'll just have to deal with whatever it is. If it isn't, then we could get valuable information." Will looked at how Matt was slowly raising his right hand. "Matt, we already talked about this."

"I know, I know;" her boyfriend admitted, shrugging a bit. "Besides, I've to help my gramps in the pet store this afternoon. Good luck," he said, kissing Will and waving his hand as he distanced from them. "See you later."

"See you…" Will said, the feeling of Matt's lips over hers still fresh, "later."

"I think I'll be going too," Alchemy declared once Matt disappeared. "It's not that I don't want to get involved but… I think I still need some time to get used to all this information."

"Don't worry Alchemy," Cornelia told her friend. "This time, I'll tell you everything you need to know."

The petite auburn haired girl left shortly afterwards, head filled with too many a thought. This left the Guardians and the Shapeshifter alone, pondering their options.

"So… we're really gonna do this, aren't we?" Jade asked of the redhead.

"It's the best thing to do," Will told the dark haired Chinese girl.

"Spending the afternoon in a teacher's house;" Irma said dryly, putting her arms behind her head. "We're the weirdest teens ever."

* * *

 ** _Meanwhile, at the Ludmoore manor_**

Charles Ludmoore was in a happy mood. Whistling and carrying a pair of metallic suitcases, the man was walking towards the desk in his manor's library, the only sound to accompany the melody he was making with his lips was the slow and soft buzzing of his stabilized Portal, always casting a bluish light over the entire room, even when the lights were on.

Ludmoore reached his desk and left the pair of suitcases over it. He adjusted his black business suit and passed one hand over his dark curls. He sat in the desk for which was likely his last time doing so. He proceeded to open one of the suitcases, inspecting its content for the tenth time in a row, and then closing it.

"Ace in the hole for the last third of Phase One, ready;" he said aloud, tapping the closed suitcase a couple of times. Then he opened the second one, which turned out to be empty. Ludmoore raised both his hands with the palms opened and concentrated, and after a couple of seconds there were two bright and buzzing green flashes. When the green light that accompanied each teleportation casted by Raw Magic disappeared, Ludmoore was holding two Oni Masks, one purple and with horns and that resembled a serious face, and the other completely black and with a disturbingly gleeful smile. He proceeded to put the two Masks into the second suitcase, closing it afterwards. "Triumph card, ready too."

Ludmoore let out a satisfied sigh and reclined into his chair. He glanced back at his stabilized Portal, knowing that he still had a couple of hours before the attack commenced. Better get things going, anyway. He clapped his hands, making the pair of suitcases to disappear in the same vein he had made the two Masks to appear before. Afterwards he rose up from his chair and extended both arms upwards, muttering an incantation.

Ludmoore's body became coated in dark blue energy, sending a shockwave through the entire mansion as he finished the spell. Then, one by one, each window of the manor opened, more than two dozens of stone gargoyles entering through them, flapping their stone wings. They all walked into the library, standing still and awaiting Ludmoore's instructions.

"My dear gargoyles," Ludmoore told them, a bit tired after casting the spell. "You were created by grandfather Barnabas with the sole purpose of serving this family and protecting this manor. And probably because he liked gothic architecture;" the man said, giving an aside glance. "In a few hours, intruders will come out of that Portal, my own brother Cedric amongst them," he said, pointing to the swirling mass of energy. "Refrain from doing any lethal harm to him, the girl or the old man that will be in his company; but fight hard enough as to not raise any suspicions. As for the Lurdens, show no compassion, show no doubt. Kill as many as you can before they kill you. This shall be your last order, for this manor has already fulfilled its purpose. Now move! Prepare yourselves for the incoming battle!"

The stone gargoyles answered their master's words with mere growls. Then they scattered across the manor's halls and largest rooms, waiting for their attackers to arrive. Charles was a little disappointed by that reaction, but he supposed it was natural coming from things that weren't really alive. He started to walk out of the library, directing one last look to the stabilized Portal that had benefited him so much, the tall bookshelves he had known since he was a child. He had to admit that he would miss this building. But what was the sacrifice of a simple edification in the face or finally moving into Phase Two? Centuries of preparation, were finally paying off. Now the only thing that was left was to wait just a bit longer.

* * *

 ** _Across the Veil, a courtyard in the palace, some hours later_**

"Are you ready, Princess?" Daolon Wong asked nicely enough. At his right, Elyon Escanor stood with a serious face, rubbing her hands against the sides of her light blue regal gown from time to time. Cedric was also there, flanking the Princess alongside Wong, clad in his usual green attire, surveying the scene with a neutral expression. Around them, a platoon of about fifty Lurdens waited for their instructions. With scimitars, axes and lances ready; the barbarian orc-like creatures were clearly impatient to enter a fight.

"I'm ready," Elyon told the old Archmage. To be sincere, she was still feeling nervous. Wong's and the Lurden platoon's presence didn't ease that feeling at all. In fact, they were rather unnerving. And how come that there was a courtyard in this castle she hadn't yet discovered?! How big was this place?!

But she was forcing herself to not be bothered by any of that. She had been training with her powers for days just to be prepared for this exact same moment. She needed to do this for both her people and herself. She needed to show her people that there was hope for them, that she was here and that she could do more than heal legs and bring trees back to life.

"Remember your lessons, my Princess;" Cedric addressed her. "You already know of Ludmoore's stabilized Portal, which is always opened in Earth, albeit locked. You just have to open another one and connect them."

Yes, yes, she already knew that. She had been practicing for this very moment during the last days, being taught by her brother about how the Veil that Kandrakar had put around Meridian worked. Breathing deeply, Elyon extended her right arm onwards and closed her eyes, concentrating into her powers.

Her entire body became coated in light, and she started to search for the gigantic mass of energy she identified as the Veil. Finding it was quite easy, due to how strange its nature was. If her own power could be described as an ocean, the Veil was a massive, cold and strong wall that was clearly unnatural and not meant to be there, yet seemed to be immovable. However, Elyon could feel several points gleaming through the surface of said wall, like cracks that appeared, disappeared and appeared once again.

Portals, blinking in and out of existence. All except one of them, that remained opened in the other side and that was connected to a dozen of the blinking ones. She supposed that was Ludmoore's stabilized Portal, since it was the only one behaving abnormally. Elyon directed her power towards the wall, where it started to scratch the surface of the Veil, ultimately making an aperture that the Princess quickly connected to the anomaly that was Ludmoore's Portal. When she opened her eyes and dispelled her power, a Portal had opened just a few meters in front of them.

"I did it!" Elyon proudly cheered, dedicating a happy smile to Cedric, whom smiled back at her.

 _Of course you did it, you idiotic child_ ; Wong thought with disdain. "Shall we go, your Highness?"

"Y-Yes!" Elyon declared, pointing towards the swirling mass of energy ahead of them. "Let's… let us go!"

Elyon directed the march, Cedric and Wong walking mere steps behind her, the fifty Lurdens behind them, marching at a much slower pace due to their numbers. The straw blonde was the first one to pass through the hole in the Veil. The world around her became white and blue for the briefest of moments, and then it became… a library?

Indeed, it was a library. With tall bookshelves full of books, the room having been built mainly in wood, a desk not different from the ones you could find in any office in the center of the place. Looking at her back Elyon saw the Portal she had crossed to arrive here, noticing how different it was from the one she had opened. It looked kinda like that thing from that old sci-fi show… Stargate? Was that the name? Cedric and Wong appeared seconds after, some of the Lurdens crossing too. Yes, she had really done it! They were on Earth again, in this Charles Ludmoore's manor.

"Scatter," Cedric ordered the Lurdens. "Find Ludmoore and anyone or anything else that may be on this manor."

The orc-like creatures obeyed, separating into smaller groups while more of them arrived and parting into different directions.

"Shouldn't we go with them?" Elyon asked. That was the reason they had come, right? To deal with Ludmoore by themselves.

"No, my Princess;" Wong told her. "Ludmoore surely has traps everywhere. It's better if we let the Lurdens find them first."

"I don't think that's the best…" Elyon began to say as seriously as she could, but then a roar cut the air. Looking to one of the nearest doors in the huge library, the trio saw the door to burst out of it hinges, a pair of Lurden being thrown across the air afterwards. Following them was one of Ludmoore's stone gargoyles, clearly the one that had attacked them. Following in the steps of the winged stone creature were three like it. Seconds after, more of the doors that led out of the library burst opened, more of those gargoyles coming out of them. Some of them had already engaged the Lurdens in combat, while others were coming straight towards them.

"There issssss your trap, Archmage;" Cedric hissed, already transforming into his beast form. Behind a façade of displeasure, the Lord was however quite gleeful. Not only was everything going according to the plan, he also had the opportunity to do a little exercise.

* * *

 ** _Heatherfield; Mrs. Rudolph's house, afternoon_**

Mrs. Rudolph's house wasn't anything out of the ordinary. It was exactly the kind of house you would expect to encounter in any of Heatherfield's residential areas, not different at all from the one Elyon or Irma lived in. The Guardians and Jade had come here as soon as they could; expecting anything. Mrs. Rudolph had received them warmly, inviting them to pass and guiding them through her home until they appeared in the house's backyard, where a table and enough chairs had been already prepared, alongside what seemed to be tea and cookies. The six girls sat down alongside Mrs. Rudolph, the pudgy, blond and bespectacled woman serving herself a cup of tea.

"You can drink some, if you would like;" the Math teacher told them. Upon noticing how the girls were looking at her, the woman chuckled a bit. "It's not poisoned."

"I know that;" Jade told the pudgy woman, having already checked everything over the table with her enhanced smell. "But you gotta admit this is a bit too weird."

"We're just suspicious, that's all;" Will took the reins of the conversation from her friend. "You've to admit that, considering the letter you gave me, it's pretty normal we act like this. You could be an enemy, for all we know."

Mrs. Rudolph laughed a bit nervously. "I will have to gain your trust, then. I suppose some introductions are in order…" the Math teacher told the sextet of girls while she stood up. A thin circle of light started to travel over her body then, from toes to head. Once the circle had ended finished and disappeared, the pudgy, middle aged woman was gone and replaced by a large, humanoid creature that was still pudgy, but that was clearly not human. Albeit she was still wearing her previous clothing, now her ears were pointy, her face had reptilian features reminding of a salamander, and her entire skin was covered in yellow and orange scales. She even had a tail! Her hair was now of a copper tone of red instead of blond, long enough to almost fall over her shoulders. "My name is Galgheita. I'm not your enemy and as you can see, I'm not from this world."

"You're a meridianite," Taranee stated. "You're a Galhot?" she looked the part, with a humanoid form and scales instead of skin, but she looked far more… _animalistic_ , than people like Vathek.

"I'm what happens when you add Shapeshifter blood to a Galhot bloodline;" Galgheita told the girl, chuckling a bit. "One of my grandparents was a Changeling, but I'm more Galhot than Shapeshifter, which results into me having this appearance. And of course, I can't shapeshift. Wait, I think the glamour is coming…" the woman said, and then grunted as the circle of light travelled through her body again, clearly against her will. In mere moments, she looked human once again; "back."

"Was that… normal?" a dumbfounded Irma voiced the question all her friends were thinking now.

"No…" Mrs. Rudolph answered, rubbing her neck for a bit. "Glamour spells are used to disguise one's appearance, but I made an error when I casted mine. I'm no sorceress, after all. Now I can only go back to my real form for very small periods of time. And the same can be said about Alborn and Miriael," the woman informed the six girls as she sat at the table again. "Or as you all know them, Thomas and Elanor Brown."

"You know Elyon's parents?!" Cornelia shouted, almost jumping out of her seat.

"Cornelia, calm down;" Will told the blonde. "Mrs. Rudolph… Galgheita, I think you need to tell us everything you know."

The pudgy woman looked at the six girls in front of her. She had know most of them since they had entered high school, and now here they were. Guardians, and a Shapeshifter if her smell didn't betray her. the woman rubbed her eyes and adjusted her glasses.

"Very well," the Math teacher said slowly. "As I already told you, I used to work in the palace before Phobos came to power. Thirteen years ago, the night of the coup, some weeks after the Princess was born… it was me, alongside Alborn and Miriael, Captains of the Queen's Royal Guard, who took the Princess from her crib in order to save her from her brother."

* * *

 ** _Ludmoore manor, at the same time_**

Elyon blasted the nearest stone gargoyle by shooting it with a beam of energy from her palm. She wasn't using nearly as much power as she could, but she was worried about the possibility of hurting her allies if she went all out. Wong wasn't far away from her, fighting against two of these monsters made of stone by firing energy beams of a dark purple color from his twisted root-like wand. Lurdens were all over the place (and she knew they were fighting across the entire manor), divided in small groups in order to fight more efficiently. Cedric was nowhere to be seen, having rammed a couple of gargoyles into the nearest wall and piercing through it, leaving only a gaping hole after him.

The huge library had been instantaneously trashed after the fighting began, the bookshelves broken and the books they had been containing either already burned or burning. If she focused enough of her attention, sounds result of the Lurdens fighting in the nearest corridors. The entire manor seemed to have descended into chaos in a matter of minutes! And then there was the cherry on top of the whole situation. And that was the fact the Elyon had recognized these things, these gargoyles, instantaneously. They were the same as the pair that had attacked Cedric and her the day he had revealed to her true identity and heritage. How?! Why?!

The gargoyle she had been fighting crumbled into tiny rocks after her next attack. Before she could focus her attention on her next opponent, however, Wong called for her.

"Princess!" the old Chinese man shouted as he created a small energy shield in order to protect himself. "Let this paltry excuse for a fight to the Lurdens and me! You must find Ludmoore!"

"Alright!" Elyon shouted in agreement, running across the trashed library and exiting it through one of the destroyed doors.

* * *

 _At last_ , Wong thought as he saw the Princess disappear out of the place. "Gan, Ren, Chui!" he called for his Dark Chi warriors, the trio of orange-skinned men materializing out of dark blue smoke, already carrying their weapons. "Attack!"

Hammer, windmill shuriken and staff flew across the air until they collided with the nearest stone gargoyle. Their owners jumped to battle shortly after. And Wong, meanwhile contemplated the scene. The Archmage was a bit enraged that he had been dragged into this mess. At least he could use this experience to test his abilities before his battle with Phobos.

The wizard caught a glimpse of another gargoyle trying to perform a sneak attack on him, just for the Dark Chi Wizard to immobilize it with a move of his free hand and the use of the power of the Noble Rooster that resided within him. He then fired a couple of eye-beams by using the power of the Noble Pig, blasting part of the stone creature's head in the process. He finished his opponent by bisecting it vertically with a telekinetic wave. The powers of the Talismans really were amazing, weren't they? All the benefits of complicated chi spells and none of the drawbacks, especially in the stamina department. Oh yes, this was an excellent test of his powers.

* * *

 ** _Meanwhile, at Mrs. Rudolph's garden_**

While the battle at the Ludmoore manor progressed, the girls were still sitting at the table in Mrs. Rudolph backyard, listening closely to the woman's words and story. Sipping from her teacup, the Math teacher recalled her years working inside the palace of the Escanor Queens, under the rule of Queen Weira.

"I worked at the castle since I was young;" the woman explained to the sextet of girls; "doing things here and there. As I grew up and I learned how to write and read, I started to increasingly get assigned to work in the castle's archives and library, until I ended in charge of them. Things weren't perfect under Weira's rule, but they were good."

Galgheita paused for several moments, drumming both index fingers against her teacup. "Then Phobos was born. A male heir born from the blood of the Escanor Queens… It was a bad omen, everyone seemed to notice that; everyone except for the Queen, and by extension, her Royal Consort. To their credit, the boy didn't give any problem for years. He was always very quiet, walking from one corner of the castle to another and not bothering anyone. He used to spend hours in the archives, though; obsessing over any book that contained any information related to magic."

"That doesn't sound at all like the Phobos we met," Will commented, still remembering how the Prince had tortured her with those vines when she and Jade had been captured all those months ago.

"The Prince was probably convinced that his ascension to the throne was already secured," Galgheita continued, "thinking that the only thing he needed to do was wait. But one day… one day the Queen became pregnant. Something changed in the Prince's demeanor then. The possibility of a female heir, a _true_ heir, must have scared him. Months later the Queen gave birth to a healthy baby, a girl."

"Elyon," Cornelia muttered.

"Elyon Escanor," Galgheita said, with a nod; "Princess of Meridian, and heir to the throne. It didn't take long for Phobos to take action. I remember that it was a stormy night, and that I heard noises that then became screams." The woman grimaced upon remembering that fateful night. "Guards took the servants and locked them in the kitchens, but I was able to evade them. Every soldier that didn't seem to have joined in the coup had been quickly disposed of. Alborn and Miriael found and told me that the Prince had killed the Queen and Royal Consort, and that he was coming for the Princess. So we did what needed to be done, taking little Elyon and fleeing to Earth as fast as we could. I sneaked into the baby Princess' room while Alborn and Miriael cleared a way for us to escape the palace, taking her while she was asleep. Once here, I crafted these glamour spells over us in order to disguise ourselves as humans. They worked… too well. The next thing was to create false identities, which wasn't too hard once we contacted the appropriate people and used some of the gold we had taken from Meridian."

"So that's how it happened…" Hay Lin muttered this time. It didn't matter how many times she heard it, the fact that Phobos had killed his own parents, his own _family_ , still made the Air Guardian to feel sick.

"Wait, how did you manage to reach Earth with Elyon?" Taranee inquired.

"Ironically," the pudgy woman said, taking another sip from her teacup in order to calm down; "that was thanks to an artifact of the Prince's own invention that we managed to steal. He had called it Seal of Phobos, a golden pendant shaped like a rhombus that looked no different from jewelry, and that had been designed as a means to open anything… including Folds in space. I suppose it should be able to open Portals in a Veil too. Sadly, we lost it when we arrived on Earth."

"How long have you known about us being Guardians?" the black girl inquired again.

"For months," Galgheita answered. "I recognized the famed Heart of Kandrakar around your neck, Will. It didn't take long for me to connect the dots."

"Then why didn't you talk with us sooner?" Jade asked her with a small scowl. "And why didn't you and the Browns tell Elyon about who she really was? No offense, but it would've solved us a lot of problems!"

Galgheita lowered her gaze. "I wanted to, believe me. But as the years passed, Alborn and Miriael found harder and harder to tell their daughter the truth. And if I'm sincere… I didn't want to ruin their happiness."

"Yeah, and you all left the door open for Cedric to come into the picture and get her back to Phobos without any problem," Cornelia said angrily, folding her arms just under her bust.

Galgheita's face darkened. "I… feared as much. I have never met Cedric face o face, but I know who he is due to information I gathered thanks to trading with some Passling-folk that crossed the Veil during these last years. When Elyon disappeared out of sight, I went to her home. It was empty, so I supposed something must have happened. That's the reason I contacted you."

"Then… I believe it's our turn for some explanations," Will told their Math teacher.

* * *

 ** _Ludmoore manor's basement_**

Charles Ludmoore was a man that loved literature, anyone that had crossed paths with him at least once knew that. It probably was the only facet of his true personality that the man didn't bother to hide behind his faked cold and greedy attitude. However, if someone asked him which one was the most valuable book he owned, he wouldn't choose any of the works of literature that were in his library. No, his most valuable book, his most valuable possession… was here, in the basement of his home, behind a door made of reinforced steel and with so many protection spells over it that he had trouble remembering them all.

The sounds of the battle raging over him reached his ears even through the wood, metal and stone walls; proof of the intensity of the clash. As he chanted an incantation that opened the door of the small vault, he could have sworn he had heard several explosions. Ignoring them, he crossed the thick door of steel and entered into his family's vault. Around him there were several books, but these weren't works of literature. These were ledgers, accounting ledgers to be precise. Even a man of his intellect needed a way to keep track of all his deals and business projects. But even those weren't the most important books in this place.

With a clap of his hands the books started to be teleported away, in order to keep them safe from any harm. This left Charles alone with one last single book, waiting at the end of the room. This was a old book, with blackened and dusty covers and yellowed pages. His family had conserved it as best as they had been able to do since the nineteenth century. Taking it in his hands, Ludmoore opened it one last time and read its pages. The tale it told was the cornerstone of his family's plans. Closing and putting it back where it was, Charles moved his hand. Sparks of dark blue Raw Magic danced between his fingers, and then the book was set ablaze.

"I apologize for doing this, my ancestor;" Charles spoke, albeit he knew he was speaking to nobody; "but my siblings and I already know this information, and the plan will soon be complete. I can't risk for anyone to discover the words you left behind and foil two centuries of efforts in one single moment."

And with those words, Charles left the vault; the smell of burning paper following him all the way until he stepped out of the basement.

* * *

 ** _On the manor's main floor_**

Cedric let out a roar as he slammed his tail into one of the gargoyles he was fighting, attacking the other one with his claws. Wrapping his coils around his recently stroke opponent, the Shapeshifter started to apply as much pressure as he could to the stone creature with his tail. The gargoyle shattered under his tail's powerful muscles, and this left the Snake of Cavigor to focus on his other adversary, grabbing its arms with his claws and smashing its body against the ground. The gargoyle broke down I three pieces and Cedric let out triumphant hiss out of his maw.

"Having fun?" the Shapeshifter heard a too familiar voice. He only needed to jerk his head around to see his brother standing calmly at the end of the corridor. "You know those aren't fighting as hard as they could against you, right?" the eldest Ludmoore sibling asked, making a gesture towards the fallen gargoyles.

"You can't blame me for enjoying a bit of exercissssssse;" Cedric told his older brother.

"True," Charles told his brother, chuckling a bit. "If I had known that you wanted a challenge, I would have ordered the gargoyles to use lethal force against you."

"I doubt that could have changed anything," Cedric declared, not without a very obvious hint of pride in his voice. "Were you able to prepare everything?"

"All that is needed is in place," Charles told his brother. He looked around then, eyes narrowing slightly. A dry laugh escaped his lips. "And the Princess approaches, right on cue."

"We will have to put on a good show then;" Cedric pointed out, creeping towards his brother. "So the Princessss doesn't suspect anything we don't want her to suspect."

"It's going to hurt," Charles told Cedric with worry.

"Pain, my dear brother;" the Snake of Cavigor declared as his older brother charged up his fist with his dark blue Raw Magic; "issss an old friend."

* * *

 ** _Meanwhile…_**

Elyon had stopped running frantically through the corridors and rooms of the manor when she had noticed it wasn't doing her any good. She wasn't going to find this Ludmoore sooner just because she was going faster. So she had slowed down, and now she was walking through an empty hall. The sounds of the raging battle echoed through the entire place, and the Princess had to fight the urge of running again. He had to find this Ludmoore guy as soon as she could, and then go back to the fight to help the others! And where was Cedric?! She hoped the Shapeshifter hadn't gotten himself in any…

Elyon's thoughts were interrupted as the floor beneath her feet trembled and she heard a nearby explosion. That explosion was followed by another one, and then the wall at her right exploded, Cedric being hurled through the resulting overture. His skin slightly burned and fuming (albeit already healing) the Snake winced in clear pain.

"Cedric!" Elyon yelled in terror, approaching the fallen giant snake-man.

"Forget about me, I have survived worst!" the Lord told her, pointing to the hole he had come from. "Ludmoore isssssss getting away! Go after him!"

Still a bit worried but knowing that Cedric would soon heal himself, Elyon started to run again, crossing to the other side of the overture and accessing a new hall. She spotted a figure walking towards one of its ends, and before her mind even had time to recognize who the figure was, she found herself with her arms extended, shooting an energy beam towards the individual.

The attack never reached its target, instead hitting some kind of invisible wall that proceeded to absorb the energy and somehow distribute it across the walls, floor and ceiling. That didn't stop Elyon for using the same again, triggering the same result.

"I would stop if I were you," a male, suave voice ahead of her said cold and emotionlessly. "This shield is not designed to block magic attacks, but to redirect their energy not just through the manor, but the entire Villa Ludmoore. You cannot pierce through it."

Walking forward and passing a hand over one of her braids as she did so; Elyon finally focused on the person that had talked to her, whom she supposed was Charles Ludmoore, a… thin, somehow pale man in a black business suit, with black curly hair. He was kinda cute, or even handsome, but nothing out of the ordinary. She had been expecting some kind of bearded, overweight man, but not this. The eyes were, however, sinister. Black sclera and what appeared to be the pupils were of a bright golden. And there was something else in there, in the way he was looking at her. Albeit the man sported a cold and serious face, and had talked to her cold and unemotionally, his eyes had an excitement in them that his face and voice did not.

"I take that you're Charles Ludmoore," Elyon told the man as menacingly as she could. She really wasn't good as this intimidation thing, was she? As she expected, the man didn't even flinch.

"I am," the man answered her coldly, lips moving ever so slightly. "And you are Princess Elyon Escanor, of Meridian. It is a pleasure to meet you. May I ask now if I should take this attack over my home as an attack from your brother's court? I recall taking no aggressive action against any of his servants or himself."

"Cut that out," Elyon interrupted the man's words. "I know you're supporting the Rebellion against my brother. And those gargoyles of yours are exactly the same as the ones that attacked me! You sent them after me, didn't you?!"

"That I did," Charles answered coldly.

"So you admit it," Elyon said, calling some of her power to her hands. Could she be able to pierce this invisible-wall-thing? "Why?!"

"Someone paid me for it," Ludmoore answered plain and bluntly.

"Who?!" Elyon asked, getting angrier by the second. If the rebels had tried to kill her or Cedric, to do to them what they had done to Tristan's parents, she was going to…!

"Indeed, Princess;" Ludmoore interrupted her thought process with another response delivered in that cold voice of his. "Who, I wonder, benefited the most from those gargoyles attacking you? Who benefited the most from forcing you to use your powers in front of a man that coincidentally knew everything about who you really are?"

"What?" Elyon asked, anger vanishing a little from her face and being replaced by surprise and doubt.

"You see, Princess;" Ludmoore continued to speak, putting his hands behind his back; "I'm a businessman. As a businessman, I don't have a lot of scruples about who I make dealings with as long as they offer me a reasonable price. Have I made dealings with the Rebellion? Yes, of course I have. But so have I done with your brother's court, including the one of sending those gargoyles after you. And so I have remained neutral through the entire war…" the golden pupils of the man seemed to shine for a second, "until now."

"You lie!" Elyon shouted, anger taking the leading role between her emotions once again. It had… it had to be a lie!

"I suppose that's the most appropriate reaction," Ludmoore told her coldly. "You don't have any reason to believe me. But here is something you should consider believing, Princess: This entire manor is about to explode."

"What?" Elyon asked flatly once again. What had he just said?

"Do you honestly believe that I would let intruders to walk into my home with the intention of either killing me, taking it from me or both; and leave them any chance of succeeding?" Charles wondered, still cold and unemotional. "In the moment you walked in here without my permission, in the moment you connected my stabilized Portal to another one without my permission; you triggered my home's ultimate defense system. The manor will blow up in…" Ludmoore paused for a second, making some calculations in his mind; "approximately seven minutes, considering all the time you have already spent here. I believe it would be better if you went back to your companions and crossed the Veil back to Meridian."

"But that's just crazy!" the straw blonde told the man as he started to turn around. "If the explosion's as big as to destroy this place, then you'll get caught in it too!"

"Have you ever heard of teleportation, or perhaps tele-transportation?" Ludmoore asked, regarding the girl with a cold glare over is shoulder. "A rare discipline of Raw Magic, only mastered after at least a decade of practice, and that allows the user to teleport to any point he desires within a single world. As you may be imagining by now, I have had quite the amount of time to practice."

Before Elyon could say anything else, Ludmoore started to be surrounded by some sparks of green energy. Calling as much of her power as she could, Elyon decided that trying one last attack was her best option, and as her entire body glowed in white light she unleashed a wave of magic towards the teleporting man.

" ** _I said you won't get away with this!_** " Elyon yelled, her voice reverberating with power.

Her attack pierced through the invisible wall this time, after struggling for a few moments in which it seemed that Ludmoore's defense system was trying to redirect all the energy that was being poured into it. As the attack broke through the barrier, Elyon heard a buzzing sound while Ludmoore became surrounded in a blinding, greenish flash. The attack passed through it and she was sure she had heard a scream before Ludmoore disappeared completely. As she dispelled her magic and stopped glowing, Elyon looked around her. Ludmoore was gone… but he had left a part of him behind.

A smoking and slightly charred right hand, severed just above the wrist.

* * *

 ** _A couple of minutes later_**

Tremor after tremor shook the foundations of the manor, something that worried Wong even when he and the Lurdens stood triumphantly in Ludmoore's almost completely destroyed library, all their enemies defeated. He had made his Dark Chi warriors disappear by the moment the Princess and Cedric rushed back into the library.

"What happened?" Wong inquired of the pair. "Where is Ludmoore?"

"He escaped," Elyon said in disappointed. "I was able to get his hand, though."

"You did?" Cedric, who hadn't been told anything about the Princess' brief encounter with his brother, asked as he shifted back to his human form.

"You let Ludmoore escape?!" Wong bellowed.

"That's not important!" Elyon told them. "He told me that this entire place's going to explode! We've to go back to Meridian!"

Wong wanted to contradict the girl's words, but before he could do so, the floor and walls started to crack as the tremors intensified, and he could feel a strange and powerful magic coursing through them. A magic that was becoming more and more powerful by the second, and that Wong suspected was going to be the source of the explosion the Princess had talked about.

"Quick!" the Princess told the Dark Chi Wizard, the Shapeshifter and the remaining Lurdens, her finger still pointing to the Portal. "Before it's too late!"

Reluctantly, Wong headed towards the Portal. After him, the Lurdens crossed it, and so did Cedric. Elyon was the last one to cross; making sure nobody was left behind. For a brief moment, the tremors seemed to stop, and then there was nothing but silence in the entire Ludmoore manor.

Then the building exploded.

* * *

 ** _At Mrs. Rudolph house, at the same time_**

As the fighting in the Ludmoore manor ended, so did the conversation the girls were having with Galgheita Rudolph. The pudgy Math teacher had long finished her tea, staring at the remnants of it while the girls shared as much information regarding Meridian as they could.

"And that's how things are;" Will finished her tale.

Galgheita shook her head. "To think that Meridian would end in such a pitiful state... And it seems our decision of not confessing to Elyon her true origin has done nothing but worsen the situation."

"You think?" Cornelia asked perhaps a bit too harshly. At least harshly enough for Will to take notice of it.

"Cornelia," the redhead called the blonde's name, telling her to calm herself without saying anything else. The Earth Guardian met the Keeper of the Heart with a glare, but shut her mouth.

" I'm sorry for not being able to be of more help. Alborn and Miriael were probably taken as prisoners," Galgheita said, ignoring the Earth Guardian's words. It wasn't that she wanted to be disrespectful. Actually, she understood perfectly why the girl had reacted in that way. "I hope."

"I don't think Phobos would risk harming them," Taranee commented. "Lies or not, they're still the people who raised Elyon. I don't think she'd react nicely if Phobos straight up murdered them and she found out."

"Makes sense," Will told the Fire Guardian, her mind already playing with all the information that had been delivered to her this afternoon.

They hadn't been told anything that they didn't really know already... but now they had witnesses! Yes, this was something she could work with. She just needed to set up the appropriate scenario for it to work.

* * *

 ** _A hill near Villa Ludmoore_**

Huge pillars of smoke rose from the still burning debris that had once been the Ludmoore manor, darkening the skies with a pitch black cloud. The villa hadn't been left any better, the shockwave from the huge explosion affecting everything in its radius. There were no blue roses left, regrettably.

This hill had been selected precisely because it offered a full view of the villa and manor while being out of the radius of the explosion. Over it, the two suitcases that Charles had teleported beforehand awaited for their owner's arrival. Charles had planned to teleport here and contemplate the desolated home of his family before departing.

As he arrived via the greenish and buzzing flash that accompanied every teleportation, however, the eldest Ludmoore sibling's reaction was... a bit different than he had planned.

"AGH! My hand, my hand, my hand!" Ludmoore cried in pain while he knelt over the grass, holding his right forearm and contemplating the charred stump that was where his limb used to be. The Princess' attack had been done with such intensity that it hadn't left his body any opportunity to bleed before the wound had burned. He supposed that was better than bleeding to death, but the pain was too much!

Ludmoore started to apply magic to the stump, removing as much of the burned flesh as he could. Then he used a spell in order to clean and disinfect the remaining wound, closing it afterwards. It hurt. It hurt a lot! Not only that, but he had lost his right hand! His hand, goddammit! Why was still hurting so much?! His next spell was, of course, completely dedicated to lessening the pain.

As the pain started to leave him, Ludmoore breathed in and out repeatedly, calming his mind and organizing his thoughts. Losses: One hand, his manor, and his flying gargoyles. Sans the first one, all had been planned. Earnings: His neutrality accord had been invalidated by the Prince's court, and he had been able to both test Princess Elyon's capabilities and to plan a small seed of doubt in her mind. Everything according to plan.

 _Now, let's see what I can do with this_ ; Ludmoore thought as he looked at his stump. Putting his left hand over the grass, he started to mutter an incantation. Using as much power as he disposed, the businessman made a root to emerge from the ground, shaking as if it were some kind of tentacle creature. He made it levitate out of the ground, enveloping it in his dark blue Raw Magic, and slowly reshaping it. Then he made an exclamation in an arcane language, making the reshaped root to tie itself to his stump as if it were some kind of gauntlet. He called off his magic afterwards, exhausted. Making the elements do as you pleased wasn't exactly the easiest magic in the world. _But the results speak for themselves_ , Ludmoore thought as he looked at his new, wooden prosthetic right hand. _Now I'm starting to look like Chang_ , he added.

Lifting his right arm up and down in order to accustom himself to his new hand's weight, Ludmoore stood up and approached the pair of suitcases. He opened one of them as best as he could with just his left hand. Thank everything he was ambidextrous. Carefully, he retrieved the object that the suitcase contained, holding it in his left palm. It was a golden pendant, slightly bigger than the Heart of Kandrakar, except instead of being shaped like a sphere this one was shaped like a rhombus.

The Seal of Phobos.

"A fitting name," Ludmoore said aloud, ditching the emptied suitcase and pointing the Seal of Phobos onwards, the artifact starting to pulse with black electricity; "since it will be the instrument to seal my new relationship with the Rebellion… and thus the fate of Meridian as a whole. But first things first…"

Black lightning shot from the artifact, stopping midair as if it had collided with some invisible object. The lightning bolts seemed to pierce the air, and they ripped a Portal open in mere seconds. Putting the Seal of Phobos around his neck, Charles took the suitcase containing the pair of Oni Masks with his flesh hand and crossed the Portal into Meridian, leaving the world that had seen him grow behind.

* * *

 ** _Across the Veil, the palace's dungeons; a day later_**

Saying that Phobos had been enraged after their failed attempt at disposing of Ludmoore would be an understatement; the Prince had been choleric. Of course, none of that anger had been shown in front of his _dearest_ and _precious_ sister, let's not risk her finding out what kind of person her brother really was. So it had been Cedric and Wong who had faced the wrath of the mad royal alone. Especially Wong, the Prince taking much more of his ire on the Dark Chi Wizard than in the Shapeshifter Lord.

The Archmage had wanted to yell at Phobos then, telling the foolish Prince that he should have been expecting that Ludmoore had some kind of contingency plan for these cases. That he had been idiotic ordering that attack! Or that if he wanted to order the attack, it could have been smarter to make it look like it was the Rebellion attacking in order to force Ludmoore to join their side! And it had been his almighty sister who had failed into killing the King Smuggler, not him! But no, now Ludmoore was out there, still alive and with who knows how many spies at his disposal. Wong was pretty sure the Rebellion wouldn't waste time into enlisting his help.

But something good had come out of this entire situation. Apparently, a noblewoman (some kind of Baronetess, if Wong had heard correctly) had appeared in court, and the Prince had ordered her, under Cedric's suggestion, that his sister could be sent to Lannion in order to serve as an inspiration to the masses.

Reaching Lannion from the Capital would take them entire days, probably more than a week, considering they travelled by carriage instead of simple horses; even if Lannion was the nearest great city to the Capital. They would probably pass through the Meridian Plains, in order to meet the other nobles that were stationed there with their armies. Which meant that the Princess would spent more time out of the Capital. And that gave Daolon Wong time to finally put everything into motion.

 _By treachery and trickery the Prince took the throne_ , the dark Wizard thought as he turned around the corner of a dark corridor in the castle's dungeons, so deep into the earth that the Whisperers couldn't reach it. _And so by treachery and trickery shall I take it from him_.

The Dark Wizard reached his destination, an enormous chamber, forgotten by history, with what in other times must have been cells carved into its sides, iron bars crumbled and rusty. Wong had discovered it thanks to Tracker, this being the place the undead had selected as his residence inside the palace. Since the moment he had decided to plot against Phobos and using the Horn of Hypnos for it, Wong had been ordering his enthralled forces to go down here.

Speaking of the undead, he was already there, clad in his usual hunter's attire; Sniffer resting at his feet while making slow growls. Roberta, probably his most successful artificial Shapeshifter since she had been the one with enough insight to remain loyal to him was also there, leaning against the wall and dressed in meridianite clothes that must had belonged to a man or boy larger than her. For the incoming battle, Wong had made sure to assign these two as his lieutenants.

The rest of the chamber was filled by countless Lurdens, all lined up as the obedient and thoughtless soldiers that the Horn of Hypnos had made of them. In front of them, at least a dozen of human boys and girls between the ages of ten and fifteen stood firm and silently, waiting for orders. His other artificial Shapeshifters, these ones made away from the Prince's eyes and put under the spell of the Horn immediately after Tracker had captured them for him.

As for Cedric, the Archmage had told him to stay in the sidelines and only intervene if it was necessary. The Snake had suggested that it could be better if he dedicated himself to prepare an escape route in case the plan went wrong, and albeit Wong had told him that there was no possibility of him failing he had also indulged the Shapeshifter's paranoid desire.

The Dark Chi Wizard walked towards his army and stood between Roberta and Tracker, the pair not saying anything as he did so. Then again, his friend was a man of few words, and he didn't recall ever hearing Roberta's voice, not even when he had first met her on Earth. With a wave of his staff and a sentence, Wong materialized his three Dark Chi warriors at his back. Better to have them out for enough time.

The undead handed him the Horn of Hypnos then, Wong holding it up with his free hand. The Dark Chi Wizard looked at his army with a smug smile, then feeling the power inside of him. Eyes flaring with the power of the Noble Pig and making his body to levitate over the ground with the power of the Noble Rooster, Wong thought that this would have been the best of times for a long, calculated speech about power and glory. But he wasn't a man of speeches, so instead he asked one single question.

"Soldiers!" the Archmage called. "Who is your Master?!"

"Daolon Wong! Daolon Wong! Daolon Wong!"

Forget about stupid speeches. Now it was the time for action.

* * *

 _The thing about catastrophes is that you never see them until it's too late to stop them. They had been building for so long that, when they hit, you have three options. You withstand them, you evade them, or they blow up in your face. Ninety percent of the cases, it's the third one that happens_.  Captain Augustus Black

* * *

 **Author Notes: Took longer than I thought, but here it goes. Gods, this chapter took a lot of effort to get out of my head properly, especially the earlier scenes. I know this is something that happens to anyone that writes, but dear it's hard to connect plot points. Anyway, some love issues are finally addressed, while the girls get some needed rest, some info and a new ally. Matt and Alchemy start to get involved into the situation. Ludmoore's scheme advances, even if it has cost him a little bit more than he planned. And Wong finally makes his move. Oh, I have been looking up to this! See you all around in the next chapter, "The Wong Stratagem". Please leave a review with your thoughts about this chapter, and until next time.**

 **Bye, bye!**


	24. The Wong Stratagem

**Disclaimer: I own neither the WITCH cartoon-show nor Jackie Chan Adventures; they are the property of their respective creators, writers, and producers.**

 **A/N: And finally, after another longer than planned pause, here comes number 24. Do any of you know how long have I been waiting to reach this chapter? Since freaking chapter 9. Yeah. Anyway, here we are. Before we start, many thanks to all the people to take a part of their precious time to read this story and leave their opinions in the reviews. You guys are amazing. Please, enjoy your read, and I hope y'all are ready for a little… _history_ lesson, if it can be called that. Get a hold of yourselves, because here we go.**

* * *

Guardians, Wizards and Kung-Fu Fighters

Episode Twenty four

The Wong Stratagem

* * *

 ** _Earth; Ming China_**

 ** _Jinan, capital of the Shandong province_**

 ** _1493 A.D_**

There were some that considered Chi Master Tang an odd person, both in and out of the Emperor's court. Even some of his fellow Chi Masters in the Council of Eight regarded him as an improper man, due to doing things that were considered unbefitting of his title as Chi Master and rank within the Order. Even his good friend Chi Master Wujing had told him in more than one occasion that he should be more careful with what his companions labeled as his ' _weird antics_ '.

 _Weird antics, eh?_ the Chi Master thought not without a hint of sarcasm, passing a hand over his shaved head and scratching the dark yet graying sideburns that decorated his almost rectangular face. Yes, he supposed they would label his doings as weird antics. What kind of Chi Master, one that was part of the Council of Eight no less, actually travelled out of the Forbidden City or Beijing? But of course, a weird one! Why would any Chi Master trade the comfort of their daily lives between scrolls and potions for something as mundane as helping fight a disease that was affecting a province's capital and killing people by the hundreds? It made no sense! What kind of idiot had the desire to actually help people?!

 _There are times in which I fear of the future that mentality will bring to this country_ , Chi Master Tang thought as he shook his head, making the sarcastic thoughts to go away and focusing on the now. Looking ahead, he noticed how the young man that he had been assigned as his guide turned left next, heading towards a large building that must have been one of Jinan's prisons in other time, but that now was clearly housing something far more dreadful than any criminal. Even at this distance, Chi Master Tang could feel the foul aura coming from the place.

When they entered into the building, Chi Master Tang had to take one of his robe's sleeves to his mouth in order to cover it. It wasn't just the aura, the smell was also terrible. But what was he expecting from the infected corpses that this building housed? At least the citizens from Jinan had had enough insight to place them as far as they could from the still populated areas.

Another would ask why the corpses hadn't been burned or buried deep within the earth, but Chi Master Tang already knew why. If the corpses were burned, the smoke carried the disease to the air. If buried, the disease travelled through the earth and the land, infecting not only the flora, but anything that grew in any farm. He thanked every deity he knew about for the fact that the disease hadn't made its way to any river. The results would have been disastrous otherwise, not only for Jinan, but for the entire Shandong province, and in due time to the entire of China. Why was Beijing ignoring this?! Did the Emperor think himself invulnerable behind the Forbidden City's walls? Alas, it wasn't his right to judge. But he could and would give solution to this.

Casting a Chi spell, Chi Master Tang made a bubble of greenish energy to appear around him and his guide. In seconds, every trace of the smell and the foul aura disappeared from the insides of the barrier. His guide, dressed in a peasant's clothing, shot him an inquiring look as the Chi Master took his hand from his mouth.

"Now we are protected," Chi Master Tang informed his young guide, who proceeded to retire the piece of clothing covering his mouth and nose. "Show me the corpses."

His guide nodded and proceeded to take the Chi Master deeper into the building, until they reached a chamber filled to the brim with corpses, some lined up for inspection, others just stacked into a set of piles. The Chi Master shook his head again. It was a shame, really, but he knew none of these people, whoever they might have been in life, would receive a proper burial. Rolling up his robe's sleeves, Chi Master Tang approached one of the corpses that had been taken apart from the rest.

 _Interesting_ , he thought as he casted another spell, isolating the corpse he had chosen within its own bubble and making it levitate in the air.

The corpse belonged to what seemed to be a man in his early twenties, but his hair had been turned white and his skin was as pale as marble. According to his guide, this one hadn't been dead for longer than a day. That was the reason it had been taken apart from the rest, which were already rotting apart. The corpse's eyes were injected in blood, and the teeth were now black. The same could be said about the fingernails. Carefully, Chi Master Tang casted a third spell and opened the man's ribcage wide, tearing apart his skin and flesh. There were parts that were already beginning to rot and smell; and yet no sign of flies, fleas or worms. No sign of any proof that the disease had advanced slowly, claiming the man's body bit by bit. In fact, according to what he had been told, most of the infected died either instantaneously or a few hours after contracting the disease.

 _It is as I feared then_ , Chi Master Tang thought _. The disease is not natural, but magical in its origin_.

"Lord Wizard," his guide called for him. "There's… there's another thing you should see."

"What?" the Chi Master asked, turning towards the young man. "What is it?"

"T-There's…" the young man began, showing nervousness; "there's a… survivor."

Chi Master Tang's eyes widened. "What?" he asked again, grabbing the young man by the shoulders, perhaps with more strength than intended. "Where?!"

"H-Here!" his guide answered. "We've him here! He's… he's a boy of ten."

"A boy of ten?!" Chi Master Tang yelled. "And you have him here, amongst these corpses?! How long has it been since he became infected?!"

"T-Three, maybe f-four d-days;" his guide answered. "We couldn't risk him being contagious, so we put him in one of the old cells…"

"Take me to him," Chi Master Tang ordered, his voice booming for a second. "Now."

The guide nodded, gesturing to the Chi Master to follow him. After travelling through some corridors, they reached a small cell that was neither too close to nor far away from the chamber filled with the corpses.

"What is his name?" the man from Beijing asked.

"No one," his guide answered. "He's unnamed. He's just... a beggar-boy."

"At least tell me that he has been properly fed," Chi Master Tang told his guide, whom evaded his gaze.

"As p-properly as we could," the young man answered.

The Chi Master shook his head once again. He sometimes forgot too, that the life of a commoner, even in a province's capital as Jinan was, wasn't the same as the life of one that was born in the right family or with the gift of magic. Making a couple of gestures with his fingers, Chi Master Tang divided the bubble protecting he and his guide in two, and he walked ahead.

"Wait for me here," the Chi Master instructed, and the guide obeyed with pleasure. This probably wasn't the most pleasant of duties for the young man. Without further delay, the Chi Master entered into the cell. The sight he was greeted with, to say the least, was shocking.

There was a boy there, if he was a ten year old or not, that Chi Master Tang ignored. Crouched in the floor, he was skinny, the peasant clothes he had (or had been given) being clearly too big for his body. He could use a couple of meals. His hair, although dirty, was as white as the one of the corpses, but his albeit his skin was pale, it didn't reach the same level of marble-like paleness. The blood on those veins still moved! But there was something else, something that sparkled a feeling of familiarity in the Chi Master's soul.

"Hello," the old practitioner of Chi Magic greeted the young boy, who looked at him for the first time. Had he failed to notice him walking into the room? His eyes were blue and vibrant. Even the most clueless of men could see, upon looking at those eyes, that the boy had an intense desire to remain alive. Had been that determination what had saved him… or something far more unique?

The child didn't utter a word; neither did he move a muscle when Chi Master Tang approached him. The Chi Master gestured to him while smiling amiably. "Come, enter in the sphere."

The child tilted his head, as if suspicious of the man. Perhaps it was the fact that the magical barrier was there? But the boy didn't seem scared, or even surprised. He rose up from the cell's dirty floor and walked towards the Chi Master, entering the bubble without any problem. Good, that was good. It meant there was no trace of the disease in him. That alongside the fact that he had survived for days when any other had died so fast led the Chi Master's mind to reach a conclusion. The boy was immune! But why? Could it be…?

"Extend your hand, child;" the Chi Master told him, and the boy did so. Chi Master Tang took the skinny wrist between his fingers, feeling the little weight it had. He muttered something, and then green sparks danced between the boy's fingers. The Chi Master's eyes widened. He had suspected as much, but now that he saw it he couldn't contain his surprise and excitement. "Most impressive…" he said, narrowing his eyes.

Chi Master Tang looked directly into the boy's eyes. "Do you know who I am?" he asked. The boy shrugged weakly. "I am a Chi Wizard. A Chi Master from Beijing." Upon hearing those words, the boy's eyes widened. "Do you know why you survived what others did not?" The boy shook his head. The way in which he had done so, fast and with energy, pleased Chi Master Tang in a strange way. "Because you possess Chi Magic, as I do."

The boy was staring at him now, without even blinking. Perhaps he wasn't believing him? Chi Master Tang held the boy's hand in front of his pale face, making more of the green sparks to dance between the child's fingers, this time more intensely.

"See? This means that you have been chosen. That you are gifted. And it has been this gift that has saved you," Chi Master Tang explained to the child, who contemplated the dancing sparks of chi mesmerized. "And if you help me, it can save Jinan, and the entire of Shandong!"

* * *

 ** _Several weeks later_**

The boy had, of course, accepted the Chi Master's offer. It had taken him both a lot of effort and time, but Chi Master Tang had been able to devise a cure for the infected, and also a means of eradicating the disease. From where it had come and if had done so by chance or someone's will were mysteries yet to unveil, and he would dedicate time to solve them back in Beijing.

And speaking of Beijing, he should be heading back to the capital as soon as possible in order to inform of this to the rest of the Council of Eight. It would be better Shame, he would have preferred to stay a bit more in Jinan under better circumstances. This city's pottery and cuisine were famous for a good reason, after all. The governor of Shandong had even gifted him with several works of art as a way of thanking him and the Emperor's court for his efforts. Chi Master Tang, however, was hoping to gain something of far more significant value on this journey.

The boy.

Chi Master Tang had used a small sample of his blood to produce the potion that had erased the disease, but why it had worked and why the boy had survived to begin with were questions that had kept him awake at night during the past days. It wasn't just that he was gifted; he seemed to be innately resilient against external magic. Those alone were enough reasons to take him in. And in all fairness, what other option was for him? To leave him here, on a place full of people that would hate him for being a reminder of their dark times? Where he would be fated to live a life on the street? Even though Chi Master Tang considered himself a man at the service of the people, he knew that the boy's potential wouldn't flourish if it wasn't under proper tutelage.

Thus here he was, sitting at the boy's side. The boy, who seemed to have retained the white hair and pale skin even after the disease had been eradicated from Jinan.

"Do you have any family, boy?" the Chi Master inquired. The boy shook his head. "What about your parents? Are they dead?"

The boy shrugged. "I don't know. I never met them."

Chi Master Tang nodded solemnly. It wasn't all that strange, though. Even in the largest cities there were those who had to live in misery. Although he didn't approve of the practice, he understood of the need of some families to abandon their children.

"Then there is nothing that ties you to this place," Chi Master Tang declared. "You could come with me... if you wish so."

The boy's blue eyes seemed to regain a semblance of a light they had lost long ago. They weren't just the eyes of a survivor anymore, they were the eyes of someone... hopeful.

"Can I?" the ten years old inquired. "Go with you? To Beijing?"

"To Beijing and with time, the Forbidden City itself;" Chi Master Tang explained with a warm smile. "You will learn the ways of Chi Magic under my tutelage, and refer to me as Shifu."

"I... yes! I accept!" the child answered happily.

Chi Master Tang laughed loudly then. He had always found another's happiness way too contagious. "Then I shall be your mentor." The Chi Master took two fingers to his chin. "But I suppose I cannot call you boy forever... better give you a name then. Uhm... Uhm..." the Chi Master thought for several seconds. How had his Shifu's Shifu been called? "What do you think about… Daolon? Daolon... Wong. Yes, that sounds right. Do you like it?"

"Daolon... Wong," the child repeated. For the first time since Chi Master Tang had arrived in Jinan, he smiled. "I do like it… Shifu."

* * *

 ** _Beijing, Forbidden City_**

 ** _1500 A.D_**

"I still think that granting your pupil such a rank at such a young age is a mistake, Master Tang;" an old and bald Chinese man with a large white beard that had been adorned with several golden bells that hanged from small braids made out of the beard's hair said with a high-pitched voice.

He was dressed in a robe of a brilliant red color, its sleeves so big that they covered his arms completely. He was sitting in a small, silvery throne that stood in a circle composed of another seven. In each of the other seven sat a man. And all eight of them were Chi Masters of the highest caliber, forming the famed Council of Eight. The Council had been an idea of the first Emperor of Ming China, a group formed by the eight most talented Chi Wizards of the country, there to give counsel to the Emperor in what concerned magical affairs.

"He is just seventeen," the currently speaking Master, Yu Han was his name, continued. "Attaining the condition of a fully fledged Chi Wizard takes at least several decades, not just seven years. And not without reason, for impatience and arrogance go hand by hand with youth. I don't believe he is ready."

"For not speaking of his origins," another of the Eight spoke, this one a somehow fat individual with pale skin. His name was Gao Hai. His head was also shaved, and instead of a beard he had a long, dark brown moustache that reached all the way down to his knees when he stood up. "He was a mere commoner until you found him seven years ago! Giving him the title of Chi Wizard and all the privileges that come with it could stir resentment from the other members of the Emperor's court against our order! It is too improper!"

"His skill and accomplishments speak by themselves, though;" another Master spoke, this one a thin and extremely tall individual, with a white and long pointy beard that originated from his chin and fell over his chest with grace. The robe he was dressing in was white, and it seemed much more fitting and shorter than the ones of his fellow Masters. This was Master Wujing, possibly Master Tang's oldest and closest friend. "While I do not exactly disagree with yours and Master Yu Han's preoccupations, I concur with Master Tang's declaration that keeping such a prodigy as young Daolon Wong as a mere apprentice for longer is a waste of his abilities. He could do far more to serve the Emperor as a full-fledged Chi Wizard."

"He has shown interest in the Dark Arts… sneaking into sections of the Great Library only meant for the Masters… something that we should not ignore…" a slow, old voice said next. It belonged to the oldest of the Eight, a wrinkled man whose completely shaven head and jaw and round frame made it look like some kind of humanoid old turtle. His robe was yellow and simple, with a black badge on the left section of his chest. This one was Grand Master Lishi, and he was the leader of the Council of Eight. "While I understand your reservations, Master Yu Han… Master Gao Hai, I must admit that Master Wujing holds a stronger point. And no other in this Council has expressed… any problem with Master Tang's petition…" The Grand Master breathed deep and slowly a couple of times. "His request will be honored… Daolon Wong shall be a Chi Wizard. However…" he said, looking at Master Tang; "you must warn your soon to be former pupil about the dangers of the Dark Arts… Curiosity, particularly in the young ones… can lead to their… downfall;" the Grand Master finished, catching his breath afterwards.

"That I shall do," Master Tang declared with a respectful bow of his head. "Do not worry, Grand Master. My pupil shall prove himself of immense value to this Council, the Emperor and the whole China."

* * *

 ** _Daolon Wong's private chambers_**

"Daolon?" Chi Master Tang asked as he entered his pupil's chambers. It was something modest by the standards of the Forbidden City, but it was bigger than the houses of many commoners. He didn't have to make a great effort to locate his student, who was in his favorite spot of the room: At the side of a cauldron full of a boiling potion. Always learning, even when Tang had insisted to him that he should dedicate some of his time to relaxation. His student was still an albino, that he would forever be, but after seven years under proper care he had flourished into a proper young man, his hair growing spiky, and albeit he was still thin, he wasn't as skinny and malnourished as when he was a child. His features were soft, almost feminine if you looked at them under the right circumstances. His robe was of the same grey color as the ones worn by all apprentices, in contrast with the light green ones given to Chi Wizards, or the personalized ones worn by the members of the Council of Eight, like Master Tang's own blue one.

"Shifu?" a surprised Daolon Wong asked as he turned around. "You startled me."

"My apologies," Chi Master Tang told his student. "What are you brewing?"

"Just a standard healing potion, nothing else;" Wong answered. "It's simple, but it helps me to… calm myself, Shifu."

Chi Master Tang muttered something, but he nodded a couple of times. "Shall I tell you of the Council's decision then?"

"I… please, do tell, Shifu;" Daolon Wong told the man with the sideburns.

Chi Master Tang couldn't contain a proud smile. "No, Daolon. I believe I am not your Shifu anymore. You are now a Chi Wizard and therefore not my pupil anymore."

Wong's face lighted up in enthusiasm, his blue eyes gleaming with energy. "Is it true, Shifu? It's… It's wonderful, Shifu!"

"Did you just not hear me?" Chi Master Tang inquired, folding his arms in a comedic manner. "I am not your Shifu anymore! I suppose you shall refer to me as Chi Master from now on…"

After that comment both shared a laugh. Then Daolon Wong bowed respectfully, eyes closed. "I must be thankful, my mentor. If it weren't for your guidance, I wouldn't have come this far."

"Nonsense," Chi Master Tang declared. "It has been your talent and effort which have taken you this far, not me."

"Talent and effort that only matured thanks to training under your guidance;" Daolon Wong

"I only gave you some... clues," Chi Master Tang said, waving his hands in the air as if to take weight from his student's words. Afterwards, both laughed again.

When the laughter died down, Chi Master Tang scratched the back of his neck. "Some of the other Masters had a few... problems with you becoming a Chi Wizard so soon."

"Did they?" Wong inquired.

"The Grand Master..." Chi Master Tang began; "said that you have been curious about the Dark Arts. Researching them, even."

Wong's expression changed to one of nervousness. "I..."

"Seven years and you still can't think of a lie fast enough," Chi Master Tang said, slightly shaking his head. "Tell me the truth, Daolon."

The young man of seventeen glanced at one of his chamber's walls, just to walk towards it moments later. He extracted a loose brick from it, revealing a hidden hole. From it, the young Chi Wizard extracted a scroll.

"This is... the only one I took," Wong told him as he handed him the scroll. "I promise."

Chi Master Tang recognized the seal over the scroll immediately. Even though he thought himself a calm man, he couldn't repress a yell. "Lo Pan's works?!"

"B-But, Shifu..." Wong stuttered; "the spells Lo Pan designed are brilliant. You always say that we must dwell into the unknown to improve and serve the realm better..."

"Don't you know what Lo Pan's actions and greed did to this country?!" Chi Master Tang shrieked.

"The Ming Dynasty didn't rule China back then!" Wong protested. "It was almost five centuries ago!"

"It was still China!" the Chi Master retorted, furious. "And Lo Pan's actions earned this country a century of nothing but death, brimstone and dragons! All because he had the brilliant idea of freeing a Demon Sorcerer from the shackles the Eight Immortals put them into! If it wasn't for Lo Pei's actions we would still have Shendu's leash around our necks! And you research his notes?! I had you for a more intelligent man!"

Wong clenched his fists. "Why do we have that information to begin with then?"

"For the same reason a healer knows his way around poisons," Wong's Shifu told him in a much calmer way. "Because he needs to know how to craft an antidote, and we need to know how to create counter spells." Chi Master Tang breathed deeply, rubbing the sides of his head. "I understand your curiosity, Daolon. I was very similar in my youth. But there are things that man is not supposed to know. I will return this scroll to where it belongs," the Chi Master declared, starting to take his leave. "As for you, I hope you have learned your lesson. You are a Chi Wizard now. You must behave accordingly."

"Of course… Chi Master," Daolon Wong told the older man as he left in the same vein he had come. Sadly, his mentor's words hadn't been enough to dissuade the young man's curiosity… or to tame his ego.

* * *

 ** _That night_**

Not only had Daolon Wong's skill in Chi Magic grown during the past seven years, but also his pride. Everyone praised his skills, and not without reason. What took others months to learn, master and control, was a matter of weeks for him. Why would the Dark Arts be an exception to that? And if he needed any more confirmation, now he probably was the youngest Chi Wizard in China's history! He was a genius, a paragon between his peers!

 _You shall see, Shifu_ ; the young Daolon Wong thought as he searched between his belongings, only a couple of candles casting light over the otherwise dark room. _I will do you proud, and become the greatest Chi Wizard China has ever seen._

Finally, he found what he had been searching for, a yellowed piece of paper, in which he had copied some of Lo Pan's formulas. The young albino read them under the candles' light, trying to decide which spell he should try first. After finally choosing one, he started to cast it immediately. The incantations were considerably more complicated than the ones used in the spells he was accustomed to, but he supposed that was normal.

It didn't take long for the power to start building up inside of him. It felt as if his chi had been mixed with boiling oil! For a moment, he felt as if his insides were going to burn! But that fear ended when he felt the burning chi to start moving towards his right arm. The magic exited his body through his fingertips, and instead of the green energy he was accustomed to seeing his power to manifest as, Wong found himself shooting a cracking lightning of a dark purple color. The spell flew fast across the room until it collided against the wall the young Chi Wizard was facing, leaving the impact zone scorched.

As for the young Daolon Wong, he found himself panting not only out of tiredness, but also out of a welcomed surprise. That… that had been far more powerful than any spell he had casted up until now! If he actually started to research this power, this… Dark Chi Magic (as some preferred to call it instead of Dark Arts) and mastered it… Imagine what could be achieved with that kind of power!

With a gleeful smile, the young Daolon Wong moved onto the next spell with an enthusiasm he hadn't felt since many years ago, when he had started his apprenticeship under Chi Master Tang.

 _You shall see, Shifu;_ Wong repeated the same thought as before. _You shall see._

* * *

 ** _The present; Heatherfield_**

That day, most of Heatherfield's inhabitants woke up normally, ate breakfast normally and prepared for their daily lives normally. For them, nothing out of the ordinary had transpired during the past hours. Of course, that thought changed on many minds when some of them turned their TVs on and were greeted with a special news report.

The manor on Villa Ludmoore, property of the Ludmoore family since generations and one of Heatherfield's oldest buildings… had blown up. While the reporters ignored the reasons behind this terrible event, many declared that there was a huge possibility that Charles Ludmoore, currently the only resident in the manor and the man in charge of the city's waste treatment, had lost his life during the explosion. There were some that were already talking about the explosion happening thanks to a gas leak igniting.

For the Guardians of Kandrakar and the Chan Clan, that was too simple. However, they also lacked any answer to the dozens of questions popping up in their minds right now. Was Ludmoore really dead? Why had his manor blown up? Had it been an accident… or something entirely different? Had he been the cause of the explosion, or had it been someone else? If that last one was the true answer, then why?

They all had a very bad feeling about this…

* * *

 ** _Across the Veil; a road on Meridian_**

Elyon looked outside through the window of the carriage she was currently in. The castle that had seen generations of her family grow up, life and prosper had become nothing but a blurry shape in the horizon. The Princess let out a long, tired sigh as she stopped contemplating the landscape and shifted her attention to toying with her braids. If she looked out the carriage's other window she could spot Baronetess Relena riding a horse at the carriage's side. The forty year old, half-breed noblewoman had been nice to her, albeit somehow stiff. She had told her that she looked a lot like her father, the real one. Her brother and her had apparently taken most of their looks from him. Her brother...

She had screwed up, hadn't she? It had been her fault that Ludmoore had gotten away. Was that the reason her brother had sent her into this trip to Lannion? Was he disappointed? The King Smuggler's words came back to haunt her, each time a tad bit stronger. And each time she beat them back. That Ludmoore guy was a liar, nothing else. But the facts he had brought up...

Agh! This whole situation was tearing up at her nerves! And being in this carriage for almost an entire day did nothing to ease that, no matter how fancy and big and comfortable it was!

"My lady?" Tristan, who was sitting in front of her and of course had noticed her bad mood, called for her. "Are you feeling alright?"

"We can order the driver to stop the horses if you are feeling sick," Trill, sitting at her side, told her as nicely as she always did. Ugh... it wasn't that the maid's presence was unwelcomed, but Elyon would feel more relaxed if Miranda was the one here. But Cedric needed Miranda for... whatever, so she had stayed back at the Capital.

"No, no;" the Princess answered.

"Are you sure?" Trill inquired. "Lady Relena has only planned for a few stops..."

"I'm alright, really;" Elyon told the chubby maid. Then she looked at Tristan. "I'm just... trying to kill some time."

 _As do we all_ , Nerissa Crossnic thought, looking at the Princess through her Trill persona's eyes. She focused in the blur the castle had become in the distance. _A shame I won't be enjoying the show firsthand._ The sorceress hid the devilish smile that came to her glamoured lips behind her hand. _Phobos, Wong... I would say it's been a pleasure meeting whoever of the two of you falls now... but it hasn't._

* * *

 ** _The castle_**

It had been long ago that the Lurden had decided, in contrast with the Galhot, to not pledge loyalty to the human. For that decision their kind had been slowly yet steadily been driven out of the areas they had once populated and thrived in and forced to settle either in the cold tundra of Meridian's north or in the fiery deserts of the south. For generation after generation, they lived like that.

Then, Phobos came to power. And after it was clear to the tyrant that he had no chance of controlling his subjects with the Guard alone, he made deals with some tribes. The Prince gave them a choice: _Serve me in exchange of your old lands, or perish like any other who opposes me_. The Lurdens had accepted, and for the first time in a millennium, they served an Escanor. They had yet to see any land been officially given to them.

For most of Meridian's population, Lurdens were nothing but barbarians. It couldn't be said that they were wrong. Lurdens didn't live in cities or villages... not even in the simplest of settlements. They were mostly nomads, moving from one place to another in large caravans composed of various tribes, searching for more hospitable zones to spend some time in. They were quite violent to any who wasn't a Lurden and dared to cross paths with them, no matter the reason. In other words... they _were_ kinda barbaric. Despite all that, there was a rule sacred to them. It was a rule that had to be respected at all times and that set them apart from any human or Galhot.

 _A Lurden shall never kill a Lurden_.

So you can imagine the shock that some of them felt when, while patrolling the halls and corridors of the castle, a bunch of their brethren appeared and started to shot arrows at them without any warning. Imagine their confusion when they tried to reason with their brethren, and they answered by putting down the bows and unsheathing their scimitars. Imagine their sorrow when it became clear that there was something clouding the minds of their brethren, and thus there was no other option but to fight them. Imagine their fear when the sounds of an animalistic growl and the soft tinkle of a chain joined the ones of clashing iron and the undead, the Tracker and that hellhound Sniffer of his joined into the attack too, directed their controlled brethren and brandishing his green-glowing flail against them.

That day, many a Lurden broke their sacred rule…

* * *

 ** _The Capital's streets_**

Captain Lothar had walked into a complicated situation. It wasn't that he regretted doing it, but he would have to plan his next steps carefully. The Princess had departed towards Lannion with Baronetess Relena, which meant she was going to be away from her brother's court for enough time to allow the nobility and the Guard to make their move. The problem was… which move was that? The one in which they waited for the Rebellion to confront the nobles' army in the Meridian Plains, then for the victorious loyalist army to mix with the Guard, finally have an opportunity to dethrone Phobos and put his sister in the throne? Could that work? Were the nobility's forces to be victorious in the first place?

 _No, I must have faith in their abilities, as they have faith in mine_ ; the young Captain thought as he passed a hand over his green locks. He had taken off his helmet, cape and the upper part of his light armor and was now sitting at a small table, a pitcher of water at his side. He had to admit, this abandoned courtyard paled in comparison with the sections of the castle reserved to the Guard, but it served its purpose of providing a place where his men could find him with ease. And besides, the Guard still had access to their barracks and the castle's kitchen still provided them with food. He took the pitcher of water and drank directly from it. The days were becoming hotter and hotter with each one that passed…

"Captain! Captain!" a shout took Lothar out of his thoughts, a sergeant rushing into the courtyard moments later. "It's an emergency, sir! We're under attack!"

"An attack?!" Lothar shouted, incorporating and putting his helmet back on, proceeding to do the same with the upper part of his armor. Had the Rebellion sneaked past the nobles' army? Was this just a vanguard? Or was it another, completely different kind of threat? "From which section of the city's walls…?" Lothar started to ask.

"Not the walls, sir;" the sergeant told him as the two of them exited the courtyard into the Capital's streets. "At least not the ones of the city. They're coming from the palace, sir. Lurdens, but also Beasts!"

"Shapeshifters?" a surprised Lothar wondered. From where had so many came from? He knew Wong had been trying to create artificial Shapeshifters, but after giving the rebels the Black Wolf and the fiasco at Torus Filney, he thought the Archmage had abandoned the idea.

"Eight are attacking on the ground alongside the Lurdens, sir;" his underling informed. "And a ninth one, a falcon I believe, on the skies."

 _A falcon… wasn't that one of the first ones that Wong had created?_ Lothar thought as he halted. "Tell Frost to take command of all men available and to take those Lurdens and Shapeshifters head on! We must halt their advance before they reach any of the most populated areas!"

"Yes sir!" the sergeant said loudly, running in search of the brute and his rhinoceros.

As for Lothar, he was already on the move, running towards his enemy, blade already unsheathed. Light of Meridian, what was going on?! Had Phobos' madness finally reached such a point that he had ordered the forces that were still loyal to him to destroy everything?! Whatever the reason, the population of the Capital was being attacked, and as the Captain of the Guard, he had sworn an oath to protect them all. And he was going to honor it!

* * *

 ** _Back at the castle_**

 _So Roberta and Tracker are finally moving_ , Daolon Wong thought as he strolled down this passageway, hearing the noises of both the battle taking place outside and the one taking place inside. Behind him walked his three Dark Chi warriors, and behind them a quartet of teenaged humans, two boys and two girls. They all were heading in the direction of the Prince's throne room.

 _Then I suppose it is time for me to do the same_ , Wong thought with delight as he gestured to the quartet of teenagers, who walked ahead of the Archmage and his Dark Chi warriors. As for the Archmage and his warriors, they all halted, looking at the four young ones go.

Wong was particularly proud of these four artificial Shapeshifters, the mightiest and most versatile ones between the ones he had been able to craft. He knew they wouldn't be able to kill the Prince on their own, but they would tire and wound him. With Tracker and the enslaved Lurdens taking care of the Prince's forces within the castle and Roberta keeping the Guard busy outside, there was nobody else in this castle that could interrupt him as he took care of Phobos once and for all. Finally, he would teach that boy that underestimating Daolon Wong was the worst error you could make! But he wouldn't rush himself; Wong had planned to savor every little moment of the Prince's downfall.

 _Then this palace will belong to me_ , the Dark Chi Wizard thought, _then the Heart of Meridian and all its power, then Meridian itself and then... who knows?_ Wong let out a sinister cackle. _Perhaps I will turn my attention back to Earth once everything is said and done in this world._

After all, hadn't been Earth the world that had seen him grow in power and skill? There were times, even now after all the years that had passed, that Daolon Wong thought about his life in Ming China, learning from Chi Master Tang. If you asked him if he still feel attachment or some kind of respect for the man, then Wong would probably laugh maniacally in your face. No, there was nothing resembling love or gratefulness towards the ancient Chi Master in Wong's rotten soul. Those emotions had been purged from him... long ago.

* * *

 ** _Ming China; 1516 A.D_**

"Daolon Wong!" Chi Master Tang, his sideburns now completely grey, shrieked as he and his fellow Chi Masters of the Council of Eight burst into the workshop. This place had been hard to locate, hidden in an abandoned temple at the outskirts of Beijing. Daolon Wong had taken it as his own years ago, using it as a hidden base of operations in order to study the secrets of Dark Chi Magic away from the eyes of his peers. While suspicious since long ago, the Council of Eight hadn't been able to act until now due to lacking information about exactly _what_ Wong was doing. Some were now regretting their desire to unveil the mystery around Wong's actions, since now that they had what had resulted from them in front of their eyes they felt sick and disturbed.

The workshop was filled with several tables over which jars of varying sizes had been carefully placed. They were full of twisted human limbs or internal organs that floated in a purplish liquid. Hanging from the ceiling were what appeared to be human corpses badly wrapped in blackened clothes, drops of blood falling from the tips of their toes and into cauldrons that had been placed under them. Each cauldron already contained a different type of potion, the human blood only making them boil. Lit torches on the walls provided proper illumination, yet made the shadows that the corpses casted to feel elongated and inhuman to the eye.

An incredibly dark aura coated the entire place, sending shivers down the spines of all the Chi Masters. Some of them were finding trouble in order to breathe appropiately due to the aura's intensity. It felt as if they were breathing a dense mist.

And at the end of the room, slightly hunched over the largest table that was there, inspecting a series of scrolls was he, Daolon Wong. His usual robe had been exchanged for a simple black cloak, which highlighted the pale tone of his skin and hair. The boy of seventeen was long gone, a man of thirty two having replaced him. Albeit he hadn't gained much muscle mass, his facial features were rougher, and a hint of cruelty could be seen in the blue of his eyes as he turned around. His hair was, if anything, larger and spikier than before.

"Ah, good morning Shifu Tang;" Wong greeted his former mentor, ignoring the other Chi Masters on the room. His voice was dripping with condescension. "I see you have finally resolved to confront me about my... _private projects_."

"Private projects?!" an enraged Chi Master Tang shrieked, rising his arms. "Is that how you refer to this madness?!"

"You call it madness," Wong told his former mentor while taking an index finger to his forehead. "I call it improvements."

"Improvements?!" Master Tang yelled once again, more and more offended and disturbed with each word that left Wong's mouth. "This is a product of the Dark Arts! No improvement can come of them!"

"I beg to differ," Daolon Wong said, picking something from the table he had been working on until now. It was a short staff, no longer than the Wizard's arm, which ended in a tubular orifice full of purple energy. "Come forth, my servants!"

At the Wizard's command, three balls of dark and purplish blue smoke exited the staff and floated around him before they settled down and started growing until they were taller than Wong himself. From each cloud of smoke emerged an orange skinned individual… that could be called humanoid in form, but not human like. Their eyes were completely black and there was not a single trace of hair over their heads. Each wore a loincloth that (thankfully) hid their genitalia. Bones were protruding out of their backs and forearms, and their teeth were sharp and malformed.

"Heresy…" a terrified Master Gao Hai whispered at Master Tang's back, eyes wide and sweat coming down his back. "Abominations..."

"What have you done, Daolon?" Master Tang inquired, his anger quickly replaced by shock and dread.

"Do you like them?" Wong said, patting one of the… creatures, for lack of a better term, in the shoulder. "I produced them based on some of Lo Pan's notes, but I added my own into the mix. Of course, these are nothing but prototypes; but soon I could start producing an army of them. They are far stronger than any human, much more agile, and above all else, nearly indestructible, becoming smoke when exposed to too much damage." Wong walked forward, his lips forming a macabre grin. "They obey my orders without questions, they don't need to eat or rest. They are the perfect soldier. Can you imagine what China could achieve through them?!"

"Daolon… those…" Chi Master Tang began, horrified as he saw the humanoid creatures. "Those were people before?"

"Simple rabble," Wong said contemptuously. "They were nothing but a bunch of peasants that nobody will miss." Wong's smirk widened. "At least they didn't give as much problems as the volunteers I took from the prisons…" the albino man said, gesturing to the corpses hanging from the ceiling.

"You were a commoner yourself not that long ago!" Master Wujing yelled. "The power of the Dark Arts has driven you mad!"

Wong's smirk faded, quickly replaced by a frown. "You keep calling me mad, when in reality I see things much clearer now," the fallen Chi Wizard declared. "You have no idea of how much I have grown in power, and I have only begun to scratch the surface of the abilities Dark Chi Magic can provide us with! In time, I shall transcend the limits of a human body! I shall master all forms of Dark Chi Magic! Even the Demon Sorcerers will hail me as their champion!"

"The Demon Sorcerers will… Are you even listening to what you are saying?!" Chi Master Tang shouted at his former apprentice. Deep down, it pained him to see his once promising pupil reduced to being this, another puppet of his own power.

"I am," Wong declared proudly, unleashing a gust of wind from his staff that shook the entire room. "You are the ones that refuse to understand! You talk about improving and growing, but in the meantime keep yourselves at the service of an Emperor that looks at you with contempt when he is nothing but a normal human being! Our kind shouldn't be following orders; we should be the ones ruling! We are the ones gifted with powers beyond the imagination of any mortal, not them! Are you not tired of being treated as mere tools?! Are you not tired of not being able to pursue your desires?! Don't you wish to move the land beneath your feet with a thought?! Don't you wish to conquer death?! All of that is possible, if you follow me!" Daolon Wong focused his gaze in Chi Master Tang. "My mentor, join me! Join me, Council of Eight and together, we will rule China! We will conquer the islands of the east, and any land of the west! No one shall oppose us!"

Chi Master Tang looked sadly at the twisted man his apprentice had transformed into. Could this entire situation have been prevented had he not taken Daolon under his wing all those years ago? Had he committed some failure during his years as the boy's teacher that had planted the seeds of ambition and pride within his soul? Had his passion for improvement what had made the boy to search within the Dark Arts what he couldn't achieve through patience and hard work?

"Oh, Daolon;" Chi Master Tang said sadly. "What have I forced you to become?"

"Your better, it seems;" Daolon Wong declared, seeing that none of the Chi Masters had any intentions of joining him. "So be it. I see now that you are nothing but a bunch of decrepit and mediocre old fools! If you don't join me… then I will destroy you!"

Wong let out a battle cry, and then his three monstrous servants jumped forwards, ready to fight the Chi Masters. Wong prepared a spell, while Master Tang did the same.

"I'm sorry, Daolon;" Chi Master Tang said as he redirected one of his fallen pupil's attacks towards the nearest wall. "As your Shifu, I have failed you."

"Keep your words to yourself, old man!" Wong said as he smashed the Master's spell within his palm. "Once I have sent you to the other world, you will see the error of your choice!"

Green and purple danced across the workshop, and their clash shook the earth. In the end, though Daolon Wong was able to kill five of the Eight Masters (the Grand Master amongst them), he was forced to flee; his servants sealed thanks to a spell of Master Yu Han and his left eye badly injured.

* * *

 ** _1539 A.D_**

Daolon Wong would spent the following years travelling Ming China, continuing his research in Dark Chi Magic, discovering and learning ancient and powerful dark spells. Even curses and magic formulas that had first been crafted by the Demon Sorcerers belonged now to him alone! And as the years passed and he dwelled deeper and deeper in the secrets the Dark Arts of Chi Magic had to offer, he who had once longed to use his power for good and greatness became greedy and self-serving. The searching of more power stopped being a means to an end, becoming a goal in its own right. And Daolon Wong, who had once wished to use his power for the greatness of China, now boasted about becoming a champion (and in due time, master) of the dark forces that had once terrified Earth.

His task became increasingly difficult over time, thanks to his former mentor's obsession with stopping him. Wherever he went in Ming China, there would be at least one person that would at least have heard of him, or other times amateur Chi Wizards would show up to try and stop him. This situation continued even after he heard the news about Chi Master Tang passing away. Old fool. He should have accepted his offer!

But his former mentor's death had brought a new perspective into the table. The truth was that, albeit growing more powerful and skilled in his mastery of Dark Chi Magic, Daolon Wong wasn't becoming any younger. In fact, he was actually beginning to think that his power was actually making his body to age and deteriorate faster.

Quite ironic considering that Dark Chi Magic offered many ways by which enlarge one's own life beyond what could be considered natural. But it only worked so far, at best letting you live up to two centuries. And that wasn't enough for Wong. Time wasn't his ally, and he had accepted long ago that his goal couldn't be achieved in one lifetime, no matter if it was two times longer than the one of any mortal man.

That was the reason he had come here.

He still ignored how this small castle had remained unnoticed for so long. Perhaps it had been perceived at nothing else than an abandoned fortress? Or had it been the fact that those who dared to venture in it never came back that had kept others away?

Anyway, those were unimportant details. The important thing was that he was here, that he had bargained with this castle's master and that he had obtained what he needed. The Dark Chi Wizard was now looking at his hand, a circular, fanged mouth akin to the one of some insects or strange sea creatures in each of them.

"Are you sure you don't wish to reconsider my offer?" Wong was asked by a soft, raspy voice.

It had been the Dark Chi Wizard's host who had spoken. Looking at him, even Wong couldn't avoid feeling a bit disturbed. The individual towered over him, with a muscular build and dressed in clothes of a dark crimson that left his arms and torso to be exposed, no hair over the head albeit his eyebrows had too much hair in them. His skin was grey as ash, his teeth sharper than the ones of any human, his nails long and curved. There was no light in his eyes, for this man was blind.

Wong ignored his name. Therefore, he referred to him with the same name the people of China had baptized his kind long ago: Jiangshi, a chi vampire. He had come to the Jiangshi with a proposition: Wong would give him humans whose chi the vampire could drain in order to feed and strengthen himself, and in return the Jiangshi would let Wong to make a couple of experiments with his blood in order to grant some of the chi vampire's abilities onto himself. Specifically, the ability Wong was interested in was the one that allowed the creature to drain chi out of his victims in order to lengthen his life. To the Dark Chi Wizard's surprise, not only had the Jiangshi accepted, but he had also made an offer of his own to Wong. To be given a piece of the Jiangshi's chi that would spread through the Wizard's body and soul over time, transforming him into another Jiangshi. Daolon Wong had… _politely_ declined.

"While I'm thankful for the help you have provided me with, my kindred in darkness;" Wong told the Jiangshi, who sat at a large wooden armchair with a terrified human man chained to the floor at his side; "I see no reason to become one of your kind. While powerful, I know for a fact you are unable to withstand the light of the sun without enough energy; and albeit immortal if not killed, you weaken without ingesting chi on a regular basis. And the same could be said about your ability to use magic. You need to drain another before casting any spell. I plan to become the greatest Dark Chi Wizard in history, not the greatest chi vampire."

"Yes, all that you have said is true;" the Jiangshi said, his voice as soft and raspy as before. If he was in any way displeased by Wong's words, he didn't show it. "And I respect your decision, Dark Wizard. I just lament that ambition and talents like yours cannot be harnessed by my species. But know this," the Jiangshi told Daolon Wong as he rose from his wooden armchair and approached the chained and terrified human; "in this world things like status, titles, prestige… they mean nothing." The Jiangshi smelled the air and then picked the chained man by his hair, forcing the terrified person to face him. "The rule of this world is either consume…" the Jiangshi said, and then green beams of energy came out of the chained man's eyes just to be sucked by the ones of the chi vampire. By the time the process had ended the man fell to the ground, unconscious, and the Jiangshi had the ability to see once again; "or be consumed."

* * *

 ** _The present; Meridian_**

 ** _The castle's throne room_**

If someone looked at Prince Phobos Escanor for long enough and was asked to define him with one single word, that word would be indolence. While the Prince lusted for power and was very quick to give himself to wrath; it was indolence that described him better than anything else. In all the years since his tyranny had begun, he had only taken direct action twice. One had been in order to attack Zamballa alongside his forces, which had resulted into a humiliating defeat and Kandrakar raising the Veil around Meridian. The other had been in order to bring down Lannion's cathedral all by himself, which had resulted into the few members of the Faithful of the Light of Meridian that didn't already hate the Prince's guts starting to preach against him in the streets of some villages if not directly joining the Rebellion.

But after those? He hadn't left the castle even once. In fact, many servants doubted they had ever seen Phobos out of the throne room. Phobos preferred to spend his days there, in the safety of his fortress, leeching energy from the land while sat in his throne, others fighting his battles for him. Therefore, his shock was undeniable when, after hearing a few noises, the biggest gorilla he had ever seen burst through the throne room's door, breaking it into pieces in the process, roaring furiously.

The enormous ape, being almost as big as Cedric, jumped straight towards him before the Prince had any time to react, hitting both Phobos and his throne, the latter crumbling with the same ease the door had done. Falling to the ground, the Prince stood up as fast as he could, just in time to evade a black shape that would have slashed his torso with its claws otherwise. Focusing his eyes, the Prince identified the black shape as a flying giant bat, which was quickly joined by another of the same kind. Both creatures flew in circles over the gorilla for a couple of seconds before landing at the large ape's sides. While not as big as the gorilla, the bats were quite formidable in size too.

"What is the meaning of this?!" an enraged Phobos asked of the giant animals, but his only answer was another attack from the gorilla's part. This time, however, Phobos expected an attack, so he was quick to conjure a shield with his Raw Magic, blocking the ape's powerful fists. Clenching his own and yelling, Phobos unleashed a powerful wave of Raw Magic, which hit the gorilla and both bats with enough strength to send them all to the ground. "Answer your Prince, you filthy… Shapeshifters?" Phobos said, finally realizing what his opponents were. Of course they were Shapeshifters! There was no other explanation for the existence of such large animals! But why were they here? "Whisperers!" Phobos called.

In mere seconds, vines full of the tiny rose-like creatures descended from the throne room's ceiling via the room's walls, whispering as they did so.

" _Attack… Attack…_ " the little ones said. " _Tracker and some Lurdens fight others in the halls… In the castle's walls, a falcon leads Shapeshifters against the Guard… And Archmage Wong approaches…_ "

"Wong?!" Phobos bellowed, looking at the Shapeshifters, already on their feet again and readying themselves for another attack. It took his mind several moments, but he was able to put all the pieces together. After all, from where else could have these Shapeshifters come from?

"Treachery!" Phobos yelled in anger, his hands getting charged up in Raw Magic. Before he could unleash a torrent of energy towards the artificial Shapeshifters, something invisible, sticky and slimy wrapped around his torso, quickly hoisting him into the air, where one of the bats proceeded to deliver a powerful hit to him, making him to crash into one of his throne room's walls before falling to the ground again.

Grumbling in pain, Phobos looked for the new attacker, but he saw nothing. Only after a few second he noticed some kind of distortion in the air, as if part of the room was blurry and moving. He realized that said blur was his attacker when it stopped using camouflage, revealing itself to be a giant chameleon with green and blue scales. The reptile was quick to line itself with the other three, standing in front of the ape while the bats took the same places as before, each at one side of the formation.

"You…" Phobos said slowly, his entire body being surrounded by sparks of Raw Magic while he floated slightly over the ground. "You are going to pay for this insolence…" the Prince's magic converged into his fists, where it manifested in the form of two large energy balls. Glaring at the quartet of Beasts, he let them to give the first step, the chameleon quickly camouflaging itself again while the gorilla leaded the attack and the pair of bats acting as support. Phobos blasted them first, focusing his attention into the gorilla next, wary of the attack that could come at any moment from the chameleon's part. His mind, however, was completely focused into a single individual. "Wong! Show yourself you traitor! Or is your body so old and frail that you have to let these animals do your job for you?! Wong! WONG!"

* * *

 ** _A hallway near the throne room_**

"WONG!"

The Archmage couldn't contain a laugh. It seemed that his Shapeshifters had already engaged the Prince in battle. And the Prince was apparently intelligent enough to deduce that he was the one responsible for his current situation, judging by the yelling of the Dark Chi Wizard's name. Wong had to admit he felt delighted by this situation, knowing that Phobos knew who was delivering the strike before Wong even confronted the Prince by himself. He glanced back at his three Dark Chi Warriors, obediently waiting for his orders, and wondered for how much longer he would need to let them out.

 _I have had them out for enough time, I believe_ ; Wong thought to himself. Besides, this was supposed to be his triumph card if the Prince was able to turn the tables against him. Eager to face and humiliate Phobos on his own, Daolon Wong began to walk towards the throne room. _Foolish Escanor brat_ , he thought as he left his warriors behind, unable to contain a malicious grin that made the wrinkles of his face to stand out even more. _You call me frail and old, and you aren't the first one to do so. But I have lived long and have learned much… and each of my defeats have made me only stronger!_

* * *

 ** _Earth; 1792 A.D_**

 ** _Paris, France_**

Thanks to his new ability Daolon Wong was able to live far longer than any human had any right to, the world and its peoples advancing and evolving, while he remained the same, even outliving the existence of the Ming Dynasty under which's rule he had been born. For more than two centuries he had walked the entirety of Asia, accumulating as much power as he could. When it became clear to him that neither China nor any of its neighboring countries had anything else to offer him, he decided to start travelling west, seeing if that part of the world had any secrets to offer to him. He couldn't have decided to do so at a worse moment.

The Dark Chi Wizard, old and wrinkled to the extreme (as it had turned out, elongating one's life by draining the energy of others only made you to live longer, but didn't make you any younger), clutched the dark hood he was dressed in, hiding in the shadows of an alley. The sun of August bathed the entirety of the city in its light. From his hiding spot he could see people rushing through Paris streets as if they were vicious and rabid animals, mainly these… how were they called? Sans-culottes? It didn't matter.

 _The rabble rebels against their lords and ladies_ , Wong though as he hid even deeper into the alley's shadows; _because their monarch lacked the power to maintain them in their place_. Wong wondered how long it would take for a part of the rabble to start wanting to rule the rest.

Wong shook his head, deciding that this city had little to nothing to offer him. Politics weren't his forte, and it seemed that those were the only thing France was interested in now. He looked at his recently acquired staff, a twisted root of an old tree he had acquired in Rome and imbued with some dark chi until it was basically an extension of himself. Uhm… perhaps he should go back to Rome. That city, at least, wouldn't be in the same chaotic state as this one was. Or he could travel back to China, considering that it had been that country which had offered him more in the department of magic.

Without further delay, he waved his staff and teleported himself away in a cloud of purple smoke.

* * *

 ** _1924 A.D_**

 ** _An unspecified point on India_**

The centuries passed again, and the world kept changing around Daolon Wong. Kingdoms and empires that had once thought themselves eternal fell down and disappeared, nations broke into pieces while others joined together to form stronger ones, wars (each more violent than the last one) making old borders to disappear and new ones to be created while leaving thousands of corpses over the land. Around the entire globe, the last centuries had supposed a continuous change of pace and status quo. Except for Daolon Wong, the Dark Chi Wizard remaining always the same, believing in the same things, doing the same things; living a life he had stolen from others.

His obsession with growing stronger in the practice of Dark Chi Magic was still there, but the man had seemingly reached his limit. He knew as many spells as he could, and he was as powerful as he could be. But he knew there were levels he had yet to reach! Any Demon Sorcerer was still far mightier than him, or so the Dark Chi Wizard had deduced from the texts he had gathered during the past centuries. And the same could be said about the legendary Oni of Japan, or even of some Demon Princes that had once roamed across Europe.

Wong had long ago reached the conclusion that he needed to find other ways to increase his power, and in the end he had settled for the option of finding and gathering magical artifacts that could empower him or at least help him to grow beyond his limits. That was the reason he had travelled to India, searching for something called 'Crown of Asura', an artifact that would allow him to turn water into magma and control it. Imagine what he could do with that power! Alas, he had run into a… _little_ complication.

"Quintessence!" an Indian woman with dark skin, a long curly mane of a lighter shade of brown and vibrant auburn eyes; dressed in a pink and large dress and with wings at her back yelled; the Heart of Kandrakar hanging from her neck and over her chest. Then a large lightning bolt was shot from her opened palm and blasted the Dark Chi Wizard away.

"Argh!" Wong shouted in pain.

"Good one Alakshmi!" another Guardian told the Keeper of the Heart as she and her other three companions flew towards her, all dressed in similar clothing. One of them, the only Chinese in the group, was clutching the Crown of Asura in her hands.

"Master!" Wong heard a masculine voice, one of his three Dark Chi warriors, Gan, landing at his side and helping him to stand up. "You're badly injured!"

"I know that, you fool!" Wong told his servant, Ren and Chui landing before them and raising their weapons in order to take defensive positions. "Just take the Crown!"

"But Master, they're too powerful!" Chui complained now.

"Do as I say," the Dark Chi Wizard told his servant; "or I will put you three back in the same hole I found you in!"

"It would do you better to listen to your servants, Dark Wizard;" the Guardian called Alakshmi told him as she and her four companions flew over them. "You don't have this Crown, you are badly injured, and we are ready to keep fighting. However, our orders are to retrieve the Crown, not to kill you. So we'll let you leave, but if I see you again on this country, I won't be so compassionate."

Compassionate? Compassionate?! Who did these children think they were talking to?! He was Daolon Wong, greatest and mightiest of all Dark Chi Wizards that were, are and forever would be! He didn't need compassion! However, as he took one hand to his chest, the old and wrinkled man noticed that these harlots held a strong point. The battle had been long and arduous, and he wasn't in any shape to continue fighting. A tactical retreat was the best option, then. Wong waved his staff and a cloud of purple smoke engulfed him and his Dark Chi warriors, making them disappear from the scene.

* * *

 ** _Meridian; now_**

When Wong calmly walked into the throne room he didn't find anything he wasn't expecting. The two bats seemed to have been the ones to be defeated first, seeing as how they were unconscious and had already shifted back to human form, one a boy and one a girl. Phobos was currently dealing with the gorilla, who upon losing consciousness returned to human form too, namely the one of an eleven-year-old chubby black girl. Then the Prince unleashed a wave of magic around himself, strong enough to knock the chameleon Shapeshifter out of his camouflaged state. Phobos proceeded to blast him repeatedly, until the artificial Shapeshifter fell over his stomach and shifted back to the form of a Latin-American boy of fifteen, falling unconscious shortly after.

As for the Prince, he fell onto his knees and palms, muttering something. A thorny vine erupted from the ground and wrapped itself around Phobos' arm then, the Prince siphoning energy out of Meridian in order to strengthen his power again. As if Daolon Wong was going to permit that. The dark Chi Wizard shot a couple of eye beams from his eyes using the power of the Noble Pig, cutting the vine in two and abruptly ending Phobos' siphoning. Of course, by doing so, the Archmage alerted the Prince of his presence, the latter quickly standing up and spinning around in order to face him.

" _You_ ," Phobos said bitterly, eyes narrowing and a wave of Raw Magic travelling his entire body from head to toe.

"Yes, me;" Wong said confidently, giving a couple of steps onward. "I hope the children didn't tire you too much, _my lord_ ;" the Dark Chi Wizard said the last two words mockingly. He waved a hand and the four teens disappeared surrounded by blue smoke thanks to a spell the Archmage had put on them before. They were too valuable to risk harming them as a side effect of the incoming clash. "I was hoping to enjoy a little duel before I take your life."

"Take my life?" Phobos, regaining some of his lost composure, asked of Wong with a smugness matching the one of the Dark Chi Wizard. "You old, senile man;" the Prince insulted the Archmage as he levitated a few inches over the ground once again. "You dare compare yourself to me? You who are nothing but a living relic from a meaningless world as Earth, dare compare yourself to me, Prince Phobos Escanor?!" The Prince's fists gleamed with Raw Magic. He seemed not to have lost all that much energy in his battle against the Shapeshifters. "I was born with this power! I was destined for greatness since the moment I was put in my crib for the first time! And you, a mere traitor, dare to stand up to me and say that you will take my life. You aren't worthy enough to take my life, Wong."

The Prince had been expecting an angry reaction from the Archmage, but the old Dark Chi Wizard merely put on a wicked smile and, by using the power of the Noble Rooster storage within himself; he started to levitate in the air, much higher than Phobos.

"For five years, I have been in this palace, Prince Phobos Escanor;" Wong began, and as he spoke, he started to create Chinese runes in the air. "For five long years, I obeyed you. I would lie if I said I didn't admire you in some way for being a man gifted with magic that had decided to not let some ungifted rabble to dictate his actions." Wong's eyes flared as the circle of runes in front of him was completed. "But now I look back at those five years, and what do I see? I see a child with the appearance of a man that was given too much power by some fluke of fate. An indolent and impatient child, satisfied with nothing but never moving a finger to earn anything! Your greatness is that of a leech that just happens to have drunk the blood of the gods! And meanwhile you were content with what nature gave you, I grew! I have been growing, stronger and stronger, for more than five centuries! And I have never stopped growing! I will never do! I am Daolon Wong, the pinnacle of Dark Chi Magic! I am Daolon Wong, eternal master of the Dark Arts! And soon, ruler of this world! Lost Art of the Great Demon Frog number 37! Cì lóngjuǎnfēng!"

Wong unleashed a gust of purple wind from his incantation circle, creating a concentrated windstorm within the throne room that blew anything that wasn't strongly attached to the ground away. This, of course, included Phobos, who tried to resist the spell by casting a defensive one with his Raw Magic, only deluding the inevitable. As the wind blew, the only thing that could be heard over the noise it was producing was Daolon Wong's maniacal laughter.

* * *

 ** _Near the castle's walls_**

Captain Lothar used a metallic shield he had grabbed from a fallen ally to block his opponent's next attack. He took the force of the blow as best as he could, trying to not get any of his bones broken. Around him, another five guards helped him to battle this foe. And what a foe it was; a large, gigantic… insect, for lack of a better term, that resembled a centipede except for the fact that it had something akin to a beak instead of a mouth. There were other seven Shapeshifters fighting alongside a couple of Lurden platoons in the ground, many of them insects too, (Lothar could distinguish a couple of them that reminded him of ants) and a pair of reptilian creatures (there was one who resembled a smaller, brownish Cedric); while the falcon continued to fly over them all. In any other circumstance, they would have been shooting arrows at her, but they had enough to worry about already.

Fighting Lurdens one to one was a thing, but fighting Shapeshifters on top of it all was a much different tale. Lothar glanced back at the rest of the Capital, the only thing keeping this force away from it being his soldiers. He hoped the commoners were being properly evacuated from the areas nearest to the castle. The centipede took advantage of the moment, though, rushing towards him by the force of his many legs. The only thing that saved Lothar was Frost riding atop of his rhinoceros, Crimson; the brute riding his mount into the centipede's side, making the insect to scream and recede a couple of meters.

"What's wrong with you all?!" Frost yelled, swinging a club in the air. "Keep fighting! Or aren't you men of the Guard?!"

Lothar was grateful for the brute's enthusiasm, and about how the morale of his men increased thanks to him. However, as he saw the centipede to resume the attack one more time, he actually doubted if they could actually contain them for much longer. How could all this be possible? What had caused this? Why were these Shapeshifters and Lurdens fighting as if they had no free will at all?

This time, the Captain glanced at the Castle. What kind of madness had the Prince gotten them all into this time?

* * *

 ** _At the throne room_**

Blasts of Chi and Raw Magic flew across the room, Prince and Archmage trying their hardest to bring the other down and both of them destroying the throne room in the process. After Wong's demonic spell had died down and Phobos had had the chance to be on the offensive the battle had become one of equals, as it wasn't clear if either Archmage or Prince were going to be able to overpower the other.

As Wong floated in the air, he used his telekinesis to raise some of the debris product of their clash and directed it at the Prince at top speed. Phobos blasted the debris away with an energy beam that he generated within his hand, the attack continued straight towards Wong.

The Dark Chi Wizard met the Prince's attack with a magic beam of his own, adding the strength of the Pig Talisman by firing a couple of eye-beams too. Both attack cancelled each other almost instantaneously, and Wong took the opportunity to use the power of the Noble Rooster to pull Phobos towards him.

"Fǔxiǔ de shìjiè!" Wong yelled, casting one of his all-time favorite spells directly into Phobos' chest. The Prince was blasted backwards, falling on his back without grace and feeling as if he had lost a big amount of his power in a couple of seconds. Wong didn't lose time, firing another couple of eye-beams towards the Prince.

Phobos wasn't losing his time either, muttering incantations as he came to his feet, making a pair of thorny vines to emerge from the ground and wrap around his feet this time, leeching more energy from the land. Using the sudden increase in power, Phobos was able to block Wong's attack and counter them by casting a spell of his own this time, creating three long snakes made out of pure Raw Magic, which flew fast towards the Dark Chi Wizard.

Wong was able to evade one of them, but the other two impacted directly over him, making the old and wrinkled man to lose his balance in the air and land in the ground. The old man yelled in anger.

"Enough with the cheap tricks!" Wong declared, using his telekinesis to pull Phobos out of the grip of the thorn vines. He burned the vines down with a blast from his eyes. "No more siphoning energy for you, Escanor brat. At least face me with the power you possess and have some dignity in your defeat!"

"I will repeat it again, Wong;" an angry Phobos said as he charged another spell, quickly firing a magic blast with both hands this time. "You won't be defeating me!"

Wong met the Prince's blast with his own again, this time both beams fighting each other for a couple of seconds, unable to overpower one another. Then, centimeter by centimeter, Phobos' attack started to gain terrain to Wong's. Seeing this, Phobos smiled smugly.

"You are nothing but an old man that was lucky I took him in as a servant!" Phobos taunted the Dark Chi Wizard as his attack continued to slowly overpower Wong's. "But now, you have become a traitor! I will crush you here, and then I will laugh as those who have had enough insight as to remain loyal to me hang your corpse from the walls of my castle, so everyone can see what happens to those that dare stand in my way!"

Wong was visibly struggling against the Prince's comeback. However, he couldn't avoid smirking in quite a triumphant way. How much power had the prince used? How much had he left? Judging by the drops of sweat that were coming down his brow, he was putting his all in this last attack; just as Wong had foreseen.

"Come back!" the dark Chi Wizard yelled. And then, fast as lightning, three balls of dark blue smoke came from the destroyed throne room's door, quickly entering Wong's staff.

In that moment, Wong's attack tripled in strength, overpowering the one of Phobos by piercing through it, blasting the shocked Prince away with much more power than before. Phobos fell to the ground once again, dust clouding the trashed throne room due to the intensity of the attack. The Prince looked in shock as how, from the aforementioned cloud of dust, came Daolon Wong, barely looking the same as before. His skin was of a dark, sickly orange, one eye pitch black and the other white. When he spoke, his voice echoed with power, albeit not to the same extent as a Heart-wielder's would.

" ** _This is your first time seeing me like this, isn't it?_** " Wong asked of the Prince, not hiding the contempt he felt for the member of royalty. " ** _Do you know why I designed this form for? In order to challenge either Guardians or far more powerful and skilled sorcerers than you. You can't hope to defeat me now_**."

Phobos didn't taunt the Wizard back, instead firing a ball of Raw Magic against him. Wong made it halt with the power of the Noble Rooster, crushing the attack by closing his fist afterwards. Even Wong seemed a bit surprised by that.

" ** _Oh yes, this is the first time I employ any of the Talisman powers I possess in this form_** ;" Wong said looking at his free hand, his eyes gleaming with what seemed to be blood-red fire. " ** _Then, let's see…_** " Wong muttered, firing a shot from his eyes by using the power of the Noble Pig. The blast came in a much stronger way than before, being crimson instead of the usual yellowish. Phobos tried to block the attack, but it shattered the barrier he conjured, blasting him away and piercing through his shoulder, leaving a nasty wound behind.

As the Prince cried in agony, Daolon Wong used his empowered telekinesis to hoist him up in the air and smash the Prince against the ceiling. Then he repeated the process and smashed Phobos against the floor. Once he had done that, Wong used his telekinesis to press Phobos against the ground, forming a crater around him.

" ** _Do you think you can best me?!_** " Wong shrieked. " ** _After all the power I have gathered, after all the defeats I have suffered against your betters?! In comparison with those, Phobos Escanor, you are nothing!_** "

* * *

 ** _Earth; a small shrine in a Chinese forest_**

 ** _1999 A.D_**

Wong was lying on the grass, panting, his staff lying at his side. He was lying on the grass, pride and body wounded in equal measure. He was lying on the grass, defeated once again.

"How can this be?" Wong asked to himself. "How can you be this strong?"

"I wouldn't exactly say that I'm strong;" the Dark Chi Wizard's victorious opponent told him, an overweight and balding Chinese man near his eighties, dressed in casual clothing and sipping from a can of soda. Looking at him, he didn't seem to be all that much, but looks can be deceiving, for this was Chi Master Fong. "I'd say that you're not very good at this;" the Chi Master continued. "That semi-demonic form of yours was very impressive, but once you explained to me how it worked you should've suspected that I was going to break it." Chi Master Fong shook his head. "Don't you ever watch any of these modern TV shows? You mustn't explain your powers to the enemy!" Fong took a hand to his chin. "Now that I actually think it through, you don't strike me as a fan of TV shows. Perhaps you're more of an opera man? I have a small TV in my shrine, if you'd like to give it a chance."

"Enough!" Wong yelled from the ground, slowly incorporating. "I won't tolerate to be laughed at!"

"I was being serious," Chi Master Fong said calmly, taking another sip from his soda can. "How old are you? Judging by the feelings your chi's giving me, I'd say you've got a bunch of centuries at your back. In all that time, did you ever sit down and enjoy the pleasures of a tranquil life? Did you ever have any apprentice?"

Wong looked at Fong for several seconds before laughing bitterly. "You must be joking! I am the greatest Wizard to ever walk this world! I don't have time for such small things as the pleasures of a tranquil life! And why would I need an apprentice, when I'm practically immortal?"

"Oh, apprentices are the key part of our profession, I believe;" Fong told the ancient dark Wizard. "My own apprentice ended his training under my care just a year ago, carrying my knowledge and lessons with him, but also having taught me many things. Knowing that he will pass those lessons and his own to another apprentice one day fills me with pride, happiness and peace. And thanks to that I don't fear death, for my memory will live in another. And I can relax in this shrine of mine, drinking soda, watching movies that I never had time to watch in my youth, singing or simply enjoying the fresh air of this forest. What about you, Daolon Wong? Who will remember you when you are gone?"

"I will never be gone," Wong told the other Chi Wizard.

"I beg to differ," Fong said, shaking his head. "Everyone goes away, sooner or later, and what lies beyond this life is a mystery no one can decipher. Wouldn't it be better to enjoy our last moments at peace with ourselves and others than trying to desperately cling to what little amount of life we have?"

"You are nothing but an ambitionless fool, then;" Wong retorted, his hand having already retaken his staff from the ground. "While countless of your kind lived meaningless lives through the centuries, I was gathering knowledge and power. And now I have transcended the limits of humanity. My might and glory are something no other can hope to achieve."

"And yet, you just lost against me;" Fong declared as a matter of fact. "You talk about might and glory, but during our battle, your chi only transmitted bitterness and sorrow. You're just another man that drove everyone that cared for him away in his quest for power. At the end of the day you're a lonely man. And therefore, you lack what makes people like me to be able to defeat people like you. What do you say to that?"

"I say…" Wong began, just to raise his twisted root and point it in the Chi Master's direction. "Fǔxiǔ de shìjiè!"

The spell impacted over Fong's chest, his can of soda falling to the ground and spilling its content over the grass

"Fǔxiǔ de shìjiè!"

"Fǔxiǔ de shìjiè!"

Fong fell to the ground too, any reserves of chi he may have had now emptied. Wong walked towards him, pointing his twisted root at his head. "This is what I have to say, Good Wizard!" the ancient albino man told him. "You are nothing! You will lie here defeated and dead while I stand victorious! Die knowing that you are nothing!"

"No, Daolon Wong;" Chi Master Fong told the dark Chi Wizard, and for a moment the overweight Chinese man seemed to regain his full strength. His words wounded Wong more than any spell ever did. "I die at peace with myself, nothing to feel ashamed for. And I die feeling pity for you, for you will never understand the joy of a life with others."

"Silence!" Wong said; ready to smash the Chi Master's head if necessary. But then Fong breathed deeply, a green aura surrounding his body. In mere seconds, the kindly old wizard dissolved into dust that then was scattered into the wind, his chi becoming one with nature.

And Daolon Wong was left alone. As he always was.

* * *

 ** _Meridian, the present_**

 ** _Throne room_**

The transformed Daolon Wong smashed Prince Phobos against the walls of his throne room over and over again. The Prince tried to counterattack from time to time, but Wong just broke the spells with a small shot from his staff or a wave of his hand. In the end, he let Phobos out of the telekinetic grip, and the Prince fell down, exhausted and unconscious, many bones broken, but still breathing.

It was only then when Daolon Wong stopped his rampage, taking as much time as he could to look at the Prince's fallen form. He felt surprise at first, but that emotion was quickly overtaken by joy and pride.

" ** _I… I did it!_** " Wong said gleefully, using the power of the Noble Rooster to float in the air and slowly fly around, as if he was a happy child. " ** _I did it! I won! I defeated him! The castle is mine! Meridian is mine! I am victorious! I am victorious!_** "

Finally! After so many years, after so many failures!

The Dark Wizard… Victorious!

* * *

 ** _Sometime later_**

The first thing that Prince Phobos noticed upon regaining consciousness was that he could move neither hands nor legs. Looking at his body once he opened his eyes he noticed that, leaving aside his burnt clothes, the lower half of his body and hands had been trapped into a wall of his throne room, as if the stone had been melted and he had been put in there before it solidified again, leaving only his torso and head to be seen. His shoulder was still injured… and he felt tiredness taking over him, which wasn't a good thing now.

Focusing on his surroundings, he was quick to find Wong, talking with Tracker. Traitors! Traitors the both of them! He was going to murder them both! But careful, careful, he must be careful… he had been defeated. Bested by a mere peasant like Wong! Without making a noise, he called for his vines once again. They came to him in a way tinier form than before, wrapping themselves around his fingers and toes. As he slowly recharged himself, he put attention to Wong and Tracker's conversation.

" ** _If the Lurdens you defeated have been put under our command, my friend_** ;" the old Chinese man said while holding an object the Prince wasn't able to properly see. Wong was still in his transformed state, though; " ** _then take them out of the palace and use them to crush the Guard, my friend. I won't stop until everyone that has any ability to oppose me is out of the picture._** "

"What about him, then?" Tracker said in his raspy and inhuman voice, pointing at Phobos. "He has awakened."

" ** _Ah!_** " Wong exclaimed as he levitated towards Phobos. " ** _All in due time, I still need to take over his role as part of the Ritual of Amalgamation. And besides,_** " Wong said with a malicious grin; " ** _I still have a score to settle_**."

"Very well," Tracker answered, taking his leave, his bloodhound following in his steps.

"You… traitors…" Phobos whispered painfully.

" ** _Traitors?_** " Wong asked in a mocking tone. " ** _I wouldn't consider me a traitor anymore, seeing how I am the master of this castle. In fact, I could make you to bow before me until your neck hurt if I wanted to_** ;" Wong declared, holding the Horn of Hypnos in front of the Prince's face.

"The Horn of Hypnos…" Phobos muttered. How much longer until he was full again? Hours, perhaps a day; considering the pace at which the vines were giving him energy. And that was a time he didn't have.

" ** _Yes, Escanor brat_** ;" Wong told him, making the Horn to levitate away. " ** _A powerful artifact that was in your own possession and that you didn't want to use. It's ironic that it was one of the instruments of your downfall._** "

"In the moment my loyal servants find about this…" Phobos said bitterly.

Wong cut him with a laugh before he could finish that sentence. " ** _You never tire of being wrong, do you?_** " the Dark Chi Wizard asked, using the same question Phobos had once used against him. " ** _How many of your loyal servants do you see around here, Prince Phobos Escanor? None of them! They are not loyal to you, they just hate you with a fervent passion. And you lack the power to maintain them in line through fear! And now that the Rebellion and the Guardians are nearly at your gate, they are abandoning you! And that's because you are nothing but a pathetic man, unable to see how near his enemies are of him._** " Wong's twisted root and free hand began to be coated in black sparks of electricity. " ** _I ignore exactly what I have to do in order to take over your role within the Ritual of Amalgamation so I can take your sister's Heart…_** " Wong's face grew nearer to Phobos, " ** _but I know I'm going to enjoy discovering it._** "

* * *

 ** _Meanwhile…_**

Perched over the walls that surrounded the castle was Roberta, still in her falcon form. From her spot she could see the entire battle that was taking place below. That Tracker thing and a bunch of other Lurdens had joined her own forces, and were now fighting the Guard tooth and nail. More soldiers had joined the Guard too, however, coming from the city. She glanced at the sword she had taken from one of her Lurdens, patiently waiting for her. If Tracker was here… then that meant that Wong had already won against that Prince boy. Good, everything was going as planned. A shame it wasn't Wong's plan, though.

Roberta had always been a street rat. She had been stealing things since she could remember. When a weird old man had appeared out of nowhere and had told her that he could make her better than any human, she had accepted. But she wasn't the same as Simon, independently of how much she had appreciated the crocodile brute when he was still alive, independently of how much it had pained her that he had died. She had ambitions too, which she supposed was the reason her animal form was a falcon instead of a crow. Seeing as how the battle below was under control, Roberta took the sword in her talons and flew away.

* * *

 ** _The throne room_**

Phobos screamed as Wong applied another spell on him, this one casting purple flames in some sections of his body. Wong, meanwhile, laughed. His transformed state had worn off a few minutes ago, but that wasn't stopping the dark Chi Wizard from gleefully torturing the defeated Prince.

"How many humiliations you subjected me to," Wong said as he raised his staff once again. "It's not so great when one is in the other side, is it?" Wong applied another electrical spell to Phobos. "Tell me, is it?!"

Phobos didn't want to give the man the satisfaction of hearing him scream. Not screaming, however, was a different story. _Wong, I swear that when I come out of here…_ Phobos thought, but then the Wizard stopped his petty torture.

"Enough of enjoying myself, I have better things to focus on;" Wong declared, making the Horn of Hypnos to levitate towards him. "If a Heart can be freely given, so can the ability to take it forcefully."

"What?" Phobos asked weakly.

"I'm going to use the Horn of Hypnos to make you surrender your power to me," Wong declared. "I suppose I won't be able to use your spells, since you specialize in Raw Magic in contrast with me, but I should be able to take over your place in the Ritual of Amalgamation. And if it doesn't work, we can go back to the torture. Or I could make you jump off a cliff."

Alas, before Wong could blow the Horn and transform Phobos into his puppet; he heard a melody. A strange, strong melody played on a string instrument. Alright, what was that noise? A harp, perhaps? Who was playing it?

Those questions still unanswered, the melody did nothing but grow in strength, sounding nearer and nearer. As the notes sounded louder and louder, a crack appeared in the Horn of Hypnos. Another set of notes followed the previous one, and two new cracks were added to the one that traversed the artifact's surface. Phobos looked at this with surprise, while Wong's face showed a mix of shock, anger and (even if it was just slightly) fear.

"What is the meaning of this?!" Wong shouted, floating away from Phobos and positioning himself at the center of the trashed throne room. He was looking at the cracking Horn with growing nervousness. And then, his answer came.

"Do you want to know why we never used the Horn of Hypnos, even though we could have done so and get an army instantaneously?"

A web-string slowly descended from a shadowed corner of the ceiling, and after few seconds, Lady Miranda appeared on it in her spider-form, carrying a harp in her grey, long fingers. She played a note and the Horn cracked even more.

"It's because," Miranda continued to say in the raspy voice of her transformed state; "the Horn, and therefore the spell, can be destroyed..." she played another set of notes, this one stronger than the rest, and the Horn ended breaking into pieces; "with relative ease."

Wong and Phobos were left speechless at the sight of the crumbling Horn of Hypnos. The Dark Chi Wizard shot a hateful look at the Shapeshifter. Even if it couldn't be seen due to her black fur, the Archmage was sure the young spider was smiling mockingly at him. As for Miranda, she said just one word.

"Surprise."

* * *

 ** _At the castle's walls_**

"Reform the line!" Captain Lothar yelled. "Reform the line!"

Things were starting to look bleak. Sure, more guards and even several members of Frost's Rhinoceros Cavalry had joined with the ones Lothar was commanding, but more Lurdens had appeared out of the front door of the castle's walls, and leaded by the Tracker no less. The undead had always struck Lothar as a monster that preferred to work (and hunt) alone, being just another of the abominations that had come to the Prince like flies to the light of fire. But now that the Captain saw the undead in the battlefield he found himself facing someone that directed the Lurdens and Shapeshifters under his command with a cold efficiency, even without the need to raise his voice.

He knew that the entire Guard wasn't here, but he ignored there were so many Lurdens within the palace. As things were now, the enemy force outnumbered them... but not for much. The Shapeshifters and Tracker would be the source of most of their problems, so the best course of action would be to isolate and dispose of them first. Which was something easier said than done, as no one had been known to even scratch the Tracker. But if he could stall them for some time until the rest of his soldiers arrived...

"Frost!" Lothar called for the brute.

The large man swung his club in the air and yelled loudly. "CHAR...!"

"Wait!" Lothar suddenly yelled, stopping the brown-skinned brute before he could begin.

"What?" Frost asked from atop Crimson. He sounded genuinely disappointed. "Do we charge or not?"

"Shut up and look!" a shocked Lothar told the brute, who would have yelled back at the Captain if not for the scene playing in front of their eyes.

The Lurdens were dropping their weapons. Some were on their knees, others looked around in complete confusion or clutched their heads as if they had woken from a terrible nightmare. As for the Shapeshifters, they had transformed back into their human forms. Where eight mighty creatures had once stood, now there were eight children, boys and girls of varying ages and sizes, some crying in fear, confusion or both.

"What is going on?" Frost asked in confusion.

Lothar looked at them, and then focused into the Tracker, who looked back at him. The undead seemed the most confused of all that were gathered there, but for a far different reason than the others. His confusion wasn't the one of a puppet that has been freed from its strings, but the one of the puppeteer that has suddenly found himself with no puppet. Lothar understood instantly.

"Seize the Tracker!" Lothar ordered.

"Finally!" Frost said, swinging his club once again and happily spurring his rhino. "CHARGE!"

* * *

 ** _Back at the throne room_**

Miranda had been very quick to shot a string of her spider-web towards Wong, who had incinerated it with ease using his eye-beams. The Shapeshifter had swiftly evaded the next shots the Dark Chi Wizard had fired at her by jumping from the web-string she was on to the nearby wall and then to the floor, just in front of the trapped Phobos.

"Are you alright, my lord?" the spider asked of the Prince, who just glared at her. Next he breathed deeply and unleashed a small fraction of the power he had been siphoning until now, breaking free of the stone trapping him. Miranda noticed the bad shape his body was in, his robes torn and thus letting one see the bleeding wounds and burnt skin underneath them. Even his straw blond hair had lost the luster that it usually seemed to have.

"Miranda, I really hope you know what you are doing;" the Prince told his servant without even looking at her. His eyes were fixated on Wong, gleaming with a somehow cold fury.

 _I suppose expecting some kind of thankfulness is still too much, even if I just saved your life_ ; Miranda thought with disdain. "Don't worry, master;" she told the Prince. "I have everything under control."

"You have _nothing_ under control, pathetic excuse of an arachnid!" Wong yelled, beginning to slightly levitate over the ground. A part of Miranda found somehow funny how his black and dark blue sorcerer robe covered his feet even when he was in the air. "I may have lost the Horn… but you lost this castle long before that! Even if I'm not transformed anymore," Daolon Wong declared, his eyes flaring up thanks to the power of the Noble Pig, "I can still destroy you both with ease!"

In any other circumstance, Phobos would have met Wong's boast with one of his own. But he doubted it would serve any purpose now. He had defeated him, after all. He, Phobos Escanor, defeated by a mere old man! A Chi Wizard! Anger boiled inside the Prince's soul, and he decided to keep his mouth shut. Wong must have noticed this, because he let out a small laugh afterwards.

"What is it, Escanor brat?" Wong asked mockingly. "No witty retort, no declaration of how you will hang my corpse from the walls? Perhaps you know that it doesn't matter what you do, since all our confrontations will end up in the same result!"

The three of them heard the sound of breaking glass then, Roberta entering in the throne room through a window, shifting back to her human form and taking the blade she had been carrying in her talons into her left hand, swinging the blade towards Miranda and Phobos. Wong did nothing but dedicate a pleased smile towards the silent girl before looking back at the Prince and the Spider.

"And you just lost what little advantage you had," the Archmage declared, slowly floating towards Phobos and Miranda. "Since I don't have the Horn of Hypnos anymore…" Wong thrust his free arm forward, unleashing another telekinetic wave towards the duo of Prince and Shapeshifter, smashing them against the wall in which Phobos had been trapped just moments before. "Then you will surrender the Ritual of Amalgamation to me, or you will die! Meridian belongs to me now; its Heart will belong to me sooner or later! Everything will… uh?"

Miranda and Phobos felt how the telekinetic attack that was trying to crush them as if they were bugs (or in Miranda's case, as the bug she was) quickly lost any strength it had, freeing the two of them. Wong didn't notice this, his full attention focused on his stomach, from where the blade of a sword was sticking out, colored in the red of his old blood. The Archmage glanced at it for several seconds, and then looked over his shoulder to see Roberta, the Shapeshifter he had created with his own hand and who had now literally backstabbed him.

Before the Dark Chi Wizard had any opportunity to talk or do anything, the silent girl extracted the blade from his body in a fast, violent and painful fashion. Then she proceeded to stab him in the back three more times, these ones without piercing entirely through his body. Wong fell to his knees, using the power of the Noble Rooster to make sure he didn't bleed out to death. As for Roberta, she threw the blade away and walked in the direction of Phobos and Miranda, the latter shifting back to her human form, and dedicating the cruelest of smiles to the fallen Dark Chi Wizard.

"Treachery…" Wong whispered, still trying to halt his wounds' bleeding with his telekinesis. He felt as if he was becoming weaker by the second, probably due to having been fighting Phobos for so long and now being stabbed without being in his transformed state. Next he tried to call upon his magic in order to cast a spell, but his body and the pain it was going through betrayed him. "I gave you… everything you have…"

"Unfortunately for you, Wong;" Miranda told him, her blue eyes shining with pride as Roberta positioned herself at the spider's side; "I promised her much more."

"You impudent…" Wong began, but then he coughed a small amount of blood over the floor. "Ugh… I won't be defeated by such…" He coughed again. "Gan, Ren…"

"Enough!" Phobos yelled, unleashing a magic beam towards Wong as he did so, using every bit of the energy he still had inside. Unable to block or evade the attack, Wong was hit by its full force. "You are nothing but a traitor now, Wong. And the only destiny that awaits traitors is death!"

Before the wounded Prince could deliver the finishing blow, Wong extracted a small vial from his robes that contained a dark and purple liquid, and smashed it against the ground. The result was a large could of dark purple and dark blue smoke surrounding Wong, only his words lingering in the air when the cloud dissipated.

"This does not… end here…"

Phobos practically roared upon seeing the man that had been arrogant and stupid enough to defy him flee, especially after the humiliation he had subjected him to. Roberta contemplated the scene serious and stoically, as she always did. As for Miranda, she was still smirking, feeling proud of herself.

Wong had been badly injured, but he wasn't going to die anytime soon; after all she had explicitly told Roberta to not inflict any fatal wound in the Archmage, just to hurt him enough to force him to use… _certain_ escape route.

 _And everything goes according to plan_ , Miranda thought, delighted.

* * *

 ** _The castle's walls; several minutes later_**

"Tracker has escaped?" Lothar asked to Frost, the brute tending to Crimson's wounds.

"I don't know who that monster was in life," Frost told the Captain, "but the bastard's got several tricks up his sleeve now. That hound of his is stronger than what'd seem at first glance."

Lothar looked around himself, inspecting the battlefield. Due to the Lurdens throwing away their weapons as soon as whatever sorcery that was clouding their minds had disappeared, his men were having no problem with them. They all talked about a white-haired demon that had bewitched them.

It was the group of eight young ones that was giving them the most trouble, since all of them ignored where they were, what they were doing, and why they were doing it. Some were yelling, some others were crying. At least they weren't transforming and causing a ruckus. He would talk with them personally later. Right now...

"Frost," Lothar addressed the brute, the Captain taking his helmet off; "maintain some order around here. I'm going to the palace to see if I can learn what happened here."

"Are you sure that's a good idea?" the brown Galhot inquired. "Phobos could very well be behind this and you know he could kill you with ease." Frost paused for several seconds. "It's your life you're risking, though;" the brute added, more talking to himself than to Lothar.

"I know," Lothar told the rhinoceros rider. "But I need to get to the bottom of this."

* * *

 ** _Inside of the castle_**

Back at the throne room, Phobos was silently contemplating the debris that had, mere minutes ago, been his throne. Thorny vines were wraped around his legs, and lines of whitish energy could be seen on them, traversing from the ground and into the Prince, slowly healing the wounds Daolon Wong had inflicted on him. Miranda and Roberta stood behind him, the spider-girl saying something to which the Prince was paying little to no attention, his mind focused in what ot perceived as more important matters.

Wong's words about none of his servants being really loyal to him echoed within his head, his paranoid thoughts feeding on them. If Wong (and by extension the Tracker) were traitors, then who else could? When he had taken the throne, he had know he would have to face this kind of thing sooner or later. Enemies! Enemies all around him! That had been his mindset for the last years. Enemies in every place! Perhaps... nearer than he had first thought?

"Miranda," Phobos called for the raven haired girl.

"And that was when I enlisted Roberta's help…" Miranda was saying when she heard the Prince calling her name. "Yes, my lord?"

"Bring me Cedric," Phobos commanded without even dedicating a glance to the Shapeshifter.

"My lord?"

"Didn't you hear me, Miranda?" Phobos asked, moving his injured yet healing shoulder a bit. "Or do I have to repeat myself? Bring Cedric to my presence," Phobos said harshly, sparks of Raw Magic dancing in his eyes. "I wish to know… what exactly he was doing during this whole ordeal."

* * *

 ** _A path in a gloomy forest near the Capital_**

Wong materialized himself in the same cloud of dark purple and dark blue smoke he had used to escape the throne room. The twisted tree root he used as a magic wand fell to the ground as Wong fell on his knees. The power of the Rooster Talisman was doing a fantastic job keeping him from bleeding out considering its powers weren't based at all around the idea of healing. Alas, it was no Horse; and Daolon Wong knew for a fact that none of his spells were dedicated to heal either.

Defeated, he had been defeated! Months of carefully planning ruined by the actions of two inconsequential children! One of them being nothing but rabble until he had found her! He had had everything in his palm just a moment ago! Phobos, Meridian, its Heart… everything he had ever wanted! But now here he was, kneeled in the dirt, gasping for air and badly injured, Phobos still alive and the Horn of Hypnos lost. He also ignored where Tracker was, but considering all the Lurdens must have turned against him when the Horn had been destroyed, the dark Chi Wizard didn't harbor much hope for his friend's wellbeing.

 _I won't let this… to stop me…_ the wrinkled old man thought, I am still… Daolon Wong. I will triumph over all… in the end… "Cedric!" the Wizard called for the Shapeshifter. Where was that bastardly snake-man? This as the escape route he had told him he would be at if things went wrong! "Cedric, where are you?!"

"I'm here, Daolon Wong;" the lord's voice came from the shadows of the forest, sounding mostly human, but also hissing a bit.

"And he is not alone;" another voice joined in, one that the Dark Chi Wizard wasn't expecting, but that he nonetheless recognized.

From the woods came Cedric, dressed in his greenish robes. Accompanying him was a man of similar height, still dressed in the attire of an earthling, black curls decorating his head and a wooden hand replacing the one he had lost. The pair halted mere meters away from Wong, looking at the fallen Archmage.

"Charles… Ludmoore?" Wong asked, surprised to see the man here. His shock did nothing but increase when, contrary to what Ludmoore had everyone accustomed to, the King Smuggler smiled.

"Hello, Archmage Wong;" the man said. "Or should I call you just Wong? I don't think you will be able to retain your title from now on;" Charles declared, chuckling a bit. His smile widened as he bowed his head towards the Dark Chi Wizard. "Surprise."

Wong's eyes jumped from Charles to Cedric and back to Charles. Seeing the pair smiling smugly at him, and the word the King Smuggler had said to him being the same as Miranda had used… Wong's mind, even if clouded by pain, was able to connect the dots. Then his surprised expression turned into a frown.

"You," Daolon Wong hissed. "You are behind all this!" The Wizard coughed a bit of blood after shouting. "You planned all this…"

"Well, not _exactly_ all of it;" Charles said casually, the golden dot in his black sclera shinning a bit. "Just the general idea. Using Roberta in this little ploy was actually something that Miranda suggested, and the results speak for themselves!" Charles said happily, gesturing towards Wong.

"Don't you dare… mock me…" Wong said, half angry with the businessman and half disturbed by his behavior.

"Mock you?" Charles asked, laughing a bit afterwards. "Daolon Wong, I'm here to save you. Luckily for you, I'm quite versed in healing spells, which is something that can't be said about you, it seems. And I'm feeling quite generous, so…" Charles extended his wooden hand as his lips curved into a confident smile. "Want to make a deal?"

"Deal? You… you have the nerve to offer me a deal? Do you think I'm as stupid as to fall for that?!" the wounded Wong spoke, eyes flaring up. "It is your doing that I'm in this situation! Yours and that Shapeshifter's," he said, gesturing towards Cedric with his head; "who clearly works for you."

"With me, he works _with_ me, not _for_ me;" Charles corrected him. "There is a difference. See, I don't pay him, so…"

"Enough of this!" Wong yelled, flinching due to the pain. "I won't be… forced into a deal with you…"

"Really?" Charles inquired. "What other options does he have, Cedric?"

"Dying," the Shapeshifter lord told the other man. "Sooner or later you will lose concentration due to the pain, and then your wounds will open and you will bleed to death." The blond man tilted his head, eyes narrowed and an arrogant smile on his face. "And you don't want to die, do you Wong? You would be dead already if that was the case."

"So you see, you _are_ going to accept the deal;" Charles said, holding his hand out again. "What other option you have?"

Wong didn't say anything for the next seconds. These two manipulators were right, he would probably die with these wounds in the moment he stopped using the power of the Noble Rooster. And besides, what stopped him from killing them both once the deal was done? "What kind of deal?"

Charles' smile grew. "Well, the most basic of them. Payment in exchange for a service. I will heal your wounds, and in exchange you will give me anything I want from you. No refunds, so you won't be taking it back. Heck, I even promise not to harm you in any way afterwards. Are we clear?"

"We are," Wong said, telekinetically clutching his wounds while extending one of his long-nailed hands towards Ludmoore. The businessman, in turn, grew more serious.

"Do you swear?" the eldest Ludmoore inquired. "Do you give your word as a Chi Wizard that in return for healing you, you shall give whatever I ask of you, and never ask for it in return? Do you swear on your life and magic to keep truthful to that oath?"

Wong was growing frustrated. The huge amount of pain, which was also growing, didn't help either. "Yes! I swear!"

Ludmoore's lips turned into a grin that could have put the Cheshire Cat's to shame. "Then it's a DEAL!"

Charles used his wooden hand to clasp Wong's flesh one, and then the Dark Chi Wizard felt how Ludmoore's magic entered in his body, making his wounds to stop bleeding and closing them. He felt relief upon feeling the pain go away. _Yes, yes…_ he thought. _Ludmoore, you greedy fool. I don't know what you planned obtaining from me with this, but in the moment you finish healing me, I will kill you both! If I could best Phobos once, I can do so twice. Yes, nothing has changed! I will… What?!_

Wong was feeling a new sensation now. Charles Ludmoore's magic was receding, ready to exit his body, but in the last second it had violently taken hold of something within Wong. Looking up at the face of the man of the strange eyes, the Dark Chi Wizard saw him smiling triumphantly.

"Then, as payment for my services;" Charles told him; "and in order to stay truthful to our agreement… I will be taking every bit of Chi Magic you have and make it mine!"

Wong screamed as both his and Charles' bodies became coated in the latter's dark blue Raw Magic. His pain, however, wasn't physical anymore, but of the soul. Ludmoore's magic was tearing the Dark Chi Wizard's spirit apart, cutting him from his magic abilities and ripping them from his very being. Wong could feel it all painfully going away; from his most basic abilities to the ones he had spent several lifetimes achieving, to even the powers of the Noble Rooster and Noble Pig. The vortex of purplish energy from inside his twisted root disappeared, three balls of smoke exiting it and approaching Ludmoore's wooden hand, entering it. As Wong's powers were transmitted from his body to Ludmoore's, the latter's prosthetic hand began to crack, and in the cracks the same dark purplish vortex that had once be seen in Wong's wand could be seen there. When the process ended, Wong fell into the ground, powerless.

As for Charles, he shrieked as he clenched his prosthetic hand, surprised that he could move it now. The businessman tumbled a bit and then exhaled a small amount of purple smoke from his mouth. He rolled his right sleeve up, just to see how his prosthetic hand seemed to have merged with his flesh.

"Holly shit!" Ludmoore exclaimed, breathing rapidly. "Holly shit!" he repeated, laughing afterwards. "I don't know how you could keep all this inside you without burning up, Wong! Woohooo!"

"Charles?" a worried Cedric asked of his brother, putting a hand on his shoulder.

"Sorry, sorry;" Charles told the blond man, regaining his composure. "I was caught in the moment. But, everything has fallen into place." He looked at his two hands, now able to move the both of them. His eyes gleamed with the golden fire of the power of the Pig Talisman, and he made a chunk of the ground to levitate with power of the Rooster Talisman. "Telekinesis and eye-beams without consuming any stamina," a circular and fanged mouth opened in his left palm, "and the ability to consume the chi of others. Now those are some interesting pluses to this. But first and foremost, I have now the ability to use both Chi Magic and Raw Magic at the same time!"

"What… what did you do to me?!" a healed, enraged and depowered Wong yelled at Charles as he incorporated with great effort. Taking one of his hands to his chest, the depowered Dark Chi Wizard gasped in horror as he felt… nothing. Nothing at all. All his power, his magic had disappeared, taken from his very being. The ancient elder seemed in the verge of suffering an attack. "I… how… My… My power! Give it back, you bastard!"

"I told you, didn't I?" Ludmoore said, rolling his sleeve back down and adjusting his suit. "No refunds."

"You… Gan, Ren, Chui!" Wong yelled, but nothing happened.

"Oh, you mean _these_ Gan, Ren and Chui?" Ludmoore asked, three balls of smoke coming out his wooden hand and materializing in front of Wong as his now former Dark Chi warriors, already armed with their weapons. Judging by Ludmoore's smug smile, he was delighted. "Seems that they are of my property now. Do you want to see what happens if I order them to attack as much as I do? Do you think that they retain any kind of loyalty?"

Albeit it was hard to tell considering his albinism, Wong seemed to pale. Seeing this, Charles chuckled and waved his right hand.

"Go away," he told his newly acquired Dark Chi warriors, who proceeded to disappear in the same way they had appeared. Then the eldest Ludmoore moved his wooden fingers. "I still find astounding that your powers did this to me. Dark Chi Magic really is something else, isn't it?" _I will have to practice as much as I can, but the first step has been given_ ; Charles thought. _If Nimue gets in my way again, I will be prepared_.

"This is ridiculous!" Wong yelled, taking his now completely normal twisted root from the ground just to toss it away moments after. "How could you steal my magic?!"

"Magic has rules, Wong;" Charles told the former Wizard. "Rules that are very strongly tied to the oaths one swears, and the wording of said oaths. You swore that you would give me whatever I asked of you... and I asked for your magic. You should have phrased it better."

"That only applies to Raw Magic!" Wong protested.

"I actually met a woman that could use both Raw and Chi Magic not very long ago;" Charles cleared out. "I was as surprised as you are now, but after a little investigation I discovered, much like she kindly explained to me, that both types of magic boil down to the same primal energy. Which means they both must follow similar rules. You should be as grateful to her for this situation as you are to me."

"But..." Wong muttered, the realization that he had willingly given up his power without knowing it finally setting in. The ex-Wizard seemed devastated. "But that means... without my magic, my gift, I'm nothing but..."

"Simple rabble?" Cedric was the one to talk now, earning himself a glare from Wong. "Careful, old man. I think you are no match for me anymore."

"Now, now, Cedric;" Charles told his brother, "don't need to rub salt on the wound anymore. I have what I needed, and both of us have more important things to do;" Charles said, turning around, Cedric following in his footsteps. "Good bye, Mr. Wong."

"Wha-What do you think you are doing?" Daolon Wong inquired to the pair of men. "You cannot leave me here, powerless!"

"I believe I can," Charles said seriously, spinning around to look at Wong one last time. "It was part of our deal that I would let you alive on top of healing you, and I'm a man of my word. You are unharmed and healed. Since our deal didn't mention anything about transport, I can leave you here. Besides, think about it for a second;" Charles said while putting one hand over Cedric's shoulder; "what could you possibly do to me now, Daolon Wong?"

As the buzzing and green flash of a teleportation blinded him for a second and took Charles and Cedric away; Daolon Wong stared incredulously at his hands. His pale, old and wrinkled hands that now had nothing remarkable about them barring his very long nails. He called for his magic one last time; hoping that Ludmoore had committed an error and left some trace of his power behind that could , but the action was fruitless. He had everything in his hands moments ago... now he had nothing. Of course, his first thought was of revenge.

But what revenge could he pursue like this? He was powerless! No, no, wait. Now... now he knew! Ludmoore, Cedric and Miranda were working together!

Could he go to the Rebellion with this information? Not likely. They would kill him on sight. Perhaps the Prince...? Wong laughed sarcastically at that. The only difference between the Prince and the rebels would be that the former would torture him to insanity before killing him.

The ex-Wizard took a couple of steps forward. Feeling weak, he leaned against the trunk of a tree. Any trace of tiredness and pain was gone, but he felt numb. Before now he had always felt his magic within him, a burning force driving him forward. Now there was... nothing. Just an empty and unnatural hole. Gone, everything he had worked so hard for... gone.

The old man took three more steps. He knew the Prince wouldn't wait too long before sending his lapdogs after him. He took another couple of steps. He clenched his fists. In powerlessness and frustration, Daolon Wong did the only thing he could.

Scream.

* * *

 ** _Across the Veil; Chan flat, at the same time_**

Meanwhile on Earth, Uncle Chan was preparing himself a mung bean sandwich in his family's rented flat. He had been making calls all day, making sure his shop back in San Francisco was good and well. The people he had talked with on the phone had told him again and again that, in case the alarm was rang, they would immediately inform him about it; but Uncle wanted to be sure his antique shop was safe. To be sincere, a part of him missed his life in San Francisco, and he knew he would have to go back sooner or later; once the problems in Meridian and with the Oni had been solved. However, taking Jade back to San Francisco and away from her new friends pained his old heart, plus there was the fact that his nephew had already acquired a new job on Heatherfield… Yes, with each day that passed it became clearer and clearer to the elder that the only ones going back to San Francisco would be Tohru and him.

Not wanting to trouble his mind anymore with those thoughts, Uncle put his mug bean sandwich on a plate and headed towards the living room, where Tohru was trying to find anything that could give them a clue towards the three key ingredients to remove the last three Oni Masks. He knew there wasn't a big chance that they could find anything without the help from the Hana Fuda, but it was worth a try.

It was there, in his way to the living room, that he felt it.

A shiver ran through his entire being, making him to freeze in his tracks. The plate with the sandwich fell to the ground and broke, mug beans spilling all over the floor. Uncle breathed rapidly as he leaned against the nearest wall with one arm, the other over his chest. He heard Tohru's heavy footsteps as the sumo came to him.

"Sensei?" the mountain of a man asked of the elder, helping him towards the living room, where he made Uncle to sit down in the couch. "Sensei, what's wrong? Are you having the willies?"

"Yes, but Uncle never has had them as strong as now;" the Chi Wizard told the sumo, adjusting his tiny glasses. "Uncle doesn't know what it is, apprentice;" the elder said, giving Tohru a concerned look; "but something veeeeeeery bad has happened, is happening, or is going to happen."

Or perhaps it was all three of those?

* * *

 ** _Several days later_**

 ** _China_**

Finding a Portal had been the most difficult part, especially considering how many people must have been pursuing him. But once it had been done and Daolon Wong had found himself back on Earth, it had been all a matter of finding the appropriate ingredients and preparing the appropriate potion. Ludmoore may have stolen his magic and the powers he had obtained from two Talismans… but he still had his knowledge! Knowledge that had allowed him to craft another vial of potion in order to teleport himself… here.

The centuries had been surprisingly kind to this castle, the edification not only still standing but actually very well conserved, with few little cracks in its walls, floor or ceiling and a very little amount of dust over the furniture. Walking through the empty and silent corridors brought the possibility that this building may be empty to the depowered wizard's mind. He hoped he was wrong about that. This was an incredibly risky move, after all. But what other options did he have?

Going back to Meridian as he was now would be suicide, even if it had pained him to leave Tracker behind to whatever fate awaited him in that world. But priorities were priorities, and for the depowered wizard his own wellbeing was the greatest of them all, even if in order to save himself he had to leave a man he had called friend behind.

After some searching, he finally found what he had been looking for in one of the rooms in the upper floor. It was a coffin, a black coffin to be precise, highly ornamented too, lying on the center of a dark room with no windows. Wong approached it and, after fighting back some doubts, he pushed the coffin's top aside, opening it.

What the coffin contained made Wong scared and relieved at the same time. Inside the coffin was a cadaveric and incredibly old-looking… humanoid creature. Skin gray as ash and so little muscle mass in his body that you could notice the shape of his bones under the skin, was a sleeping Jiangshi.

The sleeping part was quickly tossed aside, though, when the chi vampire suddenly opened his blind eyes and shot upwards in an erratic movement. Landing just in front of the coffin, the skeletal chi vampire sniffed the air, localizing Wong via sense of smell. The depowered wizard found himself fearful that the creature's first instincts would be devouring his old chi, but the Jiangshi seemed to have recognized him.

"Ah, my old friend from the old times;" the Jiangshi spoke, voice raspy, soft and tired; surely not used in a long time. "I can feel that there is something… different about you."

"It is," Wong told the chi vampire. "I come to you here, defeated and humbled;" the depowered wizard said, kneeling down. Even though the Jiangshi couldn't see him, Wong wasn't wearing his robes anymore, instead wearing some dirtied rags, surely a means to disguise himself; "and I come, asking a favor. The offer you made me so many centuries ago… is it still valid?"

The Jiangshi listened to Wong's words, sniffing the air afterwards. "You speak about me transforming you into a fully fledged Jiangshi," the vampire spoke. "Have you rethought my offer? Do you wish to accept it? Though I sense that you have lost much, your ambition still burns strongly within your darkened soul."

The Jiangshi extended a long nailed grey hand towards Wong, materializing a ball of grey chi energy on it. "If you were to consume this, you would slowly turn into a Jiangshi of your own. No more walking on the sunlight, no more of the pleasures of mortal men. I would teach you our ways… and though my species has grown weaker and less in number in the centuries, with your assistance, ambition and knowledge you and I will find a way to… make a place for my kind in this new world. But make no mistake, until you grow and blossom, until you learn and pass your trials… ours shall not be a relationship of equals. You shall become to me as a child to a father, and shall address me with respect and obedience. Is that what you wish? Are you willing to do that?"

Wong extended his hands towards the ball of grey chi the Jiangshi had generated within his grey palm and took it in his own. "I do," the depowered wizard answered, and upon seeing the Jiangshi made a gesture, he consumed the ball of grey chi by using his mouth. The energy reached his stomach in a matter of seconds, and then it started to spread through his entire being.

What was another defeat for a survivor like Wong? He had rose stronger after every defeat, why should this one be any different? He would adapt, he would learn new ways of conquering his enemies. Then he would have his revenge. And even if it became a world of undead, then he would have the world too.

"I wish to learn," Wong told the emaciated Jiangshi as he bowed his head even more. Then he added one more word to that sentence; "Shifu."

* * *

 _A saying goes: 'Power corrupts and Absolute Power corrupts absolutely'. While I don't think that phrase to be wrong, I would say something different. Power doesn't necessarily corrupt. It can also just magnify what was already inside of the person it's given to. It makes the good better… and the bad, worse._ Tohru

* * *

 **Author Notes: This was the first and probably only episode barring the specials not having any scene with our protagonists. While I will try not to do so again, this was Wong's chapter, from his beginnings to his development over the years to his fall. And it was a headache to make all the dates to make sense! And oh look, The Starscream got Starscreamed! Readers keeping tracks of things must have already figured it out before this, but for those who hadn't… Miranda mentally compares Roberta to Cedric in chapter 8, so she betraying Wong here makes sense, having been offered a better deal by the spider-girl. Chapter 10 has Charles ordering Cedric to start deceiving Wong after realizing (thanks to his fight with Nimue in chapter 9, when she stomped him) that Raw and Chi Magic have more in common that what others think. Not wanting to learn it the slow way, Charles simply tricks Wong into giving him his magic. As for the fate of the Horn of Hypnos, you can actually see Elyon reading a book that describes how to destroy it in Chapter 22, that book being in Miranda's private chambers. So, yeah; it was all planned since long ago. Charles is considerably stronger now, Wong's gonna be a chi vampire. And if you think the Phobos y'all have seen until now was crazy, wait till next chapter. Anyway, I'm glad to finally take this chapter out of my head. I'm gonna focus in my Batman and Hellraiser crossover next, so see you all around the last weeks of August with this story.**

 **Hope you enjoyed, sorry for the long notes, and please leave a review.**


	25. The Enemy of my Enemy

**Disclaimer: I own neither the WITCH cartoon-show nor Jackie Chan Adventures; they are the property of their respective creators, writers, and producers.**

 **A/N: Greetings once again, dear readers. Long time not seeing each other, right? Life's been kinda complicated these last months, but I won't bore y'all with the details. Also, the huge amount of writer's block I had in order to get this chapter out hasn't helped. Anyway, good news! As this 25th chapter is published, in 2018, this little tale of mine has surpassed the 200 reviews! Yay! To all of you there, at the other side of the screen, thank you for taking some of your life's time and dedicating it to read what I write. After saying that, another piece of information for you all: Counting this chapter we've got 7 chapters left until the first season finale. And having said that, let's get to the chapter. Please, enjoy your read.**

* * *

Guardians, Wizards and Kung-Fu Fighters

Episode Twenty five

The Enemy of my Enemy

* * *

 ** _Meridian, a forest's clearing; midday_**

Forests always produced a dichotomic effect on Captain Lothar. A part of him, the one that was just a meridianite man and that had once been a boy that used to sneak away from his parents to run and play near the trees... that part of him loved forests. He loved the mix of aromas that came from the trees, flowers and other types of vegetation. He loved the tranquility that the silence of forests provided, only broken by the birds' chirping and the noises of other animals.

The part of him that was a soldier, however, disliked them. This was not out of some petty reason, but because he found forests as the perfect terrain for small groups of enemies (be it bandits or rebels) to perpetrate sneak attacks upon him or his men. This clearing in particular, where Lothar was sitting atop a large rock, was the perfect spot to get ambushed. However, he knew he was safe. The Rebellion had ditched their skirmishes-based tactics ever since their triumph at Torus Filney, after all.

It had been a few hours since he had sent the platoons that he had taken from the Capital out to scout this area. They would be back soon, he hoped. Light of Meridian, it was hot... As the wind blew and Lothar swept a drop of sweat away from his brow, he closed his eyes and let his mind to go back to the Capital and the palace...

* * *

 ** _The royal palace; several days ago_**

Captain Lothar walked into the throne room's direction. Around him, he only saw the devastation the last battle had inflicted upon the corridors and halls of the castle, with Lurdens carrying the corpses of their deceased brethren in order to give them a proper burial. The Captain knew now of the reason behind the attack of those Lurdens and Shapeshifters, all of them having been previously placed under the power of a spell that controlled their minds and forced them to act against their will. But who had casted that spell?

Archmage Daolon Wong. That had been the name some of the Lurdens and still terrified servants in the castle's hallways had given him. And that was the name of the man that Lothar now knew responsible for the madness that had befallen the Capital just a few hours ago, a man that had apparently disappeared after his failed attempt to kill Prince Phobos and take the throne for himself.

 _Pity they didn't kill each other_ , Lothar thought as he walked in the throne room's direction.

Would that have solved anything, though? Lothar doubted the Rebellion would stop its advance and let the nobles and the Princess take control of the realm peacefully if Phobos were not to die by their hands. And would the Princess desire to take the throne peacefully if her brother was killed? Or would she rather burn Meridian down with her almighty power in order to avenge her sibling? Truth to be told, Lothar knew nothing about Elyon Escanor. He knew nothing of how she was or what she wanted for this world.

The Captain of the Guard shook his head, fastening his walk. As he approached the entrance that led to the throne room, now without any door, and crossed it he reminded himself that there were more important matters at hand and that he should let those questions to leave his mind.

What he saw inside the throne room made that a lot easier than he had first thought.

Phobos' throne room wasn't exactly the most welcoming of rooms within the castle, and the Thorn Throne was called that for a very good reason. However, you could still identify it as a throne room. The chamber Lothar had entered in, however, had more in common with something out of the nightmares of some depraved mind than with an actual throne room.

The only remains of the old throne room were the cracked floor and ceiling, and the throne itself, also cracked and looking slightly deformed; as if it had been broken down to pieces and then reformed with little care. The rest of the room was now composed of thorns and vines; some of them thin and some others thicker than the thickest of trees. They sprouted from the ground and covered all the room's walls and windows, just to converge at both the throne's top and bottom. And the most terrifying part? They were moving, reminding Lothar more of the appendages of the few octopi he had seen in his life than of actual vines.

The occupants of the room were what shocked him the most. The one he had been expecting to encounter, Prince Phobos Escanor, clearly bruised and hurt, clothes torn apart in several places and hair messy and dirty. He was holding a short and golden scepter in his right hand, and one of the thorny vines was wrapped around his waist. At one side of the throne room stood a Lurden, possibly there to report for the actions of his controlled brethren. At the opposite one stood Lady Miranda, doing her best to conceal a worrying expression behind a cold one. She wasn't making a lot of success. And kneeling on the ground was no other than Lord Cedric, dressed in his greenish robes… and practically groveling at the Prince's feet.

"My liege," the Snake of Cavigor said, head bowed down; "you must believe me. What reason would I have…?"

Before Cedric had time to finish his question, Phobos pointed the golden scepter towards him and unleashed a torrent of lightning that struck the Shapeshifter and made him scream in pain and agony. "Then where were you, Lord Cedric, MY Shapeshifter?!" Phobos shrieked. "Where were you when the traitors tried to dispose of me, where were you when chaos had taken over my palace?!" Phobos seemingly calmed down, but his eyes still shined with wrath. "Perhaps you have been aiding Wong in secret all this time, and the reason you didn't show up at all, was so you could easily claim victory alongside whoever of the two of us became victorious, just like the _filthy_ snake you are."

"I always have been loyal to you! I always will be!" Cedric was able to proclaim over more screams. "I was trapped, I swear! Lady Miranda and the Lurdens can tell you!"

Phobos stopped the lightning, giving a side glance to the Lurden. "Is that true?" the Prince asked. He had asked of the barbarian, of course. Very little was known of Lady Miranda before she started to serve under the Prince, but Lothar knew for a fact that she had first entered into the palace guided by Cedric's hand.

"It's true," the Lurden answered carefully in his growling voice, fearing that the next round of lightning would be for him. "We found the Lord in a cell, trapped in chains with wicked purple magic, just like the pale demon's."

Phobos narrowed his eyes first at the Lurden, then at Cedric. On the ground, the Shapeshifter gasped for air, a hand over his chest. Slowly, he raised his head to look at the Prince in the eye. "My lord, please think about it;" the Snake said, using the most powerful weapon he could employ, words. "Why would I want to betray you who raised me from the task of a mere prison warden to the one of a Lord? And even if I did, why wouldn't I do it sooner? Why not… give the Princess to the Guardians and the rebels in exchange of a pardon and a seat in their new regime?"

Lothar could see how Cedric's words were having a clear effect on the Prince, the latter lowering his scepter after a few moments. The Captain, however, wasn't so convinced. Cedric was known for his manipulations, and after a few words with Lady Galiene, she had told the Captain that Servantis had always blamed some of Phobos' most reckless actions (such as the one of invading Zamballa before the Veil was raised) as a result of Cedric talking him into doing so. Could it be that the Prince was right in his last accusation? That Cedric had played Wong and Phobos against one another in order to side with the victor and obtain more power?

"You are free to go," Phobos declared, gesturing towards both Cedric and Miranda, the spider quickly coming to the snake's side as soon as the Prince spoke, and helping him to come to his feet. "Tell that falcon Shapeshifter that she will be given the same rank as you two, and all the privileges that come with it."

"Very well, my lord;" Miranda was the one to answer. "As for the other Shapeshifters Wong produced…"

"Kill them," Phobos interrupted Miranda, who alongside Cedric and Lothar, looked at the Prince with a shocked expression.

"My lord…" Cedric muttered. "Surely there is a better use we could give…"

"They were used against me," Phobos said bitterly, turning his back to the two Changelings. "I want them dead, especially the four ones that dared to attack me directly. I want them all dead, I want that traitor Wong's laboratory burnt down to ashes, I want his and Tracker's heads on spikes, and I want it NOW!"

 _But they are just children_ , a horrified Lothar thought. _They aren't even from this world. You have no right!_

Phobos, meanwhile, glared at the pair of Shapeshifters over his shoulders. "Don't tempt my patience now, Cedric. Do as I command, or I swear I will put the tradition of skinning Shapeshifters alive of this world to practice on you two. Now… leave." Phobos eyes fell over Lothar then, and the Captain couldn't avoid shivering at that look. "I wish to speak with the Captain of my Guard… alone."

"As you wish," were the last words Cedric said before he and Miranda left the room.

As the pair of Shapeshifters passed by his side (without dedicating so much as a glance towards him), Lothar advanced forward. By the time he reached the center of the throne room, Phobos was back on his throne. Light of Meridian, the words Thorn Throne suited it much better now...

"Captain..." Phobos said, letting the scepter to simply fall from his hand. Lothar doubted he needed to sit on the throne anymore, as the vine that was wrapped around his waist seemed to be supplying him with energy, but the Captain supposed the Prince wanted to leave clear who was the one in control. "Tell me..." Phobos winced slightly after saying that, rubbing his shoulder. "Agh... report! Where were you and the Guard when Wong attacked?!"

"Prince Phobos," Lothar said using a voice as humble and loyal as he could use with someone like the Escanor Prince. As he spoke, he kneeled. "The Guard was protecting the palace and the rest of the Capital from Wong's army, as it is its duty."

"A duty you have failed to accomplish," Phobos accused Lothar in a harsh and angry tone, "seeing how those conspirators were able to get so close to me!" Phobos took one of his hands to his straw blond hair, taking a small rock from it. "Was Tracker apprehended, at least?"

"No, my lord;" Lothar answered. The words 'my lord' felt like ashes on his throat. "He escaped."

"Same as Wong, then;" Phobos lamented, hatefully pronouncing the name of the former Archmage. "I want platoons of the Guard searching for them day and night. It doesn't matter how far away you must go or for how long you must search, but I want them captured and delivered at my feet!"

"My lord, with all due respect;" Lothar said then, rising to his feet; "the Guard is needed in the Capital. The Rebellion gets closer to the Meridian Plains with every day that passes, and if they defeat the nobility's army there, the Capital will be their next target. We can't leave the commoners unprotected. You can't expect me…"

"I can't, Captain Lothar?" Phobos asked in a calm and dangerous tone. He rose from his throne and walked towards the Lurden, who trembled nervously as the Prince approached him, yet didn't move. Phobos stared at the Lurden, and then turned his head around to look at Lothar. "I can't?"

Before Lothar had any time to react, Phobos turned his head once again, this time far more violently, and gripped the Lurden's neck with both hands. With a primal and furious yell, the Prince started to siphon the barbarian's life-force. As for the Lurden warrior, he couldn't even scream, instead standing powerless and afraid as the Prince took every bit of life that was inside of him. Once he was done, Phobos threw him at the ground, where the Captain could see how the Lurden, of burgundy skin and muscled body in life, had been reduced to a grey, skinny, wrinkled and lifeless husk.

"I believe I can, Captain;" Phobos declared, walking towards a horrified Lothar (stepping over the Lurden's corpse while doing so) and stopping just a meter away from the Captain. Lothar hadn't noticed it, but his hand had instinctively moved towards his sword, albeit he doubted his trusted blade could be of any use against the Prince and his magic. "You and the Guard will fall in line, you all will obey me, or I will do the same thing I just did to this Lurden to every man, every woman, every child and elder of this city! Am I clear, Captain Lothar?!"

Lothar's eyes fell over the corpse of the Lurden as Phobos spoke. For a second, he thought about unsheathing his sword and fighting Phobos right there and then, even if it was in exchange of his own life. But then Lothar's mind changed the shape of the Lurden to the one of an innocent man, then to the one of an innocent woman, and last to one he knew all too well. The one of Tash, Tynar's son.

He then looked into the Prince eyes and saw madness reigning over fury and hatred. It was clear to Lothar from that look alone that Wong's betrayal and failed coup, together with the fact that the wizard and the Tracker were still out there, hadn't had a positive effect over the Prince's already deteriorated mind. He would really do it, without hesitation. He would remorselessly kill every peasant that crossed his way just to punish the Guard.

Knowing that not playing the part of the obedient soldier would result in disaster, Lothar bowed to Phobos. "As clear as crystal, my Prince;" he said.

"Excellent," Phobos said, calming down and starting to turn around. "You may leave... what?"

"My lord?" Lothar, already preparing himself to leave the throne room, inquired.

"You just told me..." Phobos muttered, a dumbfounded expression on his face. "You... what?" he whispered, looking at his side. The thorny vine around his waist started to supply him with more energy, and Phobos' confusion seemed to grow momentarily before his expression returned to a stoic one. "Nothing. Leave me now, Captain." Phobos' eyes narrowed one last time. "And do not fail."

* * *

 ** _Now_**

Lothar opened his eyes, his sight taking a few seconds to accommodate itself to the light of the day again. He descended from the rock he was sitting over, walking away from it and towards the clearing's border, where he leaned against a tree. He didn't need to wait a lot longer before one of his Sergeants, a Galhot that looked way older than him, emerged from the woods.

"Anything?" Lothar inquired.

"Nothing, sir;" the guard answered. "No signs of the undead or the wizard, at least in the woods." The Sergeant paused for a moment before speaking again. "If ya' asked me, sir... we're just losin' our time. Wong's a smart bastard, and the Tracker's got to know a lot more than us about these lands, if we go by the legends. We won't be findin' them so easily."

"I know, Sergeant;" Lothar told his underling. He knew too well that, albeit letting Wong and Tracker to remain at large was dangerous, both wizard and undead lacked the means to become an imminent threat. But what to do, then? Phobos grew madder with every new day, the Rebellion grew mightier in turn (and frankly, a part of Lothar was starting to take the possibility of the nobility being unable to defeat them as something far more likely to happen than before), and according to some of the servants inside the castle Phobos had ordered an attack over the home of Charles Ludmoore, the King Smuggler escaping and possibly on Meridian already, with an army of spies at his disposal and surely wanting to enact revenge against the Prince. And to top it all Cedric may be playing them all for fools. His hand went to the leathery bracelet that little Tash had once made for the late Tynar. What to do, indeed?

"Sergeant," Lothar called. "Gather the rest; we are going back to the Capital."

"Sir?" the now confused guard asked. "But I thought the Prince ordered..."

"We are not here for the Prince," Lothar interrupted his interlocutor. "We are here for the people, and if I... we can't protect the Capital from the Prince or the rebels, then better make sure that no one can be harmed if the Capital is attacked."

"Sir?"

"We are going to take them out of it," Lothar declared, stopping leaning against the tree and looking at the sky. "All peasants, little by little, will be taken out of the Capital."

"To where?" the Sergeant wondered.

"To anywhere," Lothar declared. "Anywhere... where they can be safe."

* * *

 ** _Across the Veil; the remnants of Villa Ludmoore; night_**

Villa Ludmoore had once been a sight to behold. The old and beautifully built manor presiding over the fields of blue roses was able to inspire some emotion even in the souls of the most stonehearted of people. Now, however, that sight was lost. The explosion of the manor had created enough heat and a shockwave strong enough to trash the entire villa. And thus, the blue roses were no more.

During the days that followed the manor's explosion Heatherfield's Police Department had conducted an intense investigation in order to discern the causes of the explosion and what had happened to Charles Ludmoore, the (at the time) only occupant of the building. Albeit said investigation had yet to conclude, the police had settled for the theory that the manor had exploded due to a gas leakage, and that Charles Ludmoore had died as a result of that.

For the Guardians of Kandrakar and the Chan Clan, the five teenage winged girls clad in pink and greenish-blue flying across the night sky and the three Chans, Viper and Tohru on the ground; that theory wasn't all that satisfactory.

"Do you see something out of the ordinary?" Will asked as she stopped in midair.

"You mean besides the ruins of the manor that went ka-boom?" Irma asked as she stopped by Will's side, pointing to the remaining debris of the Ludmoore Manor, still to be fully cleaned by the excavators that were parked around. "Nothing much," the Water Guardian said, shrugging.

"Same here," Hay Lin told the redhead, halting at her other side. She jawned afterwards.

"Not seeing a lot doesn't help matters. Can't you make those bigger?" Will heard Cornelia's voice at her back, followed by Taranee's.

"You know we're supposed to not be calling attention, right?" the Fire Guardian said as she flew in front of Will, with Cornelia remaining behind. Around Taranee, several balls of fire the size of a grown man's fist were floating and providing them with some light.

Will overlooked the villa and destroyed manor as she listened to her friends. Just by the looks of it, it was easy to see why the police and the city hall had decided to go with the gas leakage theory. It was the most probable option... if you ignored what Charles Ludmoore did in his free time. However, having his dealings with both sides of the meridianite war in mind... well, let's just say that it made the gas leakage theory far from the best one.

"Let's get to the ground," Will told her team, the five teenagers slowly descending. Once they had landed, the Keeper of the Heart turned her head to look at the approaching Chan Clan. "Did you find something?"

"Nope," came Jade's voice, alongside the light of a flashlight that Jackie was carrying. "Couldn't sniff anything relevant. There're too many scents here, and they're mixed. Ash, burned flowers..." the black-haired Chan girl sniffed the air one more time; "and a bunch of people I don't know, who're probably from the police."

"Uncle, have you...?" Jackie began to ask of his elder, but the old Chinese man was quick to deliver a dope slap to his nephew's forehead, interrupting his question.

"Has Uncle said anything about completing his spell?" the old Chi Wizard inquired as he walked past Jackie, swinging his dried blowfish in the air. "Apprentice, help Uncle!"

"Yes, sensei;" Tohru said, carrying his own blowfish.

The sumo positioned himself at the old man's side, their blowfishes beginning to shine with green chi. They chanted 'Yu Mo Gui Gwai Fai Di Zao' several times, until the chi coating the blowfishes began to expand itself and it became a wall of green that then broke into several small balls of energy. Each ball then became of a different color, with the only one that was white becoming the brightest of them all. The balls proceeded then to disolve into sparks, the spell finished.

"So?" Viper asked. "What does that mean?"

"Uhm..." Uncle muttered. He then turned to face Cornelia. "Can Earth Guardian make a flower grow here?"

Without saying anything, Cornelia shot her arm downwards and made a pinkish rose to sprout from the ground. To her surprise, the rose began then to become blue, then black... and then began to burn in dark blue flames, until only ashes remained.

"Well that's... new;" a dumbfounded Cornelia said.

"Too much magic on the earth..." Uncle whispered, taking a hand to his wrinkled chin and rubbing it. He looked at the ruins of the manor once again. "There was a battle here, one in which a huge amount of Raw Magic was used..." Uncle narrowed his eyes; "and in which a Heart-wielder took part."

"Elyon was here?!" Cornelia shouted, knowing that it must have been her friend.

"It... makes sense," Taranee commented, adjusting her glasses. "Elyon should have enough power to do this. But why would she?"

"I bet Phobos convinced her to do so," Will suggested. "With Elyon and her power on his side, why keep a neutral party like Ludmoore around? It'd give him more problems than help."

"So... you think Ludmoore's really dead?" Irma wondered.

Looking first at the brunnette and then at the rest, Will proceeded to rub her eyes. "I don't know. I mean, he should be considering all this damage, but..."

"But you think someone like him would have thought about the possibility of being attacked," Jackie ended the phrase for her; "and have something planned in advance."

"Exactly," Will told the martial artist, dedicating one last look at the thrashed villa afterwards. "We aren't getting any valuable information from here. Let's get home, we need some rest."

* * *

 ** _A day later; Sheffield Institute; morning_**

Dean Collins had begun his days as a teacher in Sheffield with quite the enthusiasm. However, and like many teachers that were entrusted with teaching a class full of teenagers before him, Mr. Collins hadn't found the task to be easy. While his students were far away from being the perfect group of pupils, they were also far away from being the worst. The ones that actually wanted to learn something (or at least get a good grade) were always paying attention, and the ones that came to school just to pass the time or out of obligation were kind enough to not disturb the others.

And yet, as he stood in front of Wilhelmina Vandom's desk, looking at the sleeping redheaded girl, he couldn't avoid feeling a bit offended. He didn't ask much of these kids… but falling asleep during class was something that Dean Collins couldn't tolerate.

"Miss Vandom," Professor Collins called the girl's name, making her to move a little in her sleep. He noticed how Cornelia Hale was growing nervous a desk away from Will. "Miss Vandom," he called again, a little stronger. "Will!"

"W-What?!" the teen shouted as she was abruptly awakened. It took her several seconds to discern where she was and what she was doing, but as her brain took in what was happening, her cheeks grew as red as her hair. "Uh… sorry?" she said to Mr. Collins, who looked at her in disapproval.

"In my office," Mr. Collins told the teen with a sigh; "after classes."

Will groaned, but didn't say anything as the teacher turned his back towards her and walked away from her desk.

"Ha! Looks like someone just got some good old detention time," Will heard a bratty and arrogant voice from the end of the class. "Can't say I blame you, Vandom. These classes are boring as hell."

"Shut up, Uriah…" Will said between grinded teeth.

* * *

 ** _Across the Veil; the Castle; Cedric's chambers_**

"Are you sure the Prince didn't hurt you too much?" Miranda asked of Cedric, the girl sitting on the Lord's large bed. As for the green-robed blond man, he was currently standing, writing something in the red book he used to communicate with his older brother. As he finished and closed the book, he turned to look at Miranda with a warm smile.

"I told you Miranda, my dear, I heal fast;" Cedric told the raven haired girl before taking her head between his hands and delivering an affectionate kiss to her forehead. "You worry unnecessarily."

"Phobos is starting to get suspicious," the spider said, still worried. "Wong's betrayal, no matter how much it played according to our plans, has left him more paranoid than ever. Aren't you worried?"

"Paranoia doesn't equal intelligence," Cedric reassured his beloved, sitting at her side on the bed. She took the opportunity to lean her body against his, head resting on his shoulder. "If Phobos was half the smart he believes himself to be, he would have figured me out long ago. This operation went as smooth as possible."

"What if he discovers what we did with the children Wong granted shapeshifting powers to?" Miranda asked, eyes closed, letting Cedric to calmly stroke her head. "I fear for our safety, that's all."

"I know," Cedric told Miranda. "But it was a risk worth taking. I may be quite the bloodthirsty man when fighting an opponent, but I'm not going to kill a bunch of defenseless children just because a mad man-child tells me to do so; much less if they are Shapeshifters."

"Are you sure we did good sending them to Cavigor?" the girl continued to inquire.

"Cavigor may be a hellhole holding imprisoned the worst of Meridian's worst… but as it goes for Shapeshifters, you can consider it a safe haven;" Cedric explained as he continued to try to calm Miranda down. "The children will be safer there…"

"With Sidriss and Calisto."

* * *

 ** _The Infinite City; meanwhile_**

"Alright, Blunk;" Caleb told the Passling, "calm down and repeat it from the beginning."

In one of the halls of the Infinite City, Caleb (with Aldarn and Drake by his side) stood in front of Blunk. It had been a peaceful day for the rebels (as peaceful as it could be for a rebel army preparing itself for the final stages of a civil war, anyway) until the Passling had burst into the Rebellion's headquarters, yelling about 'Big News!' he needed to tell them about. It had taken Caleb several minutes to calm him, and another few to take him to one of the less crowded sections of the rebel base, where they could talk in private.

"Well, Blunk was minding his own business in the Capital, trying to trade with some merchants;" Blunk said, far calmer than before. "One merchant wanted Blunk to trade one of the light sticks Blunk got from Earth just for three chickens, and Blunk said 'That's not fair trading!' and the merchant said 'It's the best tradin' yer gonna get here'. So Blunk took…"

"Blunk, please;" Caleb told the green dwarf; "get to the point."

"Uh, sorry;" the Passling apologized. "So Blunk was trading, and then the Capital went mad! Everyone running, Blunk running too! Shapeshifters and Lurdens fighting the Guard! Everyone screaming!"

"Wait, what?" Caleb asked, finding hard to believe what the Passling had just told him. "The Lurdens rebelled?"

"No, no;" Blunk cleared out. "Days later, Blunk sneaked into the castle's kitchens to trade with the servants and find information. Blunk great spy! Blunk found out that it had been bad wizard behind the attack! Now bad wizard and Tracker gone, and the Prince's lost many Lurdens!"

"Bad wizard?" Caleb asked. "Are you talking about Daolon Wong?"

"He must have made his move against Phobos, just like the Mage's spy said he would;" Drake said. _Not that I didn't know that already_ , Cyrus Ludmoore thought. _Shame that I have to keep the fact that Daolon Wong won't be a problem again to myself, but that's something none of you can know yet_.

"What about the Princess?" Caleb asked. "How was Wong able to make that attack if she was in the palace?"

"No, Princess not in castle;" Blunk informed. "Princess gone to Lannion, Blunk thinks."

"That means that Phobos has lost very strong allies," Aldarn commented. "His court is weakened. We should speed up our plans for the attack!"

"But Wong and the Tracker are still out there, and without Phobos' leash on them, more dangerous than ever;" Caleb told his friend. _And if Tracker really is the Knight Didier and the legends speak any truth, he could become a huge problem in the near future_ …

"And what do _you_ suggest we do?" Aldarn asked of his leader. His voice hadn't been the one of an angry person, but yes perhaps a bit too harsh, something that hadn't gone unnoticed to both Drake and Caleb, but that neither of them gave too much thought to.

"Continue with the plan in the same way we have done until now," Caleb answered. "But we need to discuss it with the rest of the Small Council. I'll go and find the Mage and Baroness Miriam; you two go and find Sephiria and Vathek. Blunk," the rebel leader spoke to the Passling; "find a Portal and…"

"Go to Earth and tell this to nice girls?" Blunk asked, getting an approving nod from Caleb and already running away. Caleb departed too, in search for the Mage. As for Aldarn and Drake, they did so in his opposite direction.

"Are you feeling alright?" Drake asked of Aldarn as they walked. "You look troubled."

"I…" Aldarn said, looking at his walking feet and then up. "I'm alright, Drake. Do you prefer to bring Sephiria or Vathek?" he asked, changing the theme of the conversation.

"I think we both should search for Sephiria," Drake told him. "Vathek left this morning. He said he had some things to attend to."

"I hope it's something important," Aldarn said, again in the harsher voice, as they both continued to walk.

 _Oh Aldarn_ , Cyrus thought _. If only you knew_ …

* * *

 ** _A tavern in a meridianite village_**

Vathek had always found rather curious how every village of Meridian always had at least one tavern, and how if it hadn't then it wouldn't be considered a proper village at all. He supposed it made sense, though, as he wouldn't want to live and work day by day without a place where he could stay warm and drink some ale or wine while laughing and singing with his friends. The consolation for a life of hardship as a peasant, that's what some called these places.

The one the bulky blue Galhot found himself into this time was a pretty big one, especially considering he was in a village and not in any of the great cities. The fact that it was three stories tall lead him to believe it was an inn on top of being a tavern. The air carried a variety of odors, mainly to alcohol, sweat, strong cheese and fish. Once his nose had accustomed to this place, Vathek focused into taking a good look around him.

Groups of women and men were sitting around tables, dirty pitchers of ale or dirty glasses of wine in their hands. They were talking, and sometimes one of them broke into song, the others joining shortly after, until the song finished and they went back to drink.

Leaning against the bar were the lonely ones, their only company their pitchers and the pieces of cut bread over the bar, each of them with a little dried fish and a piece of cheese over them. Ah, so that was from where the smell was coming from! Vathek wondered for a second if that food was free to take or you would have to pay for it.

In one corner, he spotted a pretty young man, no older than seventeen if Vathek's eyes didn't betray him, dressed in little clothing and standing next to a woman on her thirties that, judging by her clothes, chubbiness and the fact that her glass was cleaner than the rest's, was probably a merchant. Vathek saw how the woman slipped some silvery coins into the young man's hand, (sporting a lecherous smile that showed a set of ugly teeth as she did so) and shortly after they headed up the stairs and into the second or maybe third floor. Well, at least someone was having a good time today. The boy-whore, on the other hand… probably not so much.

And last but not least, were the three individuals in charge of the tavern. One was a human woman in her mid-twenties, standing behind the bar and filling the pitchers with the ale and the glasses with the wine. The second was a nine year old half-breed girl with green skin and short hair, carrying a large tray over her head in which she brought the drinks and food to the tables and the customers sitting at them. The third was a Galhot man in his late twenties, a beard that covered his jaw and with green skin, albeit a darker shade than his daughter's, who came from a door behind the bar from time to time, bringing more pieces of cut bread with dried fish and cheese over them in order to lay them down over the bar. He then proceeded to deliver a kiss to the human woman's cheek and head back into what Vathek supposed was the kitchen.

The blue Galhot took seat in a table that had yet to be occupied, taking off the cape and hood he had been wearing until now. As he sat down, he noticed someone pulling at his jacket, and saw the half-breed girl at his side. While at first he thought she was going to ask for his order, Vathek only needed a look and a gesture not from the girl, but from her mother, to instead rise up again and follow the little girl into a door at the tavern's far left, one that the girl proceeded to open with a key than hanged from her neck thanks to a little chain.

Vathek entered a new room, weakly illuminated by a few candles on the walls and over a desk that was ahead. Even though his eyes had yet to accustom to the lesser amount of light, he could clearly see someone sitting at the desk. The half-breed girl ran towards it, taking something in her hands. As she ran back to the door and passed by Vathek's side, the bulky man saw how she was carrying a bunch of golden coins in her hands. Vathek dedicated one last look at her as the door closed, then sighed.

"Some people say that the Prince attacked your home," Vathek said as he turned around; "and that you were killed there."

"And you believed them?" came the cold reply, from the shadows.

"No," Vathek answered. "I have lived long enough to know that people like you always tend to survive, no matter the odds. I got your message and here I am, as you requested. I suppose it's time for me to pay for the information concerning Carhaiz that you gave me, isn't it?"

Vathek saw movement behind the desk, his interlocutor rising and walking into the light. He hadn't changed much, still the same hair, same strange eyes, and same face. His clothing differed from the one he had worn before, and it could have easily passed for the one of a peasant if it wasn't so impeccably clean. The biggest difference, however, was the right hand. What had once been a limb as normal as any other, was now made of wood and had several cracks over it, in which Vathek could see some kind of swirling purple and dark blue energy. Each of the wooden fingers moved from time to time, the man flexing his wooden hand as if not fully accustomed to the fact that it could move. Vathek found it sinister.

"Indeed, Vathek;" Charles Ludmoore told the blue Galhot in his usual cold voice. "But don't worry. I assure you that paying me this time will only result in our _mutual_ benefit."

* * *

 ** _Across the Veil; Heatherfield' streets, afternoon_**

"Was Mr. Collins too hard on you?" Matt Olsen asked of Will Vandom as they both headed back to their homes from Sheffield. The teenage guitarist seemed to be in quite a good mood, which wasn't something one could say about his girlfriend.

"Not much," the redhead told her boyfriend. "It was your typical 'be responsible' teacher talk." Will sighed. "I'm more worried about the moment my mom finds out."

"Why would she find out?" Matt wondered.

"Because Mr. Collins and she are dating, _ugh_ ;" Will answered, not pleased by bringing that fact up.

"Wait, what? Really?" a surprised Matt continued to ask as they turned around a corner in order to take a shortcut into the redhead's home's direction.

"Yeah, but good luck making her calling it serious dating;" Will stated. "Every time I bring it up she just evades the subject."

"Are you… mad at her for it?"Matt inquired yet again. "For dating one of our teachers, I mean."

"It isn't because he's a teacher, Matt;" Will told the teen. "It's… look, when my mom and dad got separated, and then my dad just… disappeared and went god-knows-where, it was kind of… hard for me. But then my mom and I moved here, and then she started to make goo-goo eyes at Mr. Collins;" she said, taking a moment to notice how her referring to her mother and Mr. Collin's flirting as ' _making goo-goo eyes_ ' had made Matt to chuckle; "and, I don't know. It just makes things awkward." Will yawned and rubbed the back of her head afterwards. "And I'm just so tired. No surprise I fell asleep in class."

"Does that have to do with the whole Guardian stuff?" Matt asked, whispering the last two words. Will glanced away from him for a moment. "Hey, you know you can tell me."

"I know… We were investigating the ruins of Villa Ludmoore last night, that's all;" Will told him. "It took us… longer than expected, and just for nothing."

"Oh yeah, that Ludmoore guy you told Alchemy and me about;" Matt said as they started to cross an alley. "They've been talking a lot about him on TV lately. Which I guess is the normal thing that happens when your house explodes."

"We think that some of Phobos' forces attacked him, and we've got some evidence that Elyon was there, but… wait a second;" Will said as her telephone started to rang. "Yeah? Hay Lin?" Will asked, listening to the words that the Chinese girl was saying at the other end of the line, which Matt of course couldn't hear.

However, the boy deduced it had to be something important, judging by how Will's expression grew more and more serious as she continued to listed to whatever Hay Lin was telling her, any trace of tiredness over her face disappearing in turn.

"Okay, okay, I'll be there;" Will told her friend. As she looked at Matt at her side, she added; "and I'm going to bring Matt. Also, tell Cornelia to take Alchemy to the Silver Dragon too. I think I've got an idea."

* * *

 ** _The Silver Dragon's basement; around an hour afterwards_**

The first thought that passed over Matt's head when he and Will reached the Silver Dragon and descended into its basement was that the place was too crowded. Not only were all the seven girls there, Jade's family (which now apparently included that large man called Tohru and that woman called Viper) was there too, and so was Hay Lin's grandmother, currently sitting in the couch alongside the other elder. And then there were the two newcomers, one a boy that looked around a year older than Matt (but that was considerably more ripped than Matt was) and the other a green-skinned, smelly and bald... creature, no bigger than a child. Oh yeah, Will had told him about these two too! Which were their names?

It was the former who first looked at him when he and Will entered into the basement, his green eyes making Matt feel somehow naked, as if the brown-haired teen was scanning him with his sight. ' _Who is this? Why is he here? What does he want? How much does he know?_ ' Those were the questions he was probably asking himself. The whole thing made Matt feel a bit uncomfortable so, once he and Will had reached the end of the basement's staircase, he decided to ease the tension by approaching the other teen and offering a friendly hand.

"Hi," Matt began politely. "You're Caleb, right?"

The other teenage boy looked weirdly at Will, who proceeded to look weirdly at him too, alongside a little nod. ' _Does he know?_ ' Caleb was probably asking with that look. ' _He knows everything_ ,' Will was telling him with hers.

"Yes," Caleb answered, shaking Matt's hand. "And you are?"

"Matt Olsen," the guitarist answered as his handshake with the meridianite teen ended. "Will's boyfriend."

Caleb stared at Matt in silence for several seconds then. Afterwards, his lips formed a sincere and happy smile. "A pleasure to meet you."

"Thanks," Matt told the green-eyed rebel leader. Then he shifted his attention to the green, smelly dwarf at Caleb's side. "And you must be Blunk! The... goblin?"

"Passling!" Blunk shouted. "Blunk a Passling, not goblin!"

"Okay, okay;" Will said then, clapping. "Everyone knows each other?" the redhead asked, eyeing Alchemy.

The ginger girl nodded in affirmation. "Y-Yeah," she answered, Cornelia already having made sure to introduce her to Caleb beforehand.

"Great," Will said. "Let's get down to business."

"And can we do it quickly?" Hay Lin said nervously, biting the nail of one of her thumbs. "I doubt my parents are going to spend all the afternoon outside..."

"I want you to tell us, detail by detail," the redhead continued, looking at Caleb, "what's been going on Meridian the last days."

And so he did, retelling to them what he had been previously told. Wong's short-lived coup, his and Tracker's disappearance, and how the Princess was currently staying at Lannion.

"Isn't Lannion Count Cornelius' city?" Taranee asked after the explanation ended.

"Exactly," Will told the Fire Guardian. "Which means Elyon's in our territory now. It's a perfect opportunity to make her change sides."

"Okay... question;" Irma intervened. "How do we do that?"

Instead of answering the brunette with words, Will just gazed at Alchemy

"Oh, I get it!" Jade declared. "We're gonna follow Taranee's idea."

"My idea?" the black girl asked in turn.

"Yeah, remember when you told us that it wouldn't be a bad idea to get Alchemy to talk with Elyon?" Jade reminded her.

"And that's exactly what we're going to do here," Will continued. "We're going to sneak Alchemy into Lannion, using a small team."

"Wouldn't that be dangerous?" Jackie asked of the Keeper of the Heart. "Alchemy doesn't have any powers, or any kind of martial arts training."

"And that's the reason you're going to be on said team, Jackie;" Will told the Chinese man. "You and Viper, for obvious reasons. Also, I need someone to make a call to Mrs. Rudolph and see if we can bring her too. Considered she's a witness of Phobos' coup thirteen years ago, I think she can have a key role making Elyon to change sides. We only need to create some Astral Drops like last time and…"

"Hey, Will?" Alchemy interrupted her. "I don't think I exactly know what an Astral Drop is… but I'm pretty sure neither Matt nor I can use them. Conjure them?"

Will stopped her speech midsentence upon hearing those words. Crap. Crap, crap, crap, crap! That was something she hadn't took into account! How was she going to justify to Matt and Alchemy's families that they had disappeared for several days?!

Seeing the redhead's preoccupation, Yan Lin was quick to call all the attendants' attention towards her. "Don't worry, kiddo;" the old Chinese lady said with her usual gentle smile. She then pointed towards Uncle. "Cousin here and I will get that covered."

"How?" Uncle asked, both out of curiosity and out of concern. He hadn't liked one bit how mischievous his relative's voice had sounded.

"Oh, let that tiny detail to me;" Yan Lin answered. "I may be old, but I still got a few tricks."

"So, we're going to this Meridian?" Matt, enthusiasm growing, asked; unable to avoid smiling like a kid.

"You keep insisting and insisting, so…" Will told him, "yes, I'll bring you. But just this time."

"Awesome!" Matt cheered, making Will to blush a bit.

"Before we get farther with the planning and celebrations," Caleb interrupted them, "there is something else I need to tell you."

"What?" the Keeper of the Heart inquired.

"Before Blunk was able to locate a Portal, Vathek, who had been out for most of the morning, came back to the Infinite City;" Caleb started to explain; "and he brought very interesting news."

* * *

 ** _Across the Veil, Infinite City, night_**

It had taken the group some time to go back to the Portal Blunk and Caleb had used to cross the Veil to Earth. Anyway, after a flash of pink that had transformed Will, Irma, Taranee, Cornelia and Hay Lin into their Guardian forms, all of them barring Uncle Chan and Yan Lin and already having been joined by Mrs. Rudolph had crossed to Meridian. And the flash then had been blue, and then Matt and Alchemy had seen how the buildings and streetlights that composed Heatherfield's landscape disappear and leave way for a field full of strange, yellowish flowers near a river. That alone was enough to indicate to the pair of teens that this wasn't their world anymore. After walking (or in the Guardians' case flying) the field of flowers became a dusty quarry made out of purple stone, in which the group spotted a cave in which they proceeded to enter. There, Caleb started to touch one of the cave's walls until he made something to make a 'click' sound, and a part of the cave's wall proceeded to slide open, revealing a secret door. Then everything else was a matter of walking some more, until they entered into the Infinite City and the Rebellion's headquarters inside of it. Alchemy Ethel remained relatively calm through the whole ordeal, considering these were (literally) her first steps into a new world. Matt Olsen, on the other hand, (and though he knew the situation he found himself in was of the utmost seriousness) couldn't hide a grin of excitement. The only other person in their group whose mood was comparable to the teenager's was, ironically, Mrs. Rudolph's.

"The legendary Infinite City," their Math teacher, who had turned out to be a meridianite to Matt and Alchemy's (decreasing) surprise, said in awe. "I thought it was just a myth…" she continued as she distanced herself a bit from the group in order to touch one of the many pillars that were in the hall they were currently in; "but it seems I have been proved wrong. If these walls could talk, the stories they would tell…"

"I suppose it's pretty neat," Viper said to nobody in particular; "if you like spooky old places."

"Hey, do you want Blunk, Jackie and Tohru to give you a tour around the rebel HQ?" Will, currently at Matt's side, asked; wings flapping a couple of times in order to dispel a bit of dust in the air. "Because I think we'll be pretty busy, and I doubt we can bring you all into the meeting room just like that."

"Oh, sure!" Matt, still amazed that he was doing something that he had only thought possible in comic books or fantasy and sci-fi novels, answered. "Good luck," he added, planting a kiss on the redhead's cheek, making her to blush again.

"Thanks," the Keeper of the Heart said as she made a signal to the Passling, the sumo and the archeologist. They stopped and approached her, Will telling them her idea. "Keep an eye on Matt for me," she added in a whisper that only Jackie heared.

"Now follow Blunk!" the Passling said with enthusiasm, throwing his fist up in the air and taking the lead. "Blunk knows all the best places around here!"

And a few minutes later, Jackie, Tohru, Viper, Matt, Mrs. Rudolph and Alchemy had turned around a corner and disappeared, leaving the Guardians, Jade and Caleb alone. The group remained in silence for a while, until Taranee broke it.

"So what's the point of all this?" the Fire Guardian asked of her leader and friend.

"Of what?" Will asked back.

"Of bringing Matt here," Taranee explained. "I get why we brought Alchemy, but Matt..."

"Hey, Will wanted to let her boyfriend enjoy himself," Irma broke into the conversation. "No problem unless he gets out of the Infinite City and gets hurt, right?"

Will didn't answer. Instead, it was Jade who talked. "You brought him here so he could see how the Rebellion works, right? For better... or worse."

Hay Lin gasped. "The people that Sephiria is treating..."

"Wait, you brought your boyfriend here so he could see the wounded and get scared or something?" Cornelia asked. "And they say I'm the mean one."

"Okay, okay, I get it;" Will interrupted them. "I'm not going to win any prize. But..." Will stopped, sighed and rubbed her temples before starting to walk again. "But you all know what this war's done to us, to all of us." Her eyes went from Caleb to Jade, then to Cornelia and then back to Caleb. "I don't want that happening to Matt. But he keeps insisting into getting involved. So I ran with it. If the wounded don't scare him out of it, then at least he gets to be part of this, and maybe seeing all those people either discourages him or makes him to think he should be careful around here."

"If you are done with the talking," Caleb told them, hand gripping the hilt of the Sword of Thanatos. "We have things to do."

The girls stopped and looked ahead, seeing that they had arrived at the entrance of the room where the Rebellion's Small Council held its meetings. Without further delay, they entered.

* * *

 ** _Across the Veil; Matt Olsen's home_**

"Are you sure you don't want more? It's your favorite!"

Paula Olsen was a thin woman in her thirties, with slightly tanned skin and short hair that matched his son's in color. Her face was the one you could expect from a woman her age, with a lovely nose and dark blue eyes. As for her husband, Mark Olsen was a thin man of similar age to his wife, and looking at him you could see the similarities between him and his own father, Herbert. In fact, some had said more than once that he looked exactly at his father had done in his youth. Dark brown hair adorned his head and there were tiny, round glasses in front of his eyes. It was clear that their son took more after his mother just with a look. Speaking of said son, he was just there right now, sitting at the table and having dinner with his parents. At least, that's what they thought.

"No, Unc- I don't want any more, thank you mother;" 'Matt' told her, pushing the plate in front of him away in order to reinforce his negative. Albeit none of the adults were able to focus on it, the 'teenager' was wearing a ring in his left hand.

 _Mother?_ Paula thought, finding incredibly strange that her son had referred to her using that term. "Are you not feeling alright?"

"No, I'm fine, it's just…" 'Matt' told the woman, but then his stomach growled in a strange way, and the 'teenager' had to quickly change his argument. "I… I'm not feeling exactly alright. Can I go to my bedroom?"

"Sure," the woman told him. "Just let me know if you're feeling worse or not."

"Thank you," 'Matt' told the married couple. "If you will excuse me…" he said, getting up from the chair and heading towards his room.

"Did you just see that?" Paula asked her husband. "Since when is our kid so… _formal_?"

"No idea," Mark told his wife. "Well, you know how kids his age are. One day they act like punks and the other they're saints. That or maybe he's really sick."

"I'll call the doctor, see if he's got some time for a quick meeting on Monday;" Paula said, getting up too. "Just in case."

Unknown to his 'parents' 'Matt' had entered his room and locked the door. There, he quickly removed the ring from his finger. A few seconds passed and then a circle of light traversed his body from feet to the head, revealing old Uncle Chan underneath the recently dispelled glamour.

Stomach growling one more time (the elder clutching it as if that would calm it), Uncle took his mobile phone out of his pocket and dialed a number, something that he found quite difficult to do due to the pain of his stomach. After a couple of seconds, the voice of Alchemy Ethel answered him.

"Hello?"

"Cousin," the Chan elder told to the phone. "You owe Uncle so, so much for this!"

"Are you not wearing your glamour?" Alchemy Ethel's voice, or more accurately, the voice of Yan Lin-posing-as-Alchemy, came again. "Do you have any idea how much effort I had to put into enchanting that ring?"

"These people gave Uncle meat with cheese for dinner!" Uncle protested. "Uncle can't eat cheese! Veeeery bad for his digestion, it gives him maaaaaany bowel problems! One more thing!" he added, taking a good look at Matt's room, especially at the disorganized comic books in the shelves and the clothes partially sticking out of the teen's drawers. "This young man is almost as disorganized as niece! How do you expect Uncle to sleep here?! One more thing! This is a waste of time! Uncle should be preparing spells in order to fight Daolon Wong when Dark Wizard inevitably returns! One more…!"

"Matt?" Mark Olsen's voice suddenly came from the other side of the door. "Are you alright? I heard weird noises, and... Why do you have your door locked?"

Uncle put the ring back on as fast as he could, the glamour giving him the appearance and voice of Matt Olsen once again. He hanged the phone, rushed to the entrance of the bedroom that belonged to the teenager he was impersonating and unlocked it, opening the door just enough so his face could be seen from outside.

"Yes, father;" 'Matt' told him. "I'm alright. I think I just need some sleep."

 _Father?!_ Mark thought now with alarm. As the door closed again, he ran searching for his wife. There really was something very weird going on with this kid!

As for the disguised Uncle, he approached Matt's bed and sat on it. There, he took a hand to his chest and felt the frantic beating of his heart. Then his stomach growled again, foreshadowing the first of many visits to the bathroom to come.

Oh, this was going to be such a long night...

* * *

 ** _Across the Veil, Infinite City_**

While Uncle was impersonating him, Matt Olsen was enjoying the little tour around the Rebellion's current base of operations that Blunk the Passling was giving him, Alchemy Mrs. Rudolph and Viper. The Passling on the lead and the three humans and the glamoured Galhot behind him, Tohru and Jackie were the ones closing the group, walking a couple of steps behind them all. Around them, rebels dedicated themselves to different tasks, and albeit the group clearly drawing attention just by the way they were dressed, no rebel had bothered them.

"Okay, let me get this straight;" Alchemy said. "This place, this Infinite City's built on Meridian's underground. As in… the entire planet's underground?"

"Yes!" Blunk answered, pleased that he had the opportunity to show off his knowledge to foreigners. "And rebels travel Meridian through Infinite City's tunnels! It's faster and safer than doing it outside!"

"Yeah, I get that, but how exactly does it work?" Alchemy continued to ask of the green dwarf. "How do you build an entire, giant city under the surface of a planet? Why does it take less time to travel to the same point through here than on the surface?"

"Uh… Blunk doesn't know that;" the Passling admitted.

"It's magic, kid;" Viper told the ginger teenage girl. "It's always magic with these things. I have seen enough weird things to know that."

"But..." Alchemy began.

"Come on Alchemy, you saw one of your best friends flying and fighting shadow monsters just a few nights ago," Matt pointed out. "I think magic's as good an explanation as any."

"Considering how immensely powerful Heart-wielders can be," Tohru spoke, "there is a huge possibility the Infinite City was created by an Escanor Queen."

"I'm not so sure, Tohru;" Jackie entered the conversation. "These arches and pillars seem to have been crafted by hand. See?" the archeologist pointed to one of the columns near the walls, one which was highly decorated with strange runes. "I doubt those engravings were made by magic and not by artisans."

"Ah..." Tohru muttered as he pondered this. "Perhaps only the basic structure of the city was made by magic and the rest was done manually?"

"Maybe," Jackie said. "Frankly, I doubt we will ever know. But I would like to inspect this city when the war is over, its architecture is fascinating."

"How come?" Tohru asked, genuinely interested.

"Well, the halls seem to have been built following something resembling a mix of ancient Greek and ancient Egyptian architecture, but the arches and pillars are far more modern, and with modern I mean around the tenth century. They also seem to be stylized in a more European fashion..."

As the archeologist and the Chi Wizard in training continued their talk, Viper put an arm around Alchemy's shoulders.

"And this, kid;" the ex-thief told the teen; "is why we just go with 'magic' as an explanation."

Alchemy giggled at that. Matt, in turn, laughed. As for Jackie and Tohru, they were too focused in their conversation to pay attention to the fact that there had been a joke at their expense. And Blunk continued to lead happily... until he stopped in his tracks, the hall they were currently in ending in the entrance of a chamber.

"Uh... Blunk thinks we should turn around now," the Passling said.

"Why?" Matt asked, walking ahead and into the chamber. "What's supposed to be in... here. Oh, God."

As they followed into Matt's steps, Alchemy stifled a gasp by placing her hands over her mouth and Viper grew stiff. Jackie and Tohru's chat ended rather abruptly when it hit them.

The smell.

The strong smell that made their noses ache and their vision to be clouded momentarily by tears. The smell of sweat, ointments, old and dirtied bandages, wounds that had yet to heal completely; all mixed together and making the chamber reek.

And then there was the cause of the smell: dozens, perhaps more than a hundred people, all lying on the ground and all of them badly injured. Some were bandaged from head to toe; others were missing at least one limb.

The only people moving around were men and women of varying ages in weird clothing, either carrying bandages or small yet heavy cauldrons full of a thick, greenish and burbling paste. They went from one person to another, treating them as best as they could.

"W-What's this place?" a shocked Alchemy asked. "Who are these people?"

"The Rebellion's wounded," Tohru said grimly. "The ones with the worst injuries, it seems."

"It's... It's horrible," Alchemy said.

"It's war," Tohru stated. "And this is the price for fighting against Phobos' tyranny." The sumo added somberly. "We shouldn't be here, let's… Matt?"

Ignoring the sumo's counsel, or perhaps not even hearing it, the teenager had quickly advanced towards one of the healers that belonged to the Faithful and was helping him to carry one of the small cauldrons.

"What is he doing?" the sumo asked.

"Lending a hand, that's what the kid is doing;" Viper told him. "And sincerely, we could do the same. It's not as if we have anything better to do now."

"Blunk doesn't know if he can help," the Passling told his companions. "Can Blunk help?"

"I don't know if _we_ can do anything," Tohru told the Passling.

"Actually, we can;" Jackie told his friend, and then searched in his pants' pockets until he extracted the Horse Talisman from his rick pocket. "I brought it in case an emergency occurs. I doubt we can re-grow limbs with it," he said as he handed the octagonal amulet to Tohru; "but I think it should be enough to heal many of them."

* * *

 ** _The Small Council's room_**

Meanwhile in the room where its meetings were held, all members of the Rebellion's Small Council had been finally gathered. Caleb, Aldarn, Drake, Sephiria, Vathek, the 'Mage' and the Baroness of Fallbottom were sitting at the table, alongside Jade and Will. Behind the Chan girl stood Gareth, and behind Will her four Guardian companions did the same. Vathek was the one currently talking, informing them about what had happened that day's morning, about how Ludmoore had contacted him (using one of the rebels that were in his pocket and that Vathek had already told Caleb about), and about how he had met with him at a tavern on a village not too far away.

"And you agreed to that meeting?" Drake asked. "It could have been a trap."

Vathek shook his head. "It couldn't be. I still owed Ludmoore a favor in exchange of the information he gave me concerning Carhaiz," the blue Galhot explained, noticing how Caleb stiffened at the mention of Carhaiz; "and I knew Ludmoore wouldn't risk losing that favor. Also, I wanted to confirm if the rumors about the Prince's forces attacking his home were true or not."

"We could've confirmed that," Will told the Galhot. "Ludmoore's manor on Earth has been reduced to dust, and we already suspected that it had something to do with Phobos. It's good to know that Ludmoore is still out there, even if it's just for the confirmation that he's still playing a role in this war."

"So, what did he want from you?" Jade asked now. "'Cause I doubt he just wanted to have a drink."

Vathek breathed deeply. He had told Caleb that he would like to speak about this once everyone was present. Well, now everyone was here, so he couldn't keep avoiding the subject. "He wishes to join the Rebellion."

The phrase lingered in the air for several seconds. Nobody said a word, nobody made a movement. Even Drake, who was in the middle of serving himself a glass of wine, froze in his tracks, laying down the pitcher full of wine that always accompanied them in their meetings. All the eyes in the room were fixed on Vathek now; giving the bulky blue Galhot the impression that they were expecting for him to tell them that they had misheard his words. He didn't do that.

"He wishes to join us?" the 'Mage' spoke at last, breaking the silence. Behind the glamour that disguised her as the stoic ancient woman, Nerissa Crossnic didn't know what to make out of this. On one hand, she still hated surprises, much more when those surprises had something to do with factors as unpredictable as Charles Ludmoore. On the other hand, however, she still prided herself in being an adaptive woman, and if someone with Ludmoore's resources wished to join her army… "Why does he wish to do that?"

"He told me that, due to Phobos attacking his home, there is no reason for him to continue being neutral anymore, great Mage;" Vathek explained. "He also told me that if we let him join us, he will put all of his resources at our service. He said he would wait for us in one of the empty chambers and leave us to discuss in peace before meeting with him."

"Are we sure we can trust his words?" Baroness Miriam asked. "He is a Ludmoore. His family is not known for its sense of loyalty. His ancestor's actions are proof of that."

 _You aren't the most appropriate one to be saying that, noblewoman_ ; Aldarn thought hatefully. _Wait a second, one of the empty chambers?!_ "You brought him here?! You showed him a pathway to the Infinite City?!"

"Actually," Vathek began; "he already knew how to access it. I suppose he also learned that from one of his spies."

"So he's here?" Irma asked. "Bold move. Between all the rebels and us here we could wipe the floor with him."

"I doubt he's come here to fight, Irma;" Will told the Water Guardian. "I think he believes he can pull this off."

In her head, Will was pondering all the reasons Ludmoore could have for doing what he was doing and being where he was. Her mind found the task a bit harder than she had first imagined, as her thought process was interrupted every handful of seconds by questions about how Matt was doing around a base full of rebels, and how this new development with Ludmoore could affect her little ploy concerning Alchemy and Elyon. What did she knew about Ludmoore? Greedy guy, weird eyes, pretty face, the same sense of humor of a rock. Competent administrator and businessman. His goal? From what she had seen, make as much profit as he could out of any situation he found himself in. Right now the best way to make the most profit was to stick with the Rebellion. And if the Rebellion were to win the war, the more profit he could make. Plus, she was pretty sure he would want revenge after Phobos had blown up to his home and belongings. Could she... could she turn this on their favor?

"So what do we do?" Cornelia asked aloud, taking Will out of her mind.

"I don't think we can decide that yet;" Caleb said, rising from his seat and adjusting the Sword of the Berserker that hanged from his belt. "It's better if we hear what he has to offer and what he truly demands first." The scarred rebel leader directed a look towards Vathek. "Bring us where he is, Vathek."

Nodding, the blue Galhot rose up and started to walk out of the room. The girls, Gareth, Caleb, Drake, the Baroness and the 'Mage' followed him. Aldarn was the one to leave last, trailing behind the rest of the group.

In the same way Will had done moments before, Aldarn was trying to think about how he could turn the current situation into his favor. He had his weapons ready, both the demon's mask and the names of those who were willing to back him up. But even if the son of the blacksmith was determined to set the Rebellion back in the right path (and to pay the price in order to do so), he knew he couldn't just do it. He needed a reason, a spark to ignite the fire.

 _And Ludmoore could be that spark_ , Aldarn thought as he walked. He didn't have much against the King Smuggler aside from the usual problems everyone had with him. In fact, he wasn't against the idea of him joining their cause, even if it was for selfish reasons. The enemy of the Rebellion's Enemy was welcomed to become their ally. Even if it resulted in an ally motivated by greed? Yes, of course! And at least... at least Ludmoore wasn't a nobleman, a servant of the tyrant. He had never aided Phobos more than he had aided the rebels. But Aldarn could see how the idea of Ludmoore joining them could create tensions within the Small Council.

If he was able to play his cards right... this could be his moment!

* * *

 ** _Minutes later, another chamber in the Infinite City_**

Ever since she had awakened as a Ben-Shui reincarnation and acquired the ability to use Chi Magic, Jade had been waiting for the moment in which she would get her own willies. Uncle had them and Tohru had developed them when confronted by Oni, so she had thought that it was only natural for her to get them sooner or later, especially considering that her abilities with Chi Magic weren't learned but actually an inherent part of her. However, she hadn't been able to feel anything, neither with her encounters with Daolon Wong nor when she had faced people wearing Oni Masks, albeit she had been able to feel in how much of a bad shape Hak Foo's chi had been left after being stripped the one containing Ikki. She had stopped caring about it after a while; it wasn't as if getting her own willies was the most important thing in the near future. However, at that moment, when she entered into the room in the Infinite City where Vathek had said Ludmoore would be waiting for them, Jade Chan had the willies.

And it didn't go as if she had thought it would. Both Uncle and Tohru had, after she had asked them to do so, defined the willies to her once. The old Chi Wizard and his apprentice had described them as a feeling similar to a shiver that went up your spine, except several times stronger. What Jade felt upon entering that room wasn't a shiver, but she didn't find it any better. Instead of something resembling shivering, Jade was assaulted by a… _slimy_ feeling. It was a feeling that she quickly associated with Dark Chi, but there was something strange about it. It felt as if the sensation was trying to lure her into a sense of security before attacking, like the coils of a snake or the tentacles or an octopus slowly and softly wrapping themselves around her before they tightened up and choked her. And she identified the source of the sensation instantly. After all, he was just there, sitting with his legs crossed in an old and dusty wooden chair in the middle of the room, the only thing keeping him company a single suitcase.

Charles Ludmoore didn't move a single muscle when he saw the large group of people entering into the room. Eyes looking at him with suspicion, curiosity, anger and despise; the man met those gazes with a cold stare, his face betraying no emotion. If he was intimidated by the large group of people around him, he didn't show it. As he uncrossed his legs and stood up, however, he found how all the eyes stopped staring at him with a varied range of emotions and focused into looking at his wooden, prosthetic yet completely functional hand.

"Okay, gonna be the first one to ask this, since it's probably the thing everybody's wanting to ask right now;" Irma said, pointing to the man's wooden limb. "What the heck happened to your hand?"

"This?" Ludmoore asked in his usual cold and emotionless voice. "This is the price I had to pay in order to escape from the Princess of Meridian when she and her brother's forces attacked my home unprovoked." As he pronounced those words, he raised his wooden hand and rolled up his sleeve, showing the prosthetic in its entirety. The wood was unnaturally fused with the flesh at the middle of his forearm, resulting into an image that wasn't very kind to the eye. "I barely escaped alive, and as you can see I lost my hand in the process. Fortunately, magic was able to provide me with an," Ludmoore moved his wooden fingers one by one as he said that, clenching his fist afterwards; " _acceptable_ replacement."

"That's just super creepy…" Hay Lin whispered.

"For not saying gross," Cornelia added as she evaded eye contact with the businessman's arm.

 _It's Chi Magic, that's what it is_ ; Jade thought, eyes focused into the cracks that were in the wooden arm, in which she could see purple energy slowly being overtaken by dark blue one. How the heck had Ludmoore gotten his hands, eh… hand, into Chi Magic? How was he able to use it? She knew Ludmoore was a sorcerer, but Uncle and Yan Lin had told them all that Chi and Raw Magic were incompatible! She decided that was something she shouldn't speak about in front of Ludmoore, instead keeping his thoughts for herself.

"But I don't wish to bore you all with the details," Ludmoore said coldly, rolling down his sleeve (something everyone present was thankful for) and lowering his wooden hand. "I believe we have some important business to talk about."

"Yeah, no;" Will said suddenly, giving a couple of steps forward and positioning herself in front of Ludmoore. As she did so, she missed the angry glare that Aldarn shot at her. "We aren't falling for that. You ARE going to tell us with every single boring detail everything that happened in that manor before it exploded, you ARE going to tell us everything you've been up to involving this war, and you ARE going to tell us what you have to offer us. Then, we will CONSIDER letting you join the Rebellion."

"The Keeper of the Heart speaks wisely," the 'Mage' joined in. _The ball is now in your court, Ludmoore_ ; Nerissa thought. _I would hate to kill such a valuable tool as you can be, but if you leave me with no other option, I will do it._

Ludmoore continued to look at Will with a cold and stoic expression. Behind his mask of cold demeanor, the eldest Ludmoore brother was euphoric. _Yes, I supposed you wouldn't let me get to the point so easily... but a Ludmoore doesn't back down from challenges!_ Charles thought energetically. _Alright, girl! Let's have it your way!_ "Very well," he said plain and coldly.

And so, Ludmoore told them everything... excluding some key details here and there, such as the fact that he was related to Cedric and Cyrus, or the fact that Cyrus was, well, Cyrus. Of course, his involvement in Wong's downfall was also excluded from his explanation, as was the fact that he had stolen his powers for himself. By the end of it, he had told them exactly what they were expecting to hear from the kind of man they thought he was.

"You sent some weird gargoyles after Elyon?!" Cornelia asked, enraged. She stomped her foot on the ground as she stepped forward, cracking the stone under it. "Just because Cedric and Phobos paid you for it?!"

"Yes," Ludmoore answered plain and coldly. "But for the record, I ignored that she was the Princess."

"You greedy mother-!" the Earth Guardian began, the cracks in the ground widening.

"Cornelia, calm down;" Taranee said, putting a hand over the blonde's shoulder. The last thing they needed right now was an earthquake.

As for Will, she continued to stare at Ludmoore. "And if we let you join, what's in for the Rebellion?" the Keeper of the Heart asked of the businessman.

As an answer, Ludmoore proceeded to take the suitcase from the ground. "I still have my meridianite spy network. If the Rebellion admits me in their ranks, it will become its spy network. That means you will get eyes, ears and hands within the Guard, Cavigor, the Nobility's forces, and so on. Of course, I will give you a list containing the names of the rebels that have sold me information in the past. And although I have the suspicion that I'm presumed dead on the other side of the Veil," Ludmoore paused briefly, as if expecting the Keeper of the Heart to contradict him on that. Which of course Will didn't; "I still have ways to make contact with some low or middle-rank members of Earth's criminal underworld. That means the Rebellion could obtain resources as medicine or food."

Ludmoore opened the suitcase; he the only one could see its content. "But in case that isn't enough..." Charles continued, turning the suitcase around so everyone could see what it contained; "I believe this should be."

Once the businessman had turned the suitcase completely around, Ludmoore's interlocutors were surprised by what it held inside, albeit for different reasons. While the rebels, Guardians and Jade looked with confused expressions at the rhomboid, golden pendant that was inside the suitcase, the 'Mage' couldn't avoid letting out a gasp, approaching the suitcase Ludmoore was holding.

"Impossible," the 'Mage' said in shock, a show of emotion that surprised everyone in the room. "The Seal of Phobos… It cannot be."

"Seal of Phobos?" Jade asked. "Wait, that sounds familiar…"

"It's the artifact Mrs. Rudolph told us Elyon's parents and she used to travel to Earth;" Taranee cleared out.

"It's much more than that," the 'Mage' explained, taking the pendant from the suitcase. She held in her hands, her green eyes brightening slightly upon laying eyes upon the artifact, feeling the power inside of it. "Phobos created this during his youth, an artifact that was meant to bear his name and serve as a testament of his power. Albeit born from the Prince's arrogance, the artifact is supposed to be able to _open anything_." The 'Mage' paused for a few seconds, then held the pendant high and swung it in the air. In the blink of an eye, the motion created some kind of ripple effect on the air, which quickly became a flash of whitish blue light that then started to grow bigger until a Portal had opened in front of them all.

"I believe that will suffice as a demonstration," Ludmoore said coldly.

 _Magnificent_ , Nerissa thought for her part. Then the 'Mage' looked at Ludmoore, any trace of shock from her face gone. She deposited the Seal of Phobos back into the suitcase the businessman was holding, which he quickly closed. "This is how you managed to create your stabilized Portal."

"Indeed," Ludmoore said. "The Seal fell into my hands less than a decade ago, before you ask. Then it was a matter of opening a Portal and tinkering with it until I was able to stabilize and link it to several points on Meridian." Charles explained emotionlessly and coldly. "While that Portal no longer exists, you could use the Seal to open holes in the Veil from and to wherever you wanted to." Ludmoore gestured to the newly opened Portal. "Then it would be only a matter of closing it with the Heart of Kandrakar."

In cue, Will held the Heart of Kandrakar up, the spherical pendant shooting a beam of energy shortly after and closing the Portal. Once she put the Heart around her neck again, Caleb had walked until he was at her side. She eyes the rebel leader, who was probably having similar thoughts to hers.

"We will… consider your offer," the green eyed rebel leader told Charles. "In private."

"Of course," Ludmoore told him stoically. "Take as much time as you need."

As they started to depart, Will thanked every divine being she knew about that Caleb had made that decision. They needed to discuss this with as much calmness as it was possible.

* * *

 ** _The Small Council's room_**

"I'm telling you, it's Chi Magic, that's what his arm is!" Jade shouted.

"And I tell you, child;" the 'Mage' told her, barely audible since she didn't raise her voice; "that is impossible." _At least, that is what I believe_ ; Nerissa thought. Could it be that there was a possibility to use both Raw and Chi Magic at the same time? Had Ludmoore discovered it? Further investigation would be needed…

"He is a Ludmoore," the Baroness of Fallbottom said aloud. "His loyalty only lies with himself."

"You aren't the most appropriate person to talk about loyalties, lady;" Irma chimed in.

"We can't let him join!" Aldarn shrieked, making his voice to be heard over the rest of the shouting. "He will betray us at the first opportunity!"

"He won't!" Will yelled back. "What does he gain from betraying us?! To whom is he going to betray us?!"

"You just heard him, Will!" Taranee joined the discussion. "He only cares about profit!"

"And he won't be making more than with us!" the redhead yelled back. "That's precisely the point!"

"Are you serious?!" asked back the black girl.

"ENOUGH!" Caleb shouted then, smacking the table with his open palm. "I can't hear my own thoughts…"

Silence took hold of the room then, the tension in the air so palpable and intense that you could have cut it with a knife. The rebel leader rubbed his neck, moving it to the sides a couple of times. What to do? That was the only question that assaulted Caleb's mind right now. Ludmoore had come to them with a tentative offer. If this was his him of almost a year ago, he would have let him join the Rebellion without a doubt; but in light of late events… And yet, hadn't he let the Count and the Baroness to form an alliance with them without a problem? And hadn't that turned out in their favor?

"Why should we let him join us?" the rebel leader asked of the Keeper of the Heart.

"One, out of pragmatism;" Will told the scarred boy. "He's got resources, and very useful ones at that. Second, I want to have him under control."

"You want what?" Cornelia asked of her leader.

"Under control," Will repeated. "Look, Ludmoore isn't a nice guy, I get that. In fact, he can be kind of dangerous if left unchecked. That's the reason it's better to have him around us. As long as he perceives he'll make the most by helping us, he'll help us."

 _Alright, that makes sense_ ; Taranee thought. _But I'm still not sure. There is something about all this that unnerves me_.

"This is… an idea I'm not comfortable with;" Vathek spoke for the first time since the conversation had started. "But as I said before," the blue Galhot added afterwards, "if it wasn't for Ludmoore I may never have learned about Carhaiz."

"I'm with Will on this one," Jade said, playing with a lock of her black hair. "Ludmoore's more useful to us as a 24/7 ally. And the Rebellion's been partnered with _worse_ ," she pointed out, rubbing her shoulder with her free hand, her scars aching momentarily. "And besides, if he tries something funny, we can just kill him," the Shapeshifter added in the end, earning herself some weird looks from her friends, at the exception of Gareth. "Oh c'mon, really? Like none of you haven't thought about it."

"The Keeper of the Heart and young Jade hold a very strong point," the 'Mage' told Caleb, looking at him directly, the green of her eyes against his own. "Ludmoore may be thinking he can use us to achieve his revenge against the Prince and gain more benefit from it than before, but at the same time we can use him to achieve our own goals while maintaining him under our leash." _And I'm not letting the Seal of Phobos to get out of my grasp with such ease. The ability to open Portals or Folds without the use of my staff and spending my own power is… tempting_.

"And the Faithful could benefit greatly if he really can give us more resources;" Sephiria added.

"What do we do, Caleb?" Drake asked of his leader after another uncomfortable silence.

As for the green eyed, scarred teen, he didn't know what to do. He thought, however, that a decision of such magnitude shouldn't be only his. "We should vote," the rebel leader declared. And even though some wanted to oppose to that idea, they all concluded it was the fastest and easiest way to solve this entire problem.

The voting took place in a complete different room, with each voter entering the room alone, depositing a small paper with their vote in a small urn and then exiting; one vote at a time. The 'Mage' entered first, followed by Vathek, Caleb, Drake, Aldarn and Sephiria. The Baroness of Fallbottom, her vote representing that of hers and Count Cornelius', was the next one to vote. Then entered Jade, she being in command of the remains of Rhouglar's disbanded band giving her the right to have a voice and vote in the matters of the Small Council. Will entered last, exiting the room with the urn in her hands afterwards. The votes were counted back in the Small Council room. There were nine votes in total, and from those nine, four were against admitting Ludmoore in the Rebellion, and five were in favor of it. Therefore, the not-so-Small-anymore Council had spoken.

Charles Ludmoore would be allowed to join and aid the Rebellion.

But of course, things weren't going to be so easy.

"I can't believe this," Aldarn said, violently rising from his seat. "Are you all mad?!"

"Aldarn, calm down;" Caleb told his friend. "This Council has..."

"Don't give me that crap, Caleb;" Aldarn declared scornfully, shocking the rebel leader.

"Aldarn, look;" Will intervened. "I like Ludmoore as much as you do, but if..."

"Enough!" the rebel yelled, silencing the redhead immediately. "Enough of all... of all _this_ ;" he said, gesturing to the room as a whole. "You have no right to say anything here."

"She has as much right as you," Drake declared, he and Vathek standing up too.

"Does she?" Aldarn retorted. His eyes fell over Caleb then, something between anger and sorrow in them. "Does she, really?!"

"Aldarn, I don't know what..." Caleb tried to plead with his friend.

"You don't know?!" Aldarn shouted. "I have stood here since the beginning, seeing how this Rebellion rose from being nothing to be the only thing standing in the Prince and his minions' way! Just to see it corrupted now! By them," he said, looking at the Guardians, Jade and the Baroness; "and by you;" he said, looking at Caleb.

"Wow that escalated..." Irma began.

"Shut up!" Aldarn shouted, making the brunette to effectively do so. "Just! Shut! Up! I won't tolerate this to continue! I won't accept it! Ludmoore won't join this Rebellion. Not as long as I am here."

"You have no right or rank to make that decision," Caleb retorted, standing up too. Fists and teeth clenching, the rebel leader stared at his oldest friend's face.

"I will," Aldarn said with determination. He proceeded to extract a scroll from under his clothes, tossing it at Drake afterwards. "Count the names! Those are the ones that are brave enough to stand alongside me for what this Rebellion should really be!"

"These... These are enough," Drake said nervously. _Oh... oh, shit_ ; Cyrus thought.

"Enough?" Jade wondered. "Enough for what?"

"For a challenge," Sephiria said, hands over her mouth, eyes darting between Caleb and Aldarn. "A challenge for the position of rebel leader, in case the current leader is not seen as fit to lead us."

"And I have enough supporters to do so," Aldarn declared, pointing a finger towards Caleb. "Caleb, son of Julian, I challenge you to a duel at dawn! And only the victor shall lead this Rebellion!"

And as Aldarn turned around and stormed out of the Small Council's room, Caleb couldn't do nothing but stare impotently at how his oldest friend in all of creation left; the feeling of betrayal the one that reigned over his entire being.

* * *

 ** _A few hours later, another section of the Infinite City_**

When Cyrus entered into the room he found Charles in exactly the same spot as before, sitting in the lonely chair with the suitcase containing the Seal of Phobos at his side, the only difference being that he was writing something down in a small notebook he was holding.

"What are you doing?" Cyrus asked of his elder brother.

"Writing down the names of the rebels on my payroll I can remember about," Charles explained in his faked cold voice. He stopped writting and closed the notebook, flexing his wooden wrist a couple of times. "Are we alone?"

"For now," Cyrus told his brother.

"Thank goodness," Charles retorted, dropping the faked cold demeanor.

"Starting to get tired of the greedy and cold guy act, big brother?" Cyrus asked with a smirk. "Here," he said, tossing a wine skin towards his brother that Charles took with ease; "have a drink, relax a little."

"Have I ever told you that I'm starting to think you have a problem with drinking?" Charles inquired, drinking from the wine skin afterwards. He stopped in the moment his tongue registered the flavor of the drink. _Tastes like vinegar..._ Charles thought as he tossed the wine skin back at Cyrus.

"It's only a problem if I ever run out of it!" the youngest Ludmoore brother joked, something that made Charles to laugh a bit. "Anyway, it's not as if this wine was any good;" he added, throwing the wine skin to the ground.

"Did... did you do all this just to mess with me?" an amused Charles wondered.

"Hey, I'm the youngest;" Cyrus pointed out. "It's my duty to mess with my older siblings."

Charles chuckled at that. "How did everything go?"

"Well... the plan worked," Cyrus informed. "They reacted exactly as we expected. How did you know that Will would push for taking you in?"

"As the saying goes _'Know thy enemy'_ , brother;" Charles said while standing up. "You don't spend generations plotting against someone without learning anything about them. Learning strengths, weaknesses…" Charles smirked as he said that, "patterns. Like the one concerning the Heart of Kandrakar seemingly always picking pragmatic and controlling girls to lead the Guardians. That, alongside all the information you have provided regarding young Miss Vandom's way of handling situations post-Torus Filney..."

"Gave you an approximate idea of how she would react to this situation," Cyrus ended the phrase for him.

"Exactly," Charles told his sibling. "Frankly, I consider young Miss Chan to be far more dangerous in a short term. Less diplomatic, less... predictable. Though they both can be troublesome in the long term."

"We'll have to worry about the long term later," Cyrus said then. "We have much more pressing matters to focus on now."

"How come?" Charles asked. "Has there been any problem?"

"A big one, actually;" Cyrus told his eldest brother. "Aldarn wasn't happy that we ended taking you in, so... he kind of challenged Caleb for leadership."

Charles didn't react with words. Instead, his eyes flared orange with the power of the Noble Pig, firing a shot of energy from his eyes that reduced the nearby wine skin to smoking pieces of leather. He calmed down afterwards.

"Was that... normal?" the blond rebel asked, a bit wary.

Sighing, Charles rubbed his neck with his flesh hand. "Although stealing Wong's magic has made me considerably more powerful, containing outbursts of anger is far more difficult than before," he explained. He raised his wooden hand in front of his face. "Having this power, not only the magic, but the power of these Talismans inside of me… no wonder Wong was so volatile. It's a little price to pay in exchange of being able to stand in equal footing with Lady Nimue, anyway."

"Oh yes, the sorceress that humiliated you;" Cyrus said as if it wasn't all that important. There was a hint of amusement in his voice, even. "Do you even know what she's been up to?"

"I'm not omniscient, brother. And truth to be told, it doesn't bother me. Come," he told his youngest brother while already walking; "I have had enough of waiting. Let's see if I can be useful in this little crisis."

* * *

 ** _Across the Veil, Egypt, undisclosed location_**

How old were these ruins? Mariko Takeda didn't know. What had they been in the past? A fortress… perhaps a temple? Mariko Takeda didn't know that either. The only thing that she knew was that some of her teacher's enemies used this place as their base of operations from time to time, and that it was their duty to stop… whatever they were doing. It hadn't been all that hard, something that anyone could deduce by looking at the more than two dozen wizards and witches, all dressed in golden robes and silver, featureless masks that lied at her and her boyfriend's feet. As Liam had remarked, it had been more difficult for the trio to find this place than to fight these people. They were all kind of… _amateurish_ in their sorceries, if she had to be sincere. And why was sand everywhere?! Wait, no; that had been a stupid question. She knew why sand was everywhere. They were in the desert, of course there was sand!

As for Nimue, the ancient and mighty sorceress was advancing through the half-crumbled great hall of whatever this building had been in the distant past, towards an altar at the end of it, over which the last remaining golden-robed wizard muttered incantation towards an octagonal, golden object that floated in the air and that radiated energy. Nimue reached him in no time, even taking a few seconds to move a couple of her black and long hairs from her face and put them back in their place. When she was mere inches away from the wizard, she imbued her right hand with her purple magic and, after touching the man ever so slightly, he was hoisted into the air as if he had springs for feet.

"I completed the incantation!" the wizard yelled triumphantly as he flew towards the ceiling. "You failed, witch! You fai…!" BONK! The wizard had collided with the ceiling. He fell to the ground afterwards, sand softening the impact and generating a small 'poof' sound.

"I know," Nimue said without any worry. "You always complete the incantation. Well, not you;" she told the unconscious wizard; "but yes all the ones that have preceded you."

As the witch spoke, the octagonal trinket started to shine even more strongly, bursting into a million pieces afterwards. From inside the destroyed trinket came a small shadow that started to grow and grow, until it was as big as Nimue. Then the shadow started to take a shape, and after a minute, there was a woman floating over the altar.

An Egyptian woman, if Mariko's eyes didn't lie to her. Skin dark, the chin and nose sharp, she didn't look older than forty years old. She was dressed in a sleeveless white dress that reached all the way down to her ankles and that allowed anyone who looked at her to get a peek of her breasts through the sides of it. She wore a blue silk over it, and a golden cape that mimicked the wings of a falcon at her back. She was wearing a blue crown similar to the ones worn by the Queen-Pharaohs of old, decorated with golden ornaments and the biggest emerald Mariko had ever seen over her brow.

"Yes, I'm free!" the Egyptian woman shouted in pure joy. "After another century of imprisonment, I'm free again! And this time, all shall bow to Nihila, Queen of the Loom! Not even the flow of Fate itself will be safe from… oh, it's you;" she said plainly to Nimue; "and you brought new faces," she commented upon noticing Liam and Mariko.

As the Egyptian woman's enthusiasm diminished, Nimue did nothing but chuckle. "Yes, it's me;" Nimue told her interlocutor. "And my new apprentice. And her boyfriend. I'm sorry for not keeping this as just-you-and-me as I usually do."

"You won't be stopping me this time, old hag!" Nihila yelled, imbuing her fists in magic of gold and emerald colors.

"Okay, first of;" Nimue said seriously, coating her entire being in purple magic and levitating until she was at the same height as her adversary. "I'm only four hundred years older than you. Second, respect your elders!" Nimue said, unleashing a wave of light purple energy that sent Nihila to the ground. "And third, how many times have we done this over the last six centuries, Nihila? Twenty, twenty-one?"

"Twenty-three," the Egyptian ancient sorceress said, rather pessimistically. And in each of those encounters she had ended sealed again… She shook her head. "But it won't happen this time! This time I will best you!"

"Or you could stop this whole 'Take over Fate itself' nonsense and save all of us some valuable time!" Nimue scolded her. "Find a good place to live in! Do something less stressful than trying to put one of the universe's most complex mechanics under your thrall!"

"Never!" Nihila yelled, flying at high speed towards Nimue.

Sighing, the witch from old Britannia prepared to block the incoming attack. "Different century, same obstinacy."

* * *

 ** _Across the Veil, Infinite City_**

The sun would be setting soon enough, or at least that was what the Guardians, the Chan Clan and their friends suspected. Dawn would arrive in a handful of hours, and then Caleb would have to duel Aldarn. And that meant they had less time to act than the one they had expected to have. As such, once the Guardians and Jade had left the members of the Rebellion's Small Council to their own devices, they had gathered the rest of their party in one large chamber far away from the eyes of any rebel, and they had explained to the rest the situation they found themselves in now.

"Where is Caleb now?" Jackie asked of the girls.

"He said he needed to be alone," Taranee explained. "Considering how close he seemed to be with Aldarn, we thought it better to let him be."

"And what do we do now?" the archeologist inquired yet again.

"We follow the plan," Will said with decision and authority. "We take Alchemy and Mrs. Rudolph to Lannion, and see if they can bring Elyon to our side. I know it's risky, but if we succeed, then this war's practically won. So we're going to split into two teams, one that will go to Lannion and the other staying here to make sure nothing goes wrong with Aldarn and Caleb's duel."

"So who goes and who stays?" Viper asked.

Will gave a few steps, walking just enough so she could look at all her teammates to their faces. "Jackie and Viper, you two go to Lannion with Mrs. Rudolph and Alchemy. The Mage told us that her spy is currently in Lannion, so she'll meet with you and tell you where Elyon is. You get Mrs. Rudolph and Alchemy in as fast and quietly as possible. This is a stealth mission, so avoid any fight if necessary. And remember, even if we're allied to Count Cornelius, we can't raise any suspicion. If a soldier detects you, they'll try to kill you. Hay Lin, Taranee;" the Keeper addressed the Air and Fire Guardians; "you two are support. If any big fight that Viper and Jackie can't handle breaks out, you two handle it."

"Yes!" Hay Lin cheered energetically, even mimicking a soldier's salute.

"And if we can't win the fight?" Taranee inquired.

"Then you gather everyone and get out of Lannion," Will answered, earning herself a nod of approval from the black, bespectacled girl.

"Wait, what about me?" Cornelia asked.

"What about you?" Jade asked back to the blonde.

Ignoring the Chan girl, the Earth Guardian looked at Will. "You send a team to rescue Elyon and you don't send me?! Why?!" she asked, yelling

"Because you are the Guardian of Earth!" Will yelled back, losing her cool and surprising not only Cornelia, but everyone else in the room. "Which is the element this entire place is buried into! You, Irma and Jade are this team's heavy-hitters! I doubt Caleb's going to lose his duel, but what happens if he does?! Aldarn didn't seem too happy with us back there, did he?" Will stopped, breathing quickly, trying to calm down. Damn it, why had her life to be so stressful all the time? "I need you here, Cornelia."

"But…" the blonde protested, just for Alchemy to approach her and to put a hand over the blonde's back.

"Have faith in us, Cornelia;" Alchemy told her friend. "We will bring Elyon back, I promise."

With that solved, Will raised the Heart of Kandrakar up, transforming the Guardians back into their human forms. "We should get some rest," she told her companions. "If the duel's at dawn, then it's better if you depart before it starts. So we'll get some sleep, wake up in a few hours and transform back. Everyone okay with that?" the redhead asked and everyone nodded in turn. "Awesome. Let's go find a place we can sleep in."

* * *

 ** _At the same time…_**

The knives were in place.

"Have you heard?"

"There's goin' to be a duel, a duel!"

"Aldarn challenged Caleb!"

"The King Smuggler... here?!"

"As if we didn't have enough with the Beast..."

"Stop sayin' crazy stuff, lass!"

"What?! Why?!"

"A duel, a duel!"

"Light of Meridian..."

"Duel, duel, duel, duel!"

The knives were in place. They had been in place for a long time, but she knew rushing things would only end in her getting defeated and placed on a cell. Patience was the mother of most victories, after all. The Blade of Meridian hadn't raised a fool, after all.

 _Mother..._ Ishol thought, sitting in the dusty floor, back lying against a cold wall. Mother... what was she doing now? How was she doing? Rebels came and went away, talking about how she had entered the war. But just like the sharpest of blades rusts away, the greatest of warriors ages too. The fallen Viscountess feared for her mother's safety, for she knew that, even if still a great swordswoman, Lady Galiene was old.

And what of Roderick, her lovely, honorable and kind husband? She could picture him in his cell, imprisoned by the ones that should be behind bars. And what about all the others? The rebels, like the pigs they were, had been feasting over the death of old Ghiscar. Would that be the end her fellow nobles would meet if the rebels won the war. And what about the folk of Torus Filney? Torus Filney...

 _My home, my... my people_ ; she thought with sadness. But as the next yell of 'Duel!' reached her ears, sadness became anger once again. The anger boiled for a moment, but then it cooled down. And as she continued to sit there, hearing more and more about how the rebel leader had been challenged; the auburn haired noblewoman could only think about one thing.

 _The knives were in place_.

* * *

 ** _Meanwhile…_**

"I know it's not too much," Will told her boyfriend as she guided him to the room where they all were going to sleep. It was a simple chamber, with large bags full of straw and other soft materials distributed across the floor and covered in simple blankets; acting as beds for the rebels. Vathek had told them they could use this room to rest and not get troubled, that he and Drake would make sure they didn't get disturbed at all; "but it's what they've got here, so…"

"Hey, it can't be worse than camping with my parents;" Matt joked, making the redhead to laugh a bit. Christ, she looked so tired. "Ah… Will?"

"Yeah?"

"Thanks for…" the teenage guitarist began. "Thanks for bringing me here today. You didn't have to, and I know I've been insisting too much into being part of it, and… just thank you."

"It's nothing," Will told her boyfriend. _I actually did it so seeing so many people hurt would scare you_ ; she thought. _And it hasn't worked_. "Jackie told me you all were helping with the wounded."

"Oh yeah, that was… cool, I guess;" Matt said awkwardly. "I just helped some of those Faithful dudes carrying things around. Jackie's, er… Talisman, is it?" Will nodded. "That Horse Talisman of his did all the work, actually. That was actually very awesome, the people just had to grip the thing and then there were some sparkles and the wounds were gone. I suppose that's how magic…"

"Matt, can I ask you a question?" Will interrupted him.

"Sure," her boyfriend told her.

"Why are you so obsessed with helping people?" Will asked, throwing Matt out for a second. "I mean, it's not that there's anything wrong with that, but… Look, this is a war. And the girls and I are fighting in it because it's basically our job. Somebody in some weird place called Kandrakar just decided one day to give me this thing," she said, tapping the Heart of Kandrakar; "and told us to save a planet and win a war. Sometimes, I start thinking why I keep doing it, even after everything that's already happened, and every time I come to the conclusion that it's because I couldn't look another way even if I wanted to. Not now." Will paused a bit, looking at her boyfriend. "But why are you so insistent into helping us? And don't tell me it's because is the right thing to do, or…"

"Because I don't like it," Matt answered.

"What?"

"One day, when I was younger," the teen started to explain to the redhead; "I went for a walk around Heatherfield. I was just minding my own business when I saw a couple of punks bothering some homeless man in an alley. I ran towards them, told them to get out or I'd call the police. The moment they glared at me I almost shit myself and thought ' _Way to go, Olsen! You're an idiot!_ ';" Matt said, laughing a bit nervously at the memory. "But at the end they just walked away. Turns out they were just a couple of bullies, some idiots that didn't have anything better to do with their time than picking on people weaker than them. I helped the homeless guy up, told him if he needed for me to call the police and tell them what had just happened. He told me," Matt continued, lost in his memories. For the teen guitarist it was as if that homeless man was just right there in front of him; "he told me 'It doesn't matter. I'm accustomed to it, it always happens'. And I don't like… that."

"You don't like… injustice?" Will asked. She thought that she was understanding where the other teen was trying to go, but he wasn't exactly being clear.

"No, I don't like… I don't like _powerlessness_ ;" Matt told her. "And I know it sounds childish or silly, especially coming from a guy whose big dream's to start a band with his friends, but… I just… this feeling that there's no hope, that no matter what you do, things aren't going to change for the better, that there's no point in fighting because the fight's already lost. I don't like that one bit. I just _hate_ it." Matt looked directly at Will, his eyes becoming brighter and making her own to brighten in return. "That's the reason what you're doing it's so important, Will. It's not about winning, or losing, or choosing the lesser evil, or whatever. It's about giving people hope. And I doubt there's been anything in any world that's given anyone more hope than what you do."

"God I love you," Will said suddenly, and before Matt had any opportunity to say 'I love you too', Will had launched herself at him and put her lips against his. The kiss lasted for quite a time, and when the pair of teens broke their embrace, both of them were redder than tomatoes. "I know," she told him, no need for him to say it with words.

* * *

 ** _Caleb's private room_**

"I told you I wanted to be alone, didn't I?"

Cornelia let Caleb's question to linger in the air. It wasn't that she didn't wish to answer, but that she found hard to concentrate in the question. She found the room around them much more interesting. Caleb's room. Or at least what she supposed it was Caleb's room.

The blonde couldn't avoid comparing it to her own and to the idea she had in her head about what a boy's room should be. Her room was organized and well-illuminated, painted in bright colors. Her bed was comfy and soft, her shelves full of magazines, while her trophies and gold medals from her ice-skating matches were always at the top. Her idea of a boy's room came from the few times she had seen the one that belonged to Irma's little brother, or the ones she had seen in movies. Disorganized, sometimes dirty, full of things like posters, videogames, and remnants of fast food... But then again, were the rooms of Irma and Jade any different?

This room was. It was austere and impersonal, and of the same green stone as the rest of the Infinite City was. There were no windows and no tables or chairs, just a lonely bed. There were weapons, though. Quite a large bunch of swords of varying sizes, some daggers, a couple of bows, a lot of arrows. There was a lance, and a big one at that. Weird, she had never seen Caleb using a lance.

It was a soldier's room.

"You should've known I wasn't going to do that," the blonde Guardian told the rebel leader. "I want to know how you're doing."

"I'm fine," he said. He had his back turned towards her, making Cornelia unable to see his face.

"No, you're not;" the Earth Guardian said matter-of-factly.

"So what?!" Caleb yelled suddenly, turning around. His eyes were teary, making the green in them to look more vibrant than usual. "Why do you want to know?!"

Oh, there it was. The pent-up emotions, coming all at once when they couldn't be repressed anymore. If this was any other person, they may have reacted by being calm and understanding. However, this wasn't any person. This was Cornelia Hale.

"Because I care about you, you jackass!" Cornelia shouted to Caleb's face. She stomped forward, no mini-earthquake or cracking floor this time, driving a finger into Caleb's chest. "I come here to check on you, and what does great rebel leader do?! Act like a complete and colossal jerk!"

"Nobody asked you to do that!" Caleb yelled back, leaning forward. "Nobody told you to do... anything! What can you do, anyway?! I have to duel my _oldest_ friend at dawn! Probably to the death!" Caleb raised his hands in the air. "What can you possibly know about...?!"

The slap came fast and strong, forcing Caleb to turn his head to the side due to the impact's force. When he looked back at Cornelia, the blonde's blue eyes were flaring with fury.

"Don't you dare to tell me that I don't understand what's to lose a friend! Don't you dare to tell me that I don't know what's to be forced to fight a friend!" Cornelia shouted to his face.

"I... I'm sorry," Caleb, now calmer, said. "It's just... I don't... I don't understand." The rebel leader sat down in his bed, arms over his thighs, head down. Cornelia sat beside him shortly after. "Aldarn isn't just my friend, he's... he's like a brother to me. I have grown up with him. I have laughed with him, cried with him, bleed with him. I always thought that, no matter what happened, I could count on him. I..." Cornelia put a hand over Caleb's back, no differently than what Alchemy had done to her. "I don't… I don't want to fight him."

"Then don't do it!" Cornelia pointed out.

"I have to," Caleb told her. "It's how it works. When the Rebellion was formed, there were some members that feared that whoever was leading them would take them down a wrong path. So it was made official that, as long as he or she had enough support, any member of the Small Council could challenge the leader to a duel."

"Okay, that's just… stupid;" the Earth Guardian pointed out. "Everyone could just go and ask some people to support them in exchange of favors and take the leadership anytime. Whose idea was that?"

"My father's," Caleb said plainly.

"Oh," Cornelia said in turn. "S-Sorry."

"No, don't apologize;" Caleb said. "It _is_ stupid. I don't even know why monsters like Rhouglar or Tharquin never tried to do that." Caleb chuckled darkly. "Probably because they didn't need to, since I let them do as they pleased."

"Caleb, what those people did wasn't your fault, okay?" Cornelia told the scarred boy. "You've been doing everything you can to give Meridian a better Rebellion, so stop torturing yourself every time something goes wrong."

"Aldarn thinks I corrupted the Rebellion, and he wants to duel me for it;" Caleb stated.

"Then Aldarn's _wrong_!" Cornelia told him, a sentence that made the rebel leader to look up at her, the green of his eyes against the blue of hers. "Just because he's your best friend that doesn't mean you should be justifying everything he does and blaming yourself for it!" Cornelia paused for a second, and then chuckled just like Caleb had done moments before. "Wow, I sounded just like the biggest hypocrite in the universe right there."

That earned her a small laughter from her fellow teenager. "I still have to fight him."

"You'll do what you have to do;" Cornelia told him. "But... just try not to die, okay? And if you're forced to use this;" she said, pointing to the hilt of the Sword of Thanatos; "we'll be there to knock you out. For real this time."

"Thank you, Cornelia;" Caleb said sincerely. "For... for everything, actually."

"Hey, isn't that what friends are for?" the blonde said.

"Yes, that's what… _friends_ are for;" Caleb retorted.

Both of them laughed at how Caleb had phrased that. It sounded like a short, quick and awkward laugh, similar to a giggle. Then they let silence to speak for them. _'Friend'_ , they had called each other. Both found that definition to be... inadequate. Was right to call it inadequate? They _were_ friends; there was no lie in that. But was that everything they really were? More importantly, was that all they wanted to be? Though they ignored what each other's feelings and desires were, they couldn't ignore their own. Both of them, even with all their baggage, were too headstrong to do that.

That was the reason why, when Cornelia leaned forward and put her lips over his, he didn't try to fight or avoid it. When Caleb joined in, she welcomed it. And that was enough for both teens to understand that, yes; each did reciprocate the other's feelings.

And the following kisses came like something as natural as breathing.

* * *

 ** _Aldarn's own room_**

In a similar way to Caleb, Aldarn had also decided to wait for the time of the duel in his room. If he was going to be able to get some sleep, that he didn't know. He knew it would be beneficial for him to rest before dueling, but a part of him feared any traitorous attack that may come, and another was feeling too many things to be able to get any sleep. He was just sitting there in an old chair, in the middle of the room. In his right hand he was holding the Mask of the demon, in the other a bow.

No, not just a mere bow. This was the bow that Caleb had taken from that armory at the castle that fateful day more than half a year ago. When, thanks to a fluke of destiny, he had met with the Guardians and with the earthlings. Was he judging all of them too harshly? They had done a lot of good for this Rebellion, both in and out of the battlefield…

But who did they think they were, making the rebel army ally themselves with nobles?! Who did they think they were, forcing the rebels to cooperate, to work side by side, for the people that for thirteen long years had stood up over a mountain made out of the corpses of their companions?! Who did the Guardians think they were, blessing of Kandrakar or not, to ally themselves and forgive those that had done nothing but support Phobos' rule while hiding behind the walls of their Great Cities?!

And who was Caleb, who once had called himself his friend and proud leader of this Rebellion, thinking he was; doing the same?!

 _Not my leader_ , Aldarn thought bitterly. Shame was the only thing those actions had brought upon them and the dead. _Never again!_

With fury, Aldarn tossed the bow aside. The weapon collided with a wall and fell to the ground. He held the Mask with both hands afterwards, the blue visage looking back at him with eerie green eyes, mouth opened and showing the monster's fangs. Whoever had crafted this thing had captured this being's supposed bloodthirstiness quite well.

Aldarn wasn't ignorant of how these artifacts worked, or what had happened to those who had worn them for a face before him. However, he was confident that his case wouldn't be the same. Of course men like Lothar would succumb to the powers of a demon; he was as foul as his master. And that wasn't the rebel's case. He would dominate the demon within the Mask, putting his endless army of shadows at his orders! As for his face becoming blue and scaly for the rest of his life… well, that wasn't important. A small sacrifice in exchange for finally ending this bloody war, and avenging those that had been lost.

 _Yes. It will be worth it_ ; Aldarn thought.

 _It will be all worth it, in the end_.

* * *

 _To those who say 'The Enemy of my Enemy is my Friend', I tell: Alliances built over common adversaries are quick to fall apart once said enemy is gone. And in the way of making new friends out of your old adversaries, you may lose old friends too_.  Oracle Himerish

* * *

 **Author's Notes: Hello again! Hope you enjoyed this chapter. Frankly… this was scheduled to be updated one month ago, but as said before, life's been extremely complicated until now, and I haven't had a lot of time to write. I actually wanted to show the start of Caleb and Aldarn's duel here, and the start of the mission to Lannion, but I think I'll reserve those for a separate chapter, since this one already has enough things going on in it. Having said that, it's time for you all to judge. Leave a review if you feel like it, thanks for reading, and until next time.**

 **Bye, bye!**


	26. What do Rebellions fight for?

**Disclaimer: I own neither the WITCH cartoon-show nor Jackie Chan Adventures; they are the property of their respective creators, writers, and producers.**

 **A/N: Hello again, dear readers. It seems I wasn't able to work in this chapter with the pace I wanted to. Almost three months since the last update, eh? These last months have been killing me, between work and my cousin's home getting freaking flooded, I didn't find a lot of time to write, and when I did, I found myself unable to put to words the scenes in my head as easily as I thought. Anyway, nothing will stop me from writing this story; at least until I have finished Season 1 and I take some needed rest from it so I can start Season 2 with renewed strength. And with that said, I hope you're ready for some flashbacks, some action, some conflict, and some drama; as we enter the resolution of a plot thread that's been building for a long time. Enjoy your read.**

* * *

Guardians, Wizards and Kung-Fu Fighters

Episode Twenty six

What do Rebellions fight for?

* * *

 ** _Meridian, Infinite City; eight years ago_**

 ** _The fifth year after Phobos' coup_**

"So, have ya' heard?"

"Hear what?"

"Ya' know, buddy; 'bout Lord Zeldris."

"Who?"

"Zeldris! Ya' know! The… the brother!"

Listening to random conversations product of random encounters between random members of Meridian's young Rebellion wasn't what you would call exactly thrilling. However, it was an incredibly effective way to find some distraction if one felt nervous. For the seven-year-old Aldarn, son of Aketon; the young and bald half-breed currently sitting on a wooden bench, feet barely touching the ground and dressed in a pair of ragged pants and shirt of a deep purple color that did nothing but accentuate the yellowish tone of his skin (courtesy of his father's Galhot blood); it was enough to make his thoughts focus into anything that wasn't…

Aldarn shook his head quite strongly. No, no, he wasn't going to think about that. He had chosen to listen to these two idiots precisely to not have to focus on that. There would be time for it... later. So he shook his head again, this time more slowly, and concentrated into the conversation.

"Zel... Zeldris..." young Aldarn heard the second speaker's voice. "You mean the older brother of the Royal Consort, right? That Zeldris?"

"Yes, that one;" came the reply of the rebel that had spoken first. "The one that married some peasant girl."

"So... the Usurper's uncle."

"That's it!"

"What about him?"

"He's dead."

"Really? Was that us?"

"No, I think it was just a group of armed peasants."

"We _are_ a group of armed peasants."

"Ya' know what I mean."

"Are you going to tell the commanders about this?"

"No. Look, this is only somethin' I'm tellin' ya'. I'm not tellin' this to any of them."

"You're scared it's just a rumor, aren't you?"

"Ha, ha. Yer very funny."

"Hey, but wasn't the woman Lord Zeldris married one of those..."

Aldarn stopped listening. He couldn't have kept doing so even if he would have wanted to, since now the voices of the pair of rebels were barely audible. They must have turned around a corner, or something. Though Aldarn had been listening to their conversation, he hadn't noticed any hint of anger, sorrow or enthusiasm in their voices. They had talked about it, about a man's death, with the same indifference somebody talks about the weather.

So what?! The Usurper's uncle was dead... what about it?! A nobleman that had run away from court and his responsibilities, and that hadn't moved a single finger when his nephew had taken over! Just like the rest of the nobles had done. Just like the Guard had done. It was just as Gormath and James always told Caleb and him.

 _Servants of the Tyrant, the lot of them_ ; Aldarn thought with spite. Cowards that had abandoned them and the very world they inhabited in the hopes of living quiet and peacefully under the Prince's shadow. It was thanks to them that Aldarn had spent the first years of his life between these green, cursed walls. It was thanks to them that hundreds of people had already died! It was thanks to them…!

"It's time."

The words caught Aldarn by surprise, taking him out of his thoughts of hatred and back to reality. Slowly, he turned his head to his right in order to see who had spoken to him, albeit he already knew the answer to that question. After all, what kind of child doesn't recognize his father's voice?

And there he was, Aketon the blacksmith, Aldarn's father. A Galhot of wide shoulders, arms heavily muscled due to a lifetime spent in the forge (yet with quite a paunch for a belly) and of average stature, the man's resemblance to his son was uncanny, the only difference between them aside from the age being the darker tone of yellow Aketon's skin had.

"She wishes to speak with you," the father told his son; "alone."

And upon hearing those words coming from his father's mouth, everything related to the conversation young Aldarn had heard was quickly forgotten. The boy was on his feet and running in the direction his father had come from, all in the blink of an eye.

* * *

The room was, unsurprisingly considering the Infinite City's standards, dimly lit. There were candles here and there, some of them already reduced to puddles of cold and solidified wax. At least the room was warm, something Aldarn was grateful for.

Or perhaps it would be more appropriate to be grateful to Caleb for it? Deep down, young Aldarn knew that the fact that he was close friends with the son of the Rebellion's leader was one of the main reasons (if not _the_ main reason) behind the fact that his family had been given this room for private use. The thought of Caleb going to his father and asking for this favor (this _privilege_ ) just due to his friendship with Aldarn was enough to put an innocent, tender smile and a happy look on his face.

Then, of course, he heard the grunting and the harsh breathing; and the smile and happy look were gone, replaced by a look that only showed fear, confusion and anxiety.

As he stepped forward, the dim light of the room allowed Aldarn to see the only piece of furniture that was in the chamber: a lonesome bed. And over the bed, breathing as best as she could, was a middle-aged (probably in her early thirties), white-skinned human woman.

She had her bottom half covered by a brownish sheet, while her torso and arms were completely naked... or they would have been, if they hadn't been covered in bloody bandages. Her auburn hair, which Aldarn had only knew in the form of a wavy mane had been cut down and reduced to a short, messy and scruffy mess. Her bandaged chest went up and down slowly, the motion becoming quicker from time to time due to her grunting or coughing, just to regain the previous motion afterwards. Aldarn stared in complete silence at this intriguing yet unnerving phenomenon for what seemed like an eternity. As he accustomed himself to the little light the candles provided, his eyes were able to register a few details he hadn't been able to see before, such as the edges of some wounds that could be seen at the borders of some of the bandages. It made young Aldarn flinch.

' _She's lost so much blood_ ,' he had heard a member of the Faithful say. ' _Even if the wounds healed…_ '

' _If only we had been able to bring her here sooner_ ,' he had heard another say.

' _W-When we were trying to escape... the Guard shot a rain of arrows... it could've happened to anyone_ ,' he had heard a fellow rebel telling his father.

But it had _not_ happened to just anyone, had it? No, it had happened to her. It had happened to Enid, loyal member of the Rebellion since practically its birth. To Enid, wife of Aketon. To Enid, mother of Aldarn.

"I know you're there," the woman spoke all of a sudden, startling her son. Her voice sounded extremely tired and dry. Even so, she had still spoken with sweetness. "Come here," she continued, barely extending her hand towards him; "let me talk to you."

Aldarn rushed to her side, grabbing her hand with his two, smaller ones. "M-Mother…"

"My brave boy, my little hero," she told him, eyes half-opened. If not for the dim light, Aldarn may have been able to see how there were several red dots spread out all over her eyes' sclera. However, he didn't. All he saw were the eyes of his mother, same as they had always been. "It seems we don't have… much more time. Words can't express… everything I wanted to say to you…"

"M-Mother please," young Aldarn babbled; "y-you can't…"

"Aldarn, my son, listen to me;" the woman spoke, and for that brief moment only shared between mother and son, her voice stopped sounded tired and dry. "The only thing that awaits me now is death. Denying that would be like saying that the sun shines at night."

Aldarn tried to say something, but the only thing that left his mouth was incoherent sobbing. The _little_ _boy_ was _crying_ ; not only out of sadness, but also out of confusion and powerlessness. But who could have blamed him for it? It is already confusing for a child, a seven-year-old one at that, to accept (or even just simply understand) how inevitable and irreversible death is. Therefore, the _certainty_ that his mother was going to die (something that she had confirmed by herself) only made Aldarn feel impotent on top of devastated.

"But before I go," the woman continued, and as she did so, her hand seemed to regain a certain amount of strength, tightly gripping Aldarn's hands; "I need you to do something for me."

"M-Mot-Mother…" Aldarn managed to say between sobs. "I… What must I…?"

"Search under the bed," she instructed him. "There's something there that you must have."

Aldarn did as told, though letting go of his dying mother's hand was harder than anything else he had done in his short life. He kneeled down and searched under the bed, an easy task considering his small body. It took him seconds to find what his mother had told him to find, and when Aldarn rose to his feet again, he was holding it in his thin arms. It was a bundle, covered in white bandages. And it wasn't bigger than a man's head…

"Uncover it," Enid told her son, and the boy did as instructed. Little by little, Aldarn took each bandage from the bundle, the object decreasing in size until it was reduced to what it truly was. And so Aldarn found himself holding... a mask. A mask modeled after some kind of monster with blue and scaly skin and sharp fangs for teeth, but a mask nonetheless. Aldarn held it in front of his face, wondering if his mother wanted for him to put it on as a last wish.

"Don't," she stopped him before he had any chance of flipping the mask and putting it over his face. She had always been able to read her son like an open book. Then again, what mother cannot? "It will destroy you, if you ever put it on."

Aldarn lowered the trinket. "What... is this?" the boy mastered to say between sobbing and tears.

"Do you remember all those tales I told you?" Enid asked of him. "About the Knights of Escanor and the demons they fought? They are true, they are all true, my son."

Aldarn felt a shiver travelling all the way up his spine. For the briefest of moments, his sobbing halted. "Even the..."

"Even the ones about our family being descendants from the Knight Brandis, yes;" his mother confirmed. She chuckled surprisingly darkly. "All those nobles that betrayed the Queen and Light of Meridian... Ha! We've blood far nobler than theirs." After that sentence, she coughed a couple of times, mainly due to how much effort she had put into being able to laugh. "Listen son," she continued, putting her hand over the mask this time; "this is our legacy. Within this artifact, one the Nine Demon Generals lies imprisoned. It's been our family's duty to protect it for generations... now, that duty is yours."

"But... But I don't know how..." Aldarn babbled again.

"Just protect... it... from falling into the... wrong hands," Enid said, coughing a bit. Tiredness was coming back to her. "But... one last thing..." she said, and showcasing one last outburst of strength Enid moved her arm again, grabbing the boy and pulling him towards her. It took Aldarn some time to realize it was a hug.

"I love you, Aldarn. I love you, my son… my little hero;" the woman said, and for that brief moment, there weren't truer words in any world.

"I love you too, mother;" Aldarn told her, but he received no response. "Mother?"

Still no response. Aldarn felt how the strength of the arm that was around him faded away. "M-mom?" The limb fell from him, dangling on the air. The mask hit the floor afterwards. And then the boy used his now free arms to shake his mother's body. He was met, again, with no response.

She was dead.

"Ah... Ah..." young Aldarn uttered. He clutched his chest afterwards and looked frantically around. He was practically hyperventilating.

 _Somebody! Father! Caleb! Anyone!_ Aldarn thought, but the words never came out of his mouth. Instead, he kept staring at his mother. His mother's _corpse_. "Ah...! Ah...!"

"AAAAAAAHHHHHH!"

* * *

 ** _A few days later_**

They had buried his mother outside the Infinite City, in a field of vibrant yellow flowers near the entrance of a forest that was located in the outer rim of Meridian, as far away from the Usurper's center of power as possible. There had been other rebels buried there alongside her, all of them under unmarked graves.

Neither father nor son had protested against that, it was exactly what she would have wanted; to be buried alongside her fellow rebels that had fallen in battle. Leaving the graves unmarked was also the best way to proceed, else they would risk the Prince's forces finding the improvised graveyard and lying waste to it. At least she had received a proper burial, with the proper rites.

Aldarn had cried a lot. He could have sworn that he had been crying for an entire day, from dawn to dusk, until his eyes were red, his throat was sore, his body was exhausted and his mother was buried on the ground. At least he had been able to do as she had asked of him, and hide the Mask in a safe place, one only he knew about. But when he had tired himself from crying, his sadness had left way for a slow burning feeling of anger that had proceeded to mix with the impotence he had been feeling since he had set foot on that wretched room. Being where he was right now did little to help with his current turmoil of emotions.

Aldarn was sitting on an old chair, waiting outside of a room in the Infinite City. Inside of said room, his father was speaking with Julian. It seemed kind of odd for the humble blacksmith to be speaking directly with the leader of the Rebellion, but Aldarn's mind wasn't precisely troubled by that. He was far more troubled by the fact he couldn't hear what they were saying. Didn't he have as much right to be part of that conversation as they had?

Therefore, after some time of quietly waiting, Aldarn rose from his seat and approached the door of the room, opening it just a crack and peeking inside. And there he could see them, Aketon and Julian, standing one in front of another. By the Light of Meridian, they were as different as day was from night.

Julian was standing upright and proud, hands tied behind his back, dressed in brown pants, a white shirt, and a large, deep brown coat. A well trimmed beard adorned his jaw, and looking at him Aldarn couldn't avoid thinking that (barring eye color) this was how Caleb was going to look once enough years passed. Aketon, on the other hand, with his shoulders and head down looked… defeated, crestfallen even.

"Are you sure I can't convince you to change your mind?" Julian asked of Aketon. Aldarn seemed to have started to listen just at the end of the conversation. "You are a very valuable member for this Rebellion, Aketon. Not only as a blacksmith of your talent, but as a provider of information too. With all the members of the Guard that visit your forge day by day…"

"I know," Aketon said, looking down. Now that he looked better, Aldarn saw something in his father's face that he couldn't exactly discern. It wasn't sorrow; it was… what was it? Shame? "But I can't force my son to continue going through this. I allowed him to be with his mother in her last moments… and now I see how big of a mistake that was."

 _What? What is he talking about?_ Aldarn thought.

"So you really are leaving us," Julian commented, hints of both resignation and disappointment in his voice. "I can't force you to stay, either. But I must say… my son will miss yours."

Wait, what?! What did he mean by _leaving_ _them_?! That was stupid! They couldn't just leave, they couldn't just… run away!

"I know," Aketon said. "But this war has taken enough from my family. This is no place for a child to grow, and I won't risk him dying senselessly. My son and I will tomorrow, at…"

"YOU COWARD!"

If the yell didn't do enough to allert both Aketon and Julian of Aldarn's presence, the fact that the boy had just slammed the door open with all the strenght he was capable of using did. The pair of adult men stared at the half-breed child with shock on their faces.

"Aldarn..." Aketon muttered.

"You're a coward!" the boy yelled again, completely ignoring (or perhaps having forgotten) that the leader of the Rebellion was standing mere meters away from him. "How can you talk like that after... after everything that's happened?!"

"I'm trying to..."

"No!" Aldarn silenced his father. "I won't abandon my friends! I won't abandon everything we've been fighting for! I won't let mother's sacrifice... to amount to nothing!"

Upon uttering those words, young Aldarn turned around and started to run away, every fiber in his body urging him to leave his father behind.

"You're a coward!" Aldarn yelled once more, while running. "Just a coward! Mother would've hated you!"

In any other circumstance, had Aldarn done the exact same thing he had done right now, his father would have run after him, grabbed the boy and restrained him until he calmed down. This time, however, Aketon remained where he was, standing in silence, a heartbroken expression on his face.

* * *

 ** _Two days later_**

His father had abandoned him. He had left the Infinite City, and therefore the Rebellion. He had abandoned everything they had been fighting for, everything Enid had stood for and that young Aldarn had ever believed in. His father had abandoned him, in this that was his lowest moment… and by the Light, did it hurt more than any wound. And the worst part was that he still harbored some hope that his father was going to come back, that he was going to magically appear in the barracks Aldarn usually slept in, and that they were going to hug each other, and that his father was going to apologize for being such a fool and that the both of them were going to cry and promise each other that they would avenge Enid…

None of that had happened, of course. For two long nights Aldarn had done his dimmest to remain awake in order to see for himself if his father ever returned. But his father hadn't come back. His fellow rebels, men and women of every age, had cursed Aketon's name with words Aldarn had never heard before, saying that he was the worst kind of man, abandoning his only child just when he had also lost his mother. But that did very little to comfort him. Every time he closed his eyes the only images that stared back at him were the lifeless visage of his mother's corpse, his father's crestfallen face and the grinning blue face of the Mask.

"Aldarn?" he heard someone ask.

It took him longer than usual to react to the newcomer's voice. When he did and looked up from the ground of the training room in which he was sitting, back against a training dummy; he discovered that the voice hadn't come from a single individual but from a group. A group of six, all of them young, but only one of them of the same age as Aldarn, the others being each a few years older than them. He recognized them all instantly. After all, they were his _friends_.

Leading the group was, of course, Caleb, his closest friend. Behind him and on the group's far right was Bessie, a teenage Galhot girl with navy blue skin, pointy ears and no hair over her head. At her left was Rolph, a bulky human boy of the same age, short black hair and tanned skin. Then were the two half-breed twins Nadia and Gormath, taller and with far more muscles than anyone else in their little group (and than many adults, for that matter) both of them with light yellowish skin and long, dark grayish hair that both of them wore tied into ponytails. The only way to differentiate them was the fact that Nadia had a large scar that travelled over her left cheek, all the way up from her chin to her head. Last and at the group's far left was James, the oldest of them all at seventeen, a thin young Galhot with scaly skin of a light shade of green, a big nose a small mouth and a long face.

"We knew you'd be here," Rolph spoke. They hadn't had a lot of time to talk during the last days, but that had been understandable. "You shouldn't be alone. We're…" he said, looking down. "We're so sorry about what happened. If there's anything…"

"Cut it out, Rolph;" Gormath told his friend. "He's been hearing that crap all the time for the last week. I bet he's tired… ouch!" the large half-breed teenager said as James hit the back of his head with his hand. "What's that for?"

"So you'd cut _that_ out, dumbass;" Nadia told her twin brother.

Gormath mumbled something while rubbing his head, and meanwhile both Bessie and Caleb sat down next to Aldarn. The bald blue girl was quick to put her arms around him and hug the half-breed boy as strong as she could, which considering she was a Galhot was quite a lot. When she let him go, her eyes were teary.

"Aldarn, I'm so sorry..." Bessie said while her hands were still over his shoulders. "Enid was a good woman, she didn't deserve this. And neither did you."

"I..." Aldarn said, trembling a bit. Light of Meridian… Why were Galhots so freaking strong, even in comparison with half-breeds like him? "T-Thank you."

"You don't have to say that," Caleb spoke next, his green eyes staring directly into Aldarn's brown ones, lips curving into a gentle smile. That gesture alone was enough to lift Aldarn's spirits. "We're your friends. And I know your mother is... gone, and your father has run away..." Caleb said a bit awkwardly, trying to find the appropriate words; "but I know he'll come back. And meanwhile… you have us. You'll always have us."

"And when he comes back I'll kick his… aughk!" Gormath declared, or at least he tried to, his sentence being cut by another hit to the head provided by James and a jab to the stomach provided by his sister. This caused every member of the group to laugh to some degree.

Aldarn's lips formed a smile of their own and that matched the one of his friends. Yes, who could understand him better that these people? Who could understand him better than his companions, who had lost as much as he had lost? These people, his friends, his brothers and sisters in anything but blood…

"Do you mean that?" Aldarn asked Caleb.

"Yes," Caleb answered with complete certainty. "Aldarn, you're my best friend. I'll always be here for you. You'll see," the green-eyed boy said; "we'll avenge your mother. We won't let all this suffering to be in vain."

"Come on, get up from the ground, you will catch a cold;" calm and deep-voiced James told him, and Bessie helped him to stand up. With Caleb and Bessie at his side, Aldarn began to walk.

His friends guided him out from that training room and through the endless halls of the Infinite City. It didn't take long for one of them to tell some jest, and for the others to laugh at it. Aldarn found himself surprised not only by the sound of his own laughter, but also by how much he welcomed it. And as he advanced, surrounded by the people he cared about and that cared for him, Aldarn forgot about his mother's demise, and his father abandoning him. The only thing that mattered now was to keep going… because there were still people worth fighting for. The Prince had taken his two parents from him, one by killing her through one of his minions, the other by using fear. But that wouldn't happen again. Not only his mother, but every innocent that had been slain would be avenged. And once the war was over and all the tyrant's minions had paid for their crimes, he and his friends would finally be able to enjoy the peace and freedom they had bleed and cried so much for.

 _Always…_ Aldarn thought.

* * *

 ** _The Infinite City_**

 ** _Now_**

Aldarn woke up slowly. He spent the next moments lying over his bed, not moving a single muscle. It took his mind more time than he would have liked to remind him of what was going to happen once the sun rose. As he incorporated, sitting over the bed with his legs extended and his hands between them, he wondered if dawn had already arrived. No, that was unlikely. He had given his followers explicit orders to awaken him at least two hours before dawn, which meant that he still had some time to sleep before the duel. If only sleeping was so easy…

 _Always_. That had been what he and his friends had promised to each other, that they would always be together. That no matter the odds, they would always be there for each other. And what had happened? The same thing that had happened with his mother! Phobos and his followers had stolen them from him! Killed them all!

Nadia and Gormath had been the first ones to fall, struck down by a platoon of guards that had ambushed them and the party of rebels they were with. They had departed from this world in the same vein they had arrived: Together. James had followed, the man Aldarn had always thought of as an older brother being captured and sentenced to death when he and a small band of rebels had tried to sneak into the Capital in order to steal some weapons and other goods from the Guard's barracks; executed publicly after a mockery of a trial. Bessie and Rolph had fallen in the same battlefield in which Caleb had fought the enemy for the first time, killed by some lucky Lurden or guard. And Caleb…

Caleb had survived, and when Julian had fallen, he had stood up to the task of leading the Rebellion, and Aldarn had tried his hardest to be there to always support his closest friend. And the Rebellion had achieved more in the few years it had been under Caleb's leadership than in all the ones it had been under Julian's; especially after the Guardians and those earthlings had started to aid them in their struggle. A Shapeshifter on their side, strange weaponry, magic artifacts… Yes, all of those had been really helpful. Each of them had meant very important victories for the Rebellion. And Aldarn wasn't blind. Even he, who had worshiped the Rebellion and those who formed it for his entire life, couldn't deny that men as despicable and dishonorable as Rhouglar and Tharquin were better gone than fighting alongside them.

But at what prize had those achievements come? Making alliances with the Prince's servants, fighting side by side with the soldiers that had willingly hunted down and murdered rebels not so long ago, working and planning alongside the noblemen and noblewomen that had turned a blind eye to Phobos' crimes and the people's suffering for more than a decade... those were transgressions Aldarn couldn't keep tolerating. They were an affront to everything the Rebellion had been fighting for, to everything Aldarn's friends and family had sacrificed themselves for. To allow those crimes to go unpunished would be the same as spitting over their unmarked graves. And no matter what, Aldarn would do whatever it was necessary to put a stop to those transgressions.

Aldarn searched under his pillow (or more accurately, a sack full of straw acting as one) and pulled the Mask of the demon out. He remained where he was for the next few minutes, looking at it. For a second, Aldarn wished for the sealed monster to gain sentience without a body and laugh at him, tell him that he was being a fool, and that this couldn't be what his mother would have wanted. But there was no such thing. Instead, Aldarn was just greeted by the silence of his room and the certainty that he was going to duel Caleb to the death at dawn. There was no going back now, either he did this or nobody would do it.

 _And I will do it, whatever it takes_ ; the bald, half-breed teenage boy thought as he crossed the threshold of his room's door; sword hanging from his belt and Mask safely hidden at his back. Fists clenched, sleep completely forgotten and resolve strengthened, Aldarn marched forward.

 _Whatever it takes_.

* * *

 ** _Meanwhile…_**

In a similar way Aldarn had done, Jade Chan also woke up slowly sooner than she usually woke up. In contrast with Aldarn, however, she didn't wake up reminiscing about lost friends and family. Instead, her mind was mainly focused into two thoughts. One: she was hungry. There you had one of the downsides of being a Shapeshifter, apparently. Her body asked her to eat a lot more than before, and dinners provided by a Rebellion fighting a war against a tyranny weren't exactly the best way to get a full stomach. Second: There was something heavy over her torso. Something heavy and somehow… soft?

As she tried to move, her stomach growled. _Great, just what I need_ , the Chan girl thought as she started to slowly open her eyes. She was greeted by the sight of the darkened room her family, friends and herself had spent the night in. After struggling a little bit more with whatever was over her torso, she made her eyes to shift to the ones of her wolf form in order to get a better look at her surroundings. How much time did she have in order to sleep a little bit more? Will had said she and Taranee would set up their phones' alarm clocks in order to wake everyone so Team Lannion (the term by which Jade had decided to refer to the team composed of Jackie, Viper, Taranee, Hay Lin, Mrs. Rudolph and Alchemy) could depart before Caleb's duel _Now let's get a look at whatever it's over…_ Jade began to think as she looked down at… _Oh, hi boobs!_

Yup, they were boobs. Still covered by an orange T-shirt, which meant the only amount of skin Jade could actually see was the one shown through the cleavage, but they were boobs nonetheless. Boobs pressed against her torso and her own chest. Which was small by comparison… but she wasn't complaining about this situation! She had woken up into fair less pleasant ones, after all. As she (through an enormous exercise of will, mind you) lifted her eyes from the cleavage she turned her head to her left just to see… Irma's sleeping face.

Jade chuckled softly at the sight of the sleeping Water Guardian, a little line of spittle falling from her mouth, her head resting only a few inches away from Jade's, the brunette sleeping face down in contrast to how the black-haired girl was doing. Yeah, of course it was Irma, who else could it be? The only other person Jade had met that was bigger in the chest department than her friend was Viper, and she doubted the ex-thief would have ended over her.

 _She must've rolled in her sleep_ , Jade thought while trying to shake Irma off her, which only resulted in making the Water Guardian to mumble something, move her head and continue sleeping. Jade sighed, rolling her eyes.

"Hey, Irma;" the Chan girl whispered. "Hey... I don't exactly mind this, but I wanna sleep a little more."

"Mñah," was what the sleeping Irma said in turn.

Narrowing her eyes at the brunette, Jade puffed her cheeks in annoyance. "C'mon Irma;" Jade pleaded in a higher tone of voice than before, but the Water Guardian simply continued to mumble incomprehensible nonsense in her sleep.

"Grrrr..." Jade growled, using her shapeshifting abilities to make her canines to become slightly larger and sharper than normal. Then she brought her mouth near to Irma's cheek and...

 _Munch_.

Irma woke up with a start, opening her eyes fast and suddenly. It didn't take her long to realize what was happening, and when she did the reaction she had was the one you would expect from a teenage girl that just woke up in a dark room to find one of her friends biting her cheek.

"WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU DOING, JADE?!"

"What am _I_ doing?! You were the one sleeping over me!" Jade retorted after taking her teeth from Irma's cheek, leaving tiny, reddish marks where she had bitten her.

"That's… you… what?!" a confused Irma yelled again, looking at her friend's face… which was so close to hers… and what had been that part about sleeping over…? _Oh God_ , Irma thought as she finally noticed that she was on top of Jade, blushing just a bit. "Why did you bite me?!"

"You weren't getting off!" Jade told her. "In fact, you haven't!"

"I… Christ, you could've just waked me up without using your freaking teeth!" Irma continued the discussion.

"I tried! And you're till over me!" Jade protested, her honey eyes nailing themselves in Irma's blue ones.

Before they had any opportunity to continue their argument, however, both girls were blinded by the light of a flashlight, carried by Cornelia Hale. The blonde, her hair still a bit messy from sleeping and face contorted in the angriest of expressions, was looking directly at them.

"What. Are. You. Two. Doing?!" the Earth Guardian inquired, putting as much emphasis as possible in each word. "Do you know what time in the morning must be?!"

"Do you?" Jade asked almost automatically, earning herself a smirk and a look that said ' _Really? That's the first thing you say?_ ' from Irma.

"What's going on?" Matt's voice came from the other end of the room.

"What is that light?" Tohru's followed suit.

"Girls?" Mrs. Rudolph's voice reached them. "Are you alright?"

"Jade?" Jackie's approaching voice came next. "What are you doing?"

"Ugh… What time is it?" they hear Viper ask.

"Please, dad…" Alchemy Ethel's voice followed, accompanied by the unmistakable sound of yawning. "Just another five minutes…"

Then the cacophony of voices was joined by the sound of two tunes of music, which proceeded to grow in volume over time until they became louder than the voice of anyone in the room. The mixture of all the sounds made the idea of returning to sleep to seem impossible, even more so when Jackie and Tohru decided to turn on their own flashlights.

"And what's that?" Irma asked, covering her eyes.

"Our alarm clocks;" Will and Taranee said in unison, both girls getting up from the spots they had been sleeping in.

"Tch," was Jade's only reaction to that.

"Irma, why are you over Jade?" Hay Lin, who had also got up and was looking directly at the pair composed by the Water Guardian and the Wolf Shapeshifter, asked.

"I was cold, okay?!" Irma said, rolling away from Jade and getting up in a swift jump.

As for Jade, she remained in the ground for the next seconds, looking at Irma with a puzzled expression.

"Wait, you did this on purpose?!"

* * *

 ** _A few moments later…_**

After everyone had calmed down, the Chan Clan, the Guardians and their friends proceeded to prepare themselves for their upcoming tasks. After dressing properly and having an improvised breakfast consisting of cold water, bread and some fruits; Will held the Heart of Kandrakar up in the air.

"Guardians Unite!"

And after a flash of bright pink light and the usual yell of 'Air! Earth! Fire! Water! The Heart!' the five teenage girls had transformed into five young women, clad in their brightly colored uniforms, wings protruding from their backs. The boost of energy that always accompanied the transformation was also welcomed. Meanwhile, Jackie had been busy tying a sack to his back as if it were a backpack.

Stomachs full of bread and fruit and sleepiness erased thanks to the cold water, all preparations had been completed. They were ready.

"The sooner you get to Lannion and find Elyon, the better;" Will told her friends in general and Taranee in particular while the whole group walked forward through one of the Infinite City's smallest halls. "We'll try to keep everything under control here if things get too crazy." Her reddish eyes wandered from Taranee to Jackie. "Stay close to Alchemy and Mrs. Rudolph, but let them talk with Elyon without being seen. Elyon's still stronger than any of us, and while I doubt she'll do something to them deliberately, God knows how she'll react if she sees any of you. If Alchemy and Mrs. Rudolph succeed in making Elyon change sides, get back here immediately. If not," Will declared with authority, her eyes nailing themselves in the girl with the lighter shade of red hair, "escape at all costs."

"Understood," Jackie and Taranee said almost at the same time.

"Very well," the meridianite glamoured as a human math teacher declared with conviction.

"Okay!" Hay Lin cheered, her wings flapping a bit.

"O-Okay..." Alchemy said, trying to mimic the Air Guardian's cheerfulness but ultimately being unable to contain a gulp.

"How are we going to properly infiltrate this Lannion?" Viper, now clad in her blue-black bodysuit, inquired. Although Jackie already had every tool he and she would need for their stealth mission in his improvised backpack, and that they were going to use the Infinite City's secret passages in order to reach Lannion, she still ignored exactly how they were going to properly move around the city and locate wherever Elyon was.

Will breathed deeply. "By using this," the redheaded girl explained as she stopped in front of a wooden door and opened it, leading everyone but Tohru (who was too big to fit through the door) inside.

The room was relatively small, but surprisingly well lit. There was nothing inside but a lonely, small bed (placed at the end of the room, against the wall) and an equally small round table. And sitting at said table, there was Charles Ludmoore, dressed in meridianite clothes and writing over a bunch of yellowed papers with the same joy and life you would expect from a computer.

The cold businessman raised his gaze from the papers and looked over the large group of teenagers and (few) adults that had come into the room, his bizarre eyes going from one individual to another until they settled on Will. "Good morning," he said, rising from the small stool he was sitting at, picking one of the already written papers as he did so. "I have everything you requested already prepared," he continued, handing the paper to Will, who proceeded to hand it to Jackie.

"And this is?" Viper asked, pointing to the paper.

"Names," Will answered. "These are some of Ludmoore's informants on Meridian. Specifically, they're the ones that either live or work at Lannion. I told Charles about what we're planning to do today and asked him for help."

"You sure we can trust this guy so casually?" Matt, who had put himself at his girlfriend's side asked, just for Ludmoore to approach him instead.

"Young… Mr. Olsen, was it?" Ludmoore directed himself at Matt, who nodded in affirmation. "Don't misjudge my actions. I pursue, first and foremost, my own survival and gain. However, as things are now, those are tied to this Rebellion's success, and therefore to yours. As such, I will do whatever is in my power to guarantee this Rebellion's victory in this war. Young Ms. Vandom here has decided to take advantage of that, and so she told me of your plan to bring the Princess, and her nearly unlimited power, may I add;" _which I already have tasted in my own flesh_ , he added in his thoughts, cracking his wooden index finger; "to our side. Some of my informants within Lannion work at the Count's own residence, as members of his personal guard even. They should be able to get you inside it without any problem, especially considering the Count's current alliance to the rebels. They also should be able to provide you with a map of the place."

"Thank you very much for your help;" Will said seriously, turning around and starting to leave, followed closely by Jade and Cornelia. "Be sure to be there when the duel starts at dawn."

"I will be there," Ludmoore said coldly, and once everyone had exited the room, the door closed itself at their backs, letting the cold and emotionless businessman to his own devices.

"That guy gives me the creeps," Alchemy said, rubbing her shoulders as she did so.

"Same here," Cornelia shared her friend's point. "He could smile from time to time. Did he even sleep last night?"

"Did you feel it, T?" Jade, meanwhile, asked of the mountain of a man.

"Yes, even from outside the room it could be felt;" Tohru addressed his young friend. "It's Dark Chi Magic without a doubt, but the willies Ludmoore gave me are very different from the ones I get from the Oni."

"Yeah, it's like… slime;" Jade corroborated.

"Ludmoore's a literal slimy bastard;" Irma said sarcastically. "Go figure."

"We're… we're not letting him stay here without anyone around, right?" Hay Lin asked.

"I told Gareth to keep an eye on him when we aren't around here. And Drake told us he'd do the same;" Jade told the Air Guardian. "Ludmoore may've become our ally, but he's far from being someone we can trust."

"And we aren't putting all the eggs in the same basket," Will told everyone. "The Mage said that her spy in Phobos' court accompanied Elyon to Lannion, and that she already contacted her. She's a woman named Trill."

"Trill survived the coup?" a surprised Mrs. Rudolph asked.

"You know her, Mrs. Rudolph?" Hay Lin kindly asked of their teacher.

"She… she used to work at the palace, as the late Queen's personal maid;" Galgheita explained, a warm and nostalgic look taking over the portly blond woman's eyes. "She was a good person, and a good friend. I thought her lost… it warms my heart to know that she remains amongst the living, and helping to free this world from the Prince's grip."

"I bet she'll be happy to see you again," Hay Lin said, genuinely happy for the meridianite woman, who in turn couldn't avoid feeling much happier thanks to the optimism that the Air Guardian basically radiated.

"Alright," Taranee said as the group reached a bifurcation and halted. Standing in front of each other, Team Lannion and Team Infinite City (which of course was the term Jade had chosen for the team composed by Will, Cornelia, Irma, Tohru Matt and herself) shared a brief and silent look. "We should be going now."

"Be careful out there," Jade told her uncle, who smiled back at her.

"You too," Jackie told his niece.

"Aren't I always?" she joked, making the archeologist to chuckle.

"Don't worry kid," Viper cut in, hitting Jackie's shoulder with her open palm; "I'll keep him safe."

"Just… remember what I told you all;" Will said next, and although calmly, every Guardian could see how worried their leader was.

"We'll come back, don't worry;" Alchemy said with a tender, hopeful smile. Then she looked at Cornelia. "Everything will turn out alright."

And with those words, Team Lannion departed, disappearing from sight once they turned around a corner. Team Infinite City stood there, in silence, for several seconds, until Matt broke it.

"What do we do now?" the teen guitarist asked.

"Dunno," Irma answered with a shrug.

"You all do whatever you want," Cornelia said, turning on her heels. "I'm going to see if Caleb's already awake. I don't want him to be alone at a time like this."

"We should talk with Vathek and the other rebel commanders to see if we can help with something;" Will told her companions, deciding to let the blonde handle the rebel leader on her own. "Do we know exactly where this duel's going to be?"

"No idea," Jade said as she, the sumo, the teenage guitarist, the Keeper of the Heart and the Water Guardian started to walk into the opposite direction Team Lannion had done. "But can we grab something to eat on the way?"

"You're still hungry?" Irma said, rising an eyebrow at the dark-haired girl.

"Don't talk as if you weren't!" Jade protested, still a bit angry over what Irma had done during their sleep. "And I bet Tohru's also hungry!"

"I'm alright, Jade;" the mountain of a man said, but Jade doubted that was true, and that Tohru was saying it just to not be a nuisance.

"Now that you mention it…" Matt said awkwardly, rubbing his stomach as it growled; "I could use some food myself. Will? What do you think?"

"Okay, okay;" Will said while chuckling at her boyfriend's cuteness. "We'll grab something on the way…"

* * *

 ** _Caleb's room, at the same time_**

It had taken Caleb more time to wake up than it had taken Aldarn or the girls, but once he had done so he hadn't been able to go back to sleep. So he had gotten up from bed, he had washed up his face, and he had had a small breakfast. He was currently preparing himself for the upcoming duel, sharpening the blade of his regular sword while the sheathed Sword of Thanatos had been left leaning against the border of the bed.

In the eyes of an amateur, Caleb would have looked completely focused into what he was doing, but he really wasn't. He had done this so many times during his short lifetime that his body was able to do it automatically now.

No, his thoughts were focused in the reality he was facing. A reality that, albeit forgotten during sleep, was now impossible to avoid confronting. He was going to fight Aldarn, to _duel_ Aldarn. To the death? No… maybe? Was that the idea that Aldarn had in mind? Caleb didn't know. The rules his father and the rest of the Rebellion's high command had arranged for this type of situation specified that the combatants would fight each other until one of them either died or was in no condition to continue fighting. Could that be the key to solve all this without killing Aldarn? Could he… incapacitate him somehow?

 _Don't lie to yourself, human! You know you will have to use me against him sooner or later, right?_ The voice of Abaddon (which of course only Caleb was able to hear) suddenly came from the sheathed Sword of the Berserker. _It'd be so easy if you used me, human! Just a tiny little cut, and your enemy would be dead and you'd stand victorious!_

 _And you will take that opportunity to try to gain control over me again_ , Caleb retorted. _And then you will try to kill everyone in your path. I won't let that happen again_.

 _You speak as if I was only interested in my own goals here!_ The remnant of the Demon Prince's spirit protested. _You must survive! If you perish, human, I'll be left with no body, reduced to a mere piece of iron once more!_

 _How is that not selfish?_ Caleb, exasperated, thought back. The fact they were having this conversation alone was enough to worry him. His bond with the cursed blade was reaching such a point in such a short time that he had become able to listen to the demon's voice even when the Sword of the Berserker was still sheathed.

 _Well, I'm a Demon Prince. If you want understanding try summoning lesser demons_ ; Abaddon pointed out. _Besides, what's just another friend lying dead at your feet?_

 _What?_ The scarred rebel leader thought, this time stopping the sharpening of his ordinary sword and letting it aside, his green eyes nailing themselves in the sheathed Sword of Thanatos.

 _You let me inside your soul the moment you picked this blade from the ground, boy!_ Abaddon said, and Caleb couldn't avoid recognizing the tone that colored its voice for what it was: a taunting and amused one. _You think I don't know about all the people you have lost, about all the ones that were cut down and fell to the ground reduced to bloody corpses? And what did you do, back then? Haha! You continued walking ahead! You kept fighting, you continued killing! Why shouldn't you be able to do so again? Hahaha!_

"Shut up!" Caleb yelled aloud, kicking the cursed blade away from him. Once it collided with a wall of the room and fell to the ground, it teleported directly at Caleb's feet. There was no more taunting from the spirit within the blade, yet Caleb couldn't avoid grinding his teeth and glaring at the inanimate object below him. "Damn it…"

"Damn it all!"

* * *

 ** _The Mage's workshop_**

While her son was preparing himself for his duel and dealing with a (quite literal) inner demon, Nerissa Crossnic was sitting in a wooden armchair in the late Mage's workshop, no glamour covering her true appearance, something that didn't worry her in the slightest, since she had given the rebels clear instructions to not bother her (or the woman they believed her to be) in this time of need. So there she was, chin resting over her flesh arm, her staff leaning against the armchair and her metallic arm over the armrest, the Dragon Talisman still peacefully embedded into it; several thoughts spinning inside her head.

"First, there is the duel;" Nerissa said aloud, her extremely wrinkled brow frowning as she spoke. She had always found easier to manage her plots and schemes if she talked about them than if she let them within her skull. All of it in private, of course. She was no idiot. "What should I do about that? If I dispose of Aldarn now, quiet and quietly…" she contemplated, but she discarded that idea as fast as it had come. "No, that would only give those idiots that have decided to support him more of a reason to revolt. They need to see my son winning, or his authority over these fools will be broken forever."

Nerissa pondered all her options regarding her child's duel with his (apparently former) closest friend, and every time she did so, she concluded that the best chance she had was to let the duel to play out. And besides, was that really so risky? Caleb was, no doubt, Aldarn's better in close combat. And albeit she knew her boy would surely hold back against his adversary due to their shared childhood and try to defeat Aldarn without resorting to kill him, she also knew for a fact her son would prioritize the greater good and not let himself to be defeated. And then there was the fact he _did have_ a magical blade that strengthened all of his senses and abilities. The more she thought about it, the more surreal the possibility of Caleb losing became.

This was what brought her to her second point of interest that day. "The girls' little plan concerning the Princess…" she said, rising from her seat, taking her staff and walking around the workshop. "Not a bad plan, not a bad plan at all. Besides, who am I to look down on the use of some emotional manipulation?" she wondered alongside a devious chuckle, for in Nerissa Crossnic's eyes, this was what Will Vandom had planned to do to Elyon via Alchemy and old Galgheita. _Ah, that woman hasn't changed a bit…_ Nerissa thought, the smallest amount of nostalgia coming to her and taking her back to the times she had spend working at the castle as Trill during Weira's reign. Galgheita hadn't been as… _open-minded_ as to become a confidant of Nerissa's plans or real identity, but at least she was smart enough to provide a quality conversation, which wasn't something that could be said about any of the other peasants that worked at the castle. And of course a close friend of Elyon and a woman that had experienced firsthand the Prince's coup would be able to present her with strong arguments. But would it be enough to make the Princess to switch sides and abandon her brother? If that possibility did become reality, it would speed up Nerissa's plans quite a bit. "Perhaps dutiful and sweet Trill could help them with that," she said, smirking.

And having decided that things would remain under control in the Infinite City without her help, she tapped the floor with her staff and, after a buzzing and blinding green flash, she teleported away.

* * *

 ** _Lannion, a few hours later_**

Jackie didn't know what to make out of this 'great city', as the meridianites referred to the cities under the direct control of the nobility in Meridian. Actually, the archeologist doubted if labeling Lannion with the term 'city' was correct at all. Don't get Jackie wrong, this was far from his field of expertise, but he had been a part of enough archeological excavations in search of some buried metropolis forgotten by time to have his fair amount of knowledge regarding urban design and landscape architecture.

The city was large, no doubt about it, far larger than any meridianite village or town he had seen, at exception of the Capital. But in contrast with that one, or even with its fellow cities like Torus Filney, Lannion seemed to have been built with no definitive purpose in mind beyond _'Let's make more and more buildings around the (now gone) cathedral and then put some walls around the whole thing_ '.

But regardless of the way it had been built, Jackie had to admit that Lannion did nothing but increase his interest in meridianite society. For him, who had dedicated his life to the study of long-gone civilizations and cultures through the works of art they had left behind, the opportunity to behold and analyze a society as Meridian's (so similar in so many ways to how the books he had read described the ones from firsthand was nothing sort of exciting. But there would be time for that later on. Right now he needed to stay completely focused in what he was doing.

Advancing through the dark streets of Lannion the group of six (and their contact) marched in complete silence, dressed in hooded robes their contact had had prepared for them. Said contact (a man that worked as a guard at the Count's residence) was on the lead, with the hooded Jackie and Viper following him. After them marched Alchemy and Galgheita Rudolph, and closing the formation were the hooded Taranee and Hay Lin. Fortunately there was nobody on the street but them.

"Over here," their guide said, turning left in the next bifurcation. The group of six followed him, accessing a very wide street. And at the end of said street they could see an old yet strong and large, four stories tall building in the center of a plaza. It wasn't a keep, castle or tower; being much more similar to a big manor built in black wood than anything else. They recognized it instantly; it was the Count's residence. It took the group less than a pair of minutes to reach the building and find a small door at the manor's side.

"This is as far as I go," the guard told them, handing a hand-drawn map of the manor to Jackie, who proceeded to give it to Hay Lin. "It'd be too suspicious if I don't return to my post. The Princess was given the Count's chambers to use as she pleased, so she should be there."

"Thank you," Jackie told the man alongside a polite nod.

"Don't thank me," the guard said, already leaving. "Ludmoore pays well, that's the only reason I helped you."

Once the guard left, his silhouette indistinguishable from the rest of the shadows of Lannion, the group approached the door.

"Locked," Taranee said after inspecting it. She then generated a bunch of flames at her fingertips. "I can try to burn through it, but I'm afraid that can be…"

"Too flashy, I know. Let me try," Viper cut in, approaching the entrance herself. "Handsome, if you would be so kind," she directed herself at Jackie, who took off his improvised backpack, opened it and handed her a lock pick from inside. The ex-thief proceeded to put her ear near the door lock and tinker with it, only stopping after hearing a soft 'click' sound. "Open Sesame," the woman said, pushing the door open with ease.

"Neat," Alchemy commented as she and Galgheita entered into the mansion, followed by Hay Lin and Taranee, Jackie and Viper silently closing the door behind them. They found themselves in a darkened, empty and silent hall, their only source of light a small fireball that Taranee generated within her open palm. "And I thought Jade was exaggerating when she told us you're a super-thief," the ginger girl commented as she and her companions pulled their hoods down.

"It's nothing;" the dark-skinned woman told her. "I used to open locks far more complex than this relic when I was twelve;" she said, pointing to the door. "And it's _EX_ -super-thief;" Viper corrected her, albeit she was clearly enjoying the ginger girl's amazement at her skills.

"Okay, okay;" Alchemy whispered. The group started to advance through the hall, Hay Lin reading the map under the light that Taranee's fireball provided them with and directing their movements through the manor's insides. They climbed some stairs in order to access to the first floor. "But it's kinda cool."

"Hey, if you're interested I can teach you some tricks, kid;" Viper whispered too.

"Really?" Alchemy asked, looking at Viper over her shoulder.

"Don't you have enough with one teenage girl to corrupt?" Jackie broke into the conversation, speaking with a joking tone.

"Oh please," Viper joked too, making a gesture with her hand, as if taking importance to the matter; "as if Jade or any of these girls are going to start robbing museums just because I teach them how to pick locks."

"Wasn't that how you started?" Jackie asked.

"Touché;" the former thief told the archeologist.

"Keep it quiet;" Taranee said from the lead of the group, making both adults to end their friendly discussion right there.

"I think Elyon's room, -or the Count's room where Elyon is- should be around…" Hay Lin said, turning around a corner and entering a hallway that ended in a small balcony. Approaching and accessing said balcony, the Air Guardian looked up just to see a larger, far more ornamented balcony two floors above. "I mean, _over_ here."

Once the full sextet of people was there, Jackie pulled a pair of grappling hooks from his bag, laying them on the floor. Although both Hay Lin and Taranee had the ability to fly and they could carry Alchemy and Mrs. Rudolph with ease, Jackie and Viper didn't have that advantage, and they doubted the two Guardians could carry the four of them in the case they needed to escape. Therefore, it was better to have things like grappling hooks and ropes ready so they could move with more freedom. Jackie and Viper threw them upwards, attaching them to the upper balcony's railing, and started to climb. Hay Lin took Galgheita in her arms and slowly flew upwards, while Taranee did the same with Alchemy. Once they arrived in the upper balcony, Viper started to use another lock pick to open the door that connected the balcony to the Count's room.

"Once it's done, we'll hide;" Taranee told the teacher and student pair.

"Ready?" Jackie asked, looking at Alchemy.

The ginger girl breathed deeply, eyeing the shadowy insides of the room.

"Ready."

* * *

 ** _Within the Count's chambers_**

Elyon was euphoric. She was so euphoric that she had barely slept during this night and the ones that had come before it. She was just so full of energy! But then again, who wouldn't be if they found themselves in the same situation she was in?

 _The Light of Meridian made flesh! She has come to bless us! She has come to help us! She has come to save us and end the war! Light of Meridian! Elyon Escanor!_

Those were the words everyone shouted in pure bliss when seeing her, ever since she had set foot on this city and she had started to make use of her powers as the Light of Meridian to help its citizens. Wells that had been barren for years had started to provide water again after a simple gesture from her hand, people that had been cripples during their whole lives had lined up in front of her so she could cure them… and those were just two examples! Oh, how happy they all were now! And how wonderful it had felt for her to know that she was the one erasing their pain, to see all of them smiling back at her, some of them even crying out of joy!

And to think she had had the feeling that her brother had sent her to this city because she had screwed up by letting Ludmoore escape. Now she had the opportunity to use her powers to help people! Wasn't Phobos just the greatest big brother of all time, letting her to use her magic to aid those in need?

Unable to contain herself anymore, Elyon jumped out of her bed. Well, not _her_ bed per se, but the one she had been given. Although she hadn't meet this Count Cornelius in person (and his chambers paled in comparison to the ones she had back at the Capital and the palace), the Baronetess had told her she would be using his chambers during her stay on Lannion, and she had to admit… they were kind of pretty, in a mature, plain way. In contrast with her chambers at the castle, that were decorated by furniture made out of gold and silver, these chambers' bed, tables, chairs and shelves were completely made out of polished wood, giving it an austere yet elegant aura that did nothing but became strengthened due to only being illuminated by a few candles.

Happier than she had never been before, Elyon started to spin around herself, eyes closed, as if imitating the movements of one of those old toys modeled after ballerinas. She was so focused into spinning that she only noticed that her feet weren't over the floor anymore just after she had stopped and opened her eyes. Giggling, the straw blonde Princess floated down. She still needed a bit more practice with her powers, especially if she was going to start flying in a dark room every time she experienced an outburst of happiness…

But the moment of lonely happiness the Princess was experiencing was short-lived. There, in that room only lighted by a few candles, there in that room that wasn't really hers… the Princess heard a noise, in the dark. It was the unmistakable noise of a door (or a window) getting opened. And then she could have sworn she had heard some steps. Elyon opened her eyes wide, happy remembrances of all the lives she had improved in just a few days forgotten, and turned around her heels.

"Who's there?!" Elyon yelled at the shadows, but of course, nobody answered… save for the sound of breathing. "Very well," the Princess said, narrowing her eyes. She concentrated then, accessing the enormous sea of power that resided within herself and making a small fraction of it to form a wave. She made a gesture towards the lit candles, sparks of white light travelling around her body. Then the fire in the candles became bigger, small fireballs being shot from each flame until every candle in the room was lit, the Count's chambers completely illuminated.

The Princess of Meridian had been expecting to meet with a stranger, perhaps a burglar pretending to steal from the Count's home now that the nobleman was at the Meridian Plains with the rest of the nobility's war council. Or, in the worst case scenario, an assassin sent to kill her in her sleep. Who she hadn't been expecting to see there was a portly, middle aged and blond woman, dressed in a bunch of plain earth clothes and wearing glasses. No, of course Elyon Escanor hadn't been expecting to see her old Math teacher there, standing in front of the opened

"Hello, Elyon;" the woman greeted her kindly. "You seem to be well."

"Mrs. Rudolph?" a shocked and confused Elyon inquired. "But… why are you here? _How_ are you here?!" This was… impossible, that was the only word that came to mind. It was ridiculous! How could one of her teachers at Sheffield be in Lannion, let alone in Meridian?!

"Elyon?"

And there was the second surprise of the day, risking giving her a heart attack. There standing just a few steps behind Mrs. Rudolph. God, she was the same as always. The same messy, ginger hair, the same mellow blue-green eyes, the same purplish pants, the same green sweater. There she was, her presence there, which should be impossible, shocking her even more than the one of Elyon's Math teacher. There, a worried expression on her face, was the girl Elyon had considered one of her second closest friend.

"Alchemy?!"

* * *

It wasn't the scream that made her nervous. No, the fact that her name had been yelled did little to unnerve Alchemy Ethel. After all, she had suddenly appeared here with no warning, so it would be stupid to expect any other reaction from Elyon. No, what was making her nervous was Elyon herself, or perhaps how she looked.

It wasn't that she looked as a complete different person, though. She was still the same Elyon as before, the same height, the same hair of a straw-blond color, the same eyes… Yet the clothing alone was enough of a difference. Elyon's usual purple attire, or the shorts and pinkish T-shirts that she wore in the hottest seasons, had been exchanged for a dress of (fittingly) royal blue, a golden tiara with a jewel its center (just over the forehead) was now around her head, and her two casual pigtails had become now two carefully made braids, each ending in some kind of circular accessory similar to an enormous ring.

But her friend's way of dressing wasn't everything that had changed, was it? Maybe it was the fact that last time Alchemy had seen her, Elyon had been in such low spirits and so full of anger, but the Elyon she saw before her now was one that looked not only confident but also… menacing, in a way that Alchemy couldn't even put into words. Maybe it had to do with the fact that she had just lighted all candles in a room with a movement of her wrist? Christ… was every one of her friends going to turn up to have weird magic powers? God, what was she even doing here? Elyon, she was helping Elyon, she was making her to see reason and saving her from her tyrannical, insane older brother who wanted her only for her power, either to use her as a weapon or as a living battery. Yeah, better said than done. Better start with something simple, something like…

"Hello Elyon," Alchemy greeted her friend. "We… we need to talk."

* * *

 ** _The Infinite City_**

"So there's nothing you can do to stop this?" Cornelia asked as she walked back and forth around the room she, Caleb, Vathek, Sephiria and Drake were in.

She had been hoping for some time alone with him; but on the other hand she was grateful Drake and Vathek were there with them, especially considering what had happened between them last night. What had they done last night, anyway? It wasn't as if they had done anything serious... they had just kissed, that's it. Oh crap, they had kissed! Why had they done that at a moment like this?! Why had she done that?! Why had he reciprocated so easily?! Christ, look at her. Two worlds falling apart around them and here she was, worrying about her love life.

"It's not so simple, Cornelia;" the scarred rebel leader spoke from the stool he was sitting in, taking the Earth Guardian out of her thoughts and back to reality. "I can't back away from this."

"I'm not telling you to back away, just..." Cornelia began, folding her arms and glancing away for a second. "Just stop it. Can't you and Aldarn talk it out or something?"

"He challenged me to a public duel," Caleb said for what felt to be the thousandth time. "I must stand up to that challenge, no matter what."

"Lady Cornelia, please understand. To do otherwise now wouldn't just make both of them lose credibility and authority with the rest of the rebels," Sephiria, leaning against a nearby wall, explained; "but it would be seen as cowardly and dishonorable."

 _This stupid medieval lookalike world with its stupid medieval beliefs..._ Cornelia thought angrily.

"I actually tried to talk some sense into Aldarn," Vathek, standing at Caleb's side, said; "but his followers didn't let me get to him."

"This is so problematic..." Drake, sitting in a chair with his legs crossed, said exasperated. "We are in the last stages of this damn war, we are a couple of months away from marching over the Meridian Plains, take on the nobility's army, then march over the Capital and end this. The Rebellion can't afford infighting now."

"I know," Caleb told his fellow member of the Rebellion's Small Council, then he sighed, hand instinctively grabbing the Sword of Thanatos' hilt, the sheathed blade hanging from his waist alongside his other sword. "If I had known that letting Ludmoore join forces with the Rebellion would put us in this situation..."

"I... don't think Ludmoore is the root of the problem," Drake said after a pause.

"What do you mean?" Caleb asked.

Drake took a deep breath. "I... may have asked the rest what their decision regarding Ludmoore was."

"That's supposed to be something nobody but oneself must know," Vathek both reminded and scolded him with his deep, gruff voice.

"I know, I know. But... just hear me out;" Drake said while uncrossing his legs. "Look, I voted in favor. The Mage told me she voted in favor, and both Will and Jade did the same. The Baroness told me she voted against it. ' _Never trust a Ludmoore_ ', she said." _If only she knew..._

"So?" Cornelia wondered.

"So," Drake said, emulating her manner of speech, "that means that three of the remaining four voted against it, and one in favor." He looked at Vathek then, no words needed to be spoken between them for the Galhot to understand what the blond rebel wanted from him.

Closing his eyes, the Blue Galhot was the one to fold his arms now. "I voted against it," he confessed. "My debt with Ludmoore is already paid. I owe him nothing, and albeit I respect the Small Council's decision, I think it's dangerous to let someone as he to roam free around us, no matter how useful his information can be."

"I voted against too," Sephiria declared. "And though I don't like the idea of agreeing with the Baroness… she is right in this one. You can't trust a Ludmoore."

"Which means that Caleb voted in favor and Aldarn against it," Cornelia concluded. "What's so important about knowing that, anyway? It doesn't change anything, it's…"

"But I…" Caleb interrupted her. "I voted against it too."

"You what?" the blonde said, turning to face him. Every pair of eyes in the room was now fixed on Caleb, the green eyed boy himself looking returning their look, but instead of the surprised look his interlocutors shared, his was one of shock and disturbance.

"I… I voted against it," Caleb repeated. "I don't have anything against Will's plans, they have won us many victories, but I don't think this Rebellion has really benefitted from making deals with monsters out of sheer necessity. Like Vathek, I will respect the decision of the Small Council, and I know Ludmoore is much more manageable than Rhouglar or Tharquin ever were or could be, but that doesn't mean I like him or what our alliance with him could mean in the long term." Caleb paused, and directed his gaze t the floor, his head putting together all the pieces of information he had. "But if that's the case, then it means… it means Aldarn voted in _favor_."

"It's as I feared, then;" Drake said darkly.

"You feared this?" Vathek asked, not hiding a hint of anger in his voice this time.

"Aldarn has been acting strangely for a while now," Drake explained. "I didn't know it would develop into this situation, but after he reacted so strongly against the Council's decision… Nobody decides to duel their leader, especially one that is their closest and oldest friend, just because his decision clashes with the one of a group. Aldarn must have been planning this for a long time."

"And used the King Smuggler as a believable excuse to justify the duel," Sephiria ended for him, Drake nodding afterwards.

As for Caleb, the only thing the rebel leader could do now was to look at the ground. Realization dawned on him. This wasn't about some discrepancy over letting yet another potential threat join the rebel army, this wasn't about putting to the test his ability to lead, or making a point, was it? No, those weren't Aldarn's goals.

"He really wants to kill me," Caleb said, and as those words left his mouth, it felt as if a part of his heart died.

* * *

 ** _Lannion, at the same time_**

"You're lying!" Elyon screamed, fists clenched, a shadow of betrayal crossing over the straw blonde's eyes.

It had all gone so well at first... Elyon had been skeptical about Alchemy and Mrs. Rudolph really being the people they said they were, of course. But after a couple of questions she had been convinced and then... then she had looked happy. Happy to see Alchemy, happy to talk with her, happy that she was here, even though she didn't understand how. And then, of course, she had wanted to know how Alchemy and Mrs. Rudolph had arrived. And that had led to an explanation, and afterwards a discussion. Turns out Elyon had been much less happy to hear what Alchemy had to tell her than she had been to see her. Especially the part about her brother being a tyrant that had ruined this world and its inhabitants' lives.

"Why would I lie to you?!" Alchemy, this situation getting on her nerves too, yelled in return. "What could I possibly gain...?!"

"My brother's a fair and gentle ruler!" Elyon screamed, interrupting Alchemy in the process. "You're just trying to...!"

"What? Manipulate you?" Galgheita was the one to talk now. "Elyon, your brother is by far the worst ruler this world has ever had."

"You of all people have no right to speak to me!" Elyon told the portly teacher. "You knew all along who I was and you didn't say anything!"

"Your parents didn't want..." Galgheita began, but Elyon cut her with a dry laugh.

"My parents? My parents..." she said looking down, voice darkening. "Those two..." she said, and for a second she seemed lost in her thoughts, memories of all the happy moments that she had shared with Alborn and Miriael flashing through her mind. Then it all was overridden by one single memory, the one of the couple that had raised her since childhood being revealed as meridianites. She looked up again, her eyes shining with self-righteous anger. "Those two aren't my parents! They're people who lied to me for my entire life! Do you know what's it like? To learn that your entire life is nothing but lies and secrets? To know that you were denied a complete different life just because two people decided to kidnap you?!"

"They rescued you from your brother's grasp," the math teacher replied. "Elyon, they _loved_ you," Galgheita pleaded her. "Yes, they hid information from you and granted that is something I didn't approve of at the moment they took that decision; but they did it because they were afraid of what could happen. Not because they wanted to deceive you. All that love, and all those happy moments you lived with them for the last thirteen years; they are genuine, Elyon. Love is something that cannot be mimicked for such a long time. Do you even know where they are now? Where Phobos took them?"

Elyon kept her mouth shut for the next couple of seconds. "Someplace called Cavigor or whatever… But I don't care. All my life, I thought that I was just a dull, normal girl. That I had to conform myself with that. But not anymore. I'm doing something good here, I'm needed here! I'm special here! Here I don't have to be just a footnote in the life of another person!"

"Then you're just selfish;" Alchemy broke into the conversation.

Those words made Elyon froze and look at her friend. Alchemy remained in the same spot as before, still standing still. Her arms were now crossed over her torso, and she was looking at Elyon with narrowed eyes and angry scowl.

"What?" the Princess of Meridian asked flatly.

"I said that if you think that, you're just _selfish_ ;" Alchemy repeated. "I came here to talk with you, to understand why you did what you did, disappearing overnight and leaving for another world. And what's the big reason? You want to be special. You want to be a Princess. That's it." Alchemy let out a sad chuckle. It felt as if her words were hurting her more than they hurt Elyon. "Do you know that the reason why Cornelia behaved so pettily all those years was because she felt that she needed to be perfect 24/7? Do you know that her father was part of a criminal organization? Do you know how guilty she feels for what's happened with you? Do you know that all those times she couldn't be with us; she was fighting, _risking her life_ in this war? And that's _just_ Cornelia. The girls have seen innocent people die before their very eyes! Will's been forced to do a bunch of horrible things to make the Rebellion win battles! Jade's got a bunch of scars on her back from some madman that wanted to kill her, for the love of God! Do you know how much all of our friends have been through while we were safe on Earth?!" Alchemy shouted, and the sheer rage that came with that yell made Elyon to give a step back. "No, of course you don't. Because you're happy here, playing Princess and getting the attention you think you always deserved. That's being _selfish,_ Elyon. And I'm not going to bite my tongue and don't call it what it is."

"Do you know how many people I've helped?" Elyon asked back, using the same structure Alchemy had used. "How many lives I've improved? And you've got the nerve to call me…"

" _Why_ did you have to help them, Elyon?" Alchemy continued, this time she being the one to cut the Princess' sentence. "All those innocent people… why do you think they're hungry, poor and hurt? Do you think the Rebellion did that, that they're the reason this world's in such a state?" Alchemy's expression grew sadder. "Because I've seen it, Elyon. Rooms full of good people that lost everything they had because of your brother. Every person that you've helped… did you even bother to ask them why they needed that help in the first place?" Elyon's silence was enough of an answer for her. "Look at that. On top of selfish, you're condescending too…"

"And I thought we were friends…" Elyon muttered sadly.

"I _am_ your friend, Elyon!" Alchemy said out of sheer desperation. "And real friends tell the truth to one another, no matter how much it hurts! Why can't you see that I'm trying to help you?!"

"You've got no idea of what you're talking about…" Elyon said slowly, anger growing inside of her, and this time the room shook a bit. "None of you!"

"Actually, my Princess;" a voice came from the room's entrance. "They do."

Elyon turned around to see a chubby woman dressed in the clothes of a servant standing at the doorframe. The woman gave a couple of steps forward, until Galgheita and Alchemy were able to see her.

"Trill?" Elyon asked, surprised to see her personal maid in here.

 _That's Trill?_ Alchemy thought.

"Trill, is that… is that really you?" Mrs. Rudolph asked, earning herself a warm smile from the maid.

"Hello Galgheita," Trill greeted her. "You seem to have… changed a lot."

"You know each other?!" Elyon asked in surprise, glancing back between her maid and her former Math teacher. "You work for the rebels," Elyon said spitefully, narrowing her eyes at Trill.

"I serve only Meridian, and the Escanor bloodline;" Trill declared, and then she walked a little bit more, positioning herself in front of Alchemy and Mrs. Rudolph. "And in all those years of servitude, I have seen things that I have talked to nobody about… until now."

Elyon tilted her head in confusion. "Explain yourself," the Princess demanded. "Now."

"The night your brother's coup took place;" Trill said, "most of the servants were locked in the kitchens by your brother's loyalists, the guards under the command of a man that at that time was known as Lieutenant Raythor. But that wasn't my case," the chubby, middle-aged woman explained, rubbing her hands in her apron. "I was able to sneak around the guards, who were too busy fighting the soldiers that had remained loyal and the members of the now extinct Royal Guard. I needed to see that my Queen and the Royal Consort, your parents, your _true_ parents… were safe." Trill made a pause, mind going back to that fateful moment. Oh, each of her plans had been running so smoothly until then! But then again, there were always complications… "When I reached their chambers, I heard people yelling, followed by some screams. When I looked inside through a slightly opened door… I saw them, sprawled in the floor, dead. And the one looming over their corpses was your brother, Phobos Escanor, who in the following years went to become a tyrant that terrifies both his enemies and allies alike."

"You're…" Elyon tried to say, but the words became ash in her throat.

"I'm not lying, my Princess;" Trill declared. "Ask any servant at the Palace when your brother, Lady Miranda or Lord Cedric are not around. Ask any peasant in the Capital. Ask Tristan too. Phobos took the throne by force, and he has been taking _everything_ he can by force since then. That's something that, sadly, has become common knowledge in these lands." Trill approached Elyon with as much gentleness as it was humanly possible. "My Princess, I know that you are hurt, I know that you have been lied to. But there is no doubt in this or any other world that your brother is an evil man."

"I… But…" Elyon stuttered, unable to form a coherent phrased. "But, my brother can't be… then I've… he's…" Her brother… Her brother was a good person! And yet, it was difficult for Elyon to ignore the words Ludmoore had told her. It was difficult for her to ignore the fact that she had never seen any servant within the castle address Phobos directly with nothing sort of cold respect… or was it perhaps fear? Elyon looked at her three interlocutors, her eyes settling on Alchemy. Her friend and she shared a desperate look with one another, Alchemy's eyes begging Elyon to see reason; Elyon's begging Alchemy to understand her actions. As Elyon's eyes left her and locked themselves on the opened balcony, Alchemy choked a cry on her throat. They had always been so good reading the other's intentions…

"Elyon, please;" Alchemy, anger forgotten, supplicated to her friend, tears forming in her eyes. "Please, don't do it."

"Alchemy…" Elyon said, and for the fraction of a second, it felt as if the Princess was going to see reason, hug her friend and ask for forgiveness. It all vanished in an instant. "He's the only _real family_ I have."

"Elyon!" Alchemy screamed, but it was too late. Elyon was running towards the balcony. Then her body became enveloped in pure white light. And finally, she jumped from the balcony. But instead of falling down, Elyon started to float in the air and, after glancing one last time to the balcony, she flew away at an astonishing speed, like a wounded animal running away from a pack of predators. By the time Alchemy rushed into the balcony and Jackie, Viper, Hay Lin and Taranee descended from their hiding spots in the rooftop, Elyon had become a shining dot in the night's dark horizon.

 _Stupid child…_ Nerissa Crossnic thought as her glamoured self and Galgheita Rudolph entered into the balcony.

"It didn't go well, did it?" Taranee asked, looking at Alchemy. The girl gave the Fire Guardian a look that said everything, and Taranee put a reassuring hand over Alchemy's shoulder.

"So… Elyon can fly now?" Hay Lin asked.

"I don't think that's our biggest concern right now," Viper commented, pointing below. From the balcony, the group of six saw a platoon of guards rushing into the building. "The noise and light must have alerted them."

"Then better if we go now…" Jackie started to say, but before he had time to finish his sentence, they heard a sound from within the room, followed by the door that connected the Count's private chambers with the adjacent corridor burst into a hundred pieces. Through the hole that had once been a door, a white haired boy dressed in a peasant's clothes entered into the room.

"YOU?!" Tristan shrieked as he saw the pair of Guardians and the humans. Then he immediately began shapeshifting into his scorpion form.

"Bad day…" a tired Jackie sighed, rubbing his temples.

* * *

Even now, after so many transformations, Tristan surprised himself at how well he had adjusted himself to his new condition as a Shapeshifter ever since Wong had injected him with that formula of his. The white haired boy had thought it would take him a lot of time just to control the transformation process, and much more in order to control the abilities of his new form to their fullest. However, everything had come naturally to him, and now he found that walking on six legs was as normal as walking on two.

Therefore, when he transformed this time around, he was able to rush towards his enemies almost instantly, pincers extended and opened so he could catch and crush any of them, his stinger tail high and ready to pierce these fools. Where was the Princess? Had she been captured? Unlikely, she was too powerful for that. Had she escaped then?

"Go! Go!" Tristan heard the male earthling shout to the pair of Guardians. Where were the other three? Where was the wolf? Was the Princess locked on a fight with them? If that was the case, then where was that fight taking place. So many questions…

He saw the two Guardians picking a human girl and an aged human woman from the balcony and take flight, while the human man and the human woman that accompanied him started to climb towards the rooftop by using a pair of ropes. Only when Tristan reached the Balcony, one of his pincers missing Viper's leg just by centimeters, did he realize that there was another person in that place, with him.

Tristan looked at Trill with his six eyes, then at the two earthlings climbing into the rooftop, then at the two flying Guardians already disappearing in the shadows provided by the dying night, then back at Trill once again. The bigger-than-an-adult man scorpion loomed over her, stinger tail swinging back and forth.

"You…" the scarlet scorpion said in a raspy voice. "You and I will have words later, servant."

"If you insist," Trill said, not showing an ounce of fear.

Tristan ignored her, instead turning his attention towards the two humans. Slowly, he nailed each of his pincers on the building's wall in order to help himself up, crawling up the building. As he did so, he could have sworn that he had heard a buzzing sound and seen a green flash of light. But there were more important matters at hand now!

It didn't take the artificially engineered Shapeshifter long to reach the rooftop of the Count's home. There, the pair of humans seemed to have waited for him. They were standing one at the side of the other, each having a different stance that Tristan, however, was able to tell was meant for combat.

"I don't know why you came here, I don't know where the Princess is…" the scorpion said, crawling until each of his legs were on the rooftop and he was face to face with Jackie and Viper. "But what I know… it's that you two are the biggest fools in this or any other world;" Tristan said, circling the pair of martial artists. With a quick swing of his stinger tail, he cut the ropes of the grappling hooks the two humans had used to climb here. "This rooftop is not that big," he said, slamming his stinger tail against the roof tiles and breaking several of them. "Where are you going to run?"

As the pair of humans prepared themselves to face the gigantic scorpion, something in the horizon caught their attention. Something small at first but that grew bigger with every second. Bigger… and brighter too. It was the sun.

The dawn had arrived.

* * *

 ** _The Infinite City_**

The moment had come.

It was now or never.

It was all or nothing.

Caleb had always wondered why whoever had built the Infinite City had built the arena he was now standing on alongside the rest of the place. Perhaps the inhabitants of the Meridian of old had hosted competitions of some kind down here? Perhaps (and having the large prison the Infinite City also had in mind) this had once been a ground for prisoners to fight to their deaths? It had always intrigued him, ever since he had known of its existence. With the passing of the years, he had come to think of it as nothing more than a waste of space. After all, why did the Rebellion need it? Which rebel would want to challenge him for leadership? They were all fighting for the same cause, after all. Only now, after so many trials and tribulations, he truly found that thought as childish. Look at where he was standing, after all. He glanced at his surroundings. The chamber the arena had been built in was as big as the prison behind the waterfall, the only thing in the chamber besides the circular arena being the stands surrounding it.

He located the girls and Drake with ease, sitting in two rows at his far left, with Cornelia, Will and Matt in the first and Sephiria, Irma, Jade and Matt in the second. Tohru and Vathek, meanwhile, were sitting each at a side of Charles Ludmoore, surely to keep an eye on their new 'ally'. It felt somehow comical to see the thin man between the two large and bulky men. Gareth, Jade's trusted second in command, was just a few rows behind them. The Baroness of Fallbottom was at his far right, surrounded by a group of Fallbottom soldiers. Not a lot of faith in him, eh? Couldn't blame her. Uhm… Blunk was nowhere to be seen. Perhaps the Passling had decided to sit this one out, as the girls would say? The Mage had been the last to arrive, just a few minutes prior, silently sitting down. The rest of the stands were full to the brim with rebels.

In contrast with what one could expect, nobody was shouting. Nobody was cheering. Nobody was even talking. All eyes were fixed on him, into his body, his clothes, his normal longsword and his cursed bastard sword.

All eyes were fixed into him… and into his fellow teenager standing at the other end of the arena, in front of him; holding an already unsheathed sword (a scimitar, to be precise) and a sheathed curved dagger hanging from his belt.

Aldarn. His friend, his companion. And now, his foe. His enemy.

"One last chance, Aldarn;" Caleb said all of a sudden. "Stop this before it's too late. I have no reason to fight you."

"You may have no reason, but I have many;" Aldarn spoke. "This ends now… and with only one of us standing."

Caleb shook his head one last time and then he unsheathed his normal longsword. Blades ready and in complete silence, each combatant rushed towards the other.

* * *

 ** _Back at Lannion_**

Viper disliked fighting. Not in a pacifist sense, mind you; but in a practical one. She was (well, had been) a thief, after all. Stealth was her element in the same sense water was it for a fish, or the sky for a bird. During her days as a burglar, she had taken so much pride not only on the fact she wasn't caught, but on the fact that she was barely seen during her robberies. For her, the actions of getting into a highly secured area without calling any attention, taking what she wanted without setting off any alarm and getting out without breaking a sweat had become as important as getting the job done. And it wasn't that she couldn't hold her own on a fight, either. Many thugs and security guards that had (mistakenly) thought that they could overwhelm her with sheer strength or numbers could attest to that. But getting into fights that could be easily avoided was, on top of being incredibly risky, just a waste of time. So it was more that Viper disliked unnecessary fighting than fighting in general.

Therefore, and unnecessary fight against a giant, crimson scorpion trying to impale her and Jackie with its venomous stinger tail was something she wasn't thrilled about. There were times she hated all this magic shenanigans so much…

 _At least this kid's attacks are telegraphed_ , she thought as she dodged the next strike of the stinger tail. _He's trying to get close to us so he can grab us with his pincers, and if that doesn't work he uses the tail… both as an attack and as a distraction. Pity he isn't fighting against mere amateurs,_ she thought smirking, as Jackie took advantage of the fact that Tristan was focused on her to strike the scorpion on the side of the abdomen with a flying kick.

"Why won't you stand still?!" an enraged Tristan shrieked, smashing his pincers in the roof tiles, since Viper had dodged his last attack. Both martial artists took the chance in order to put some distance between the giant arthropod and them. "You two are just humans! Your fists and legs can't get through my carapace! I don't even feel your blows in this form! You can't win!"

Well… that was actually kind of true. Even if incredibly skilled in the use of martial arts, both Jackie and Viper were human, and therefore had human limit especially in the strength and stamina department. However, there was a thing this shapeshifting kid ignored.

"We don't need to win," Jackie said, as if reading her thoughts.

"We just need to hold you off for a while," Viper ended the phrase for him.

"What does that even mean?!" an increasingly infuriated Tristan yelled.

"It means you forgot about us, scorpion-boy!" a cheerful voice called from the heavens, and then Tristan was hit by a potent current of air that threw him backwards, almost driving him off the edge of the rooftop, the only thing that saved him from falling the fact that he nailed every limb he had on it. As he climbed back, determined to finish his enemies once and for all, a fireball struck the rooftop just in front of him. Looking up, the scorpion saw the Fire and Air Guardians hovering over him and his foes.

"I think that the one who can't win it's you," Taranee told the artificial Shapeshifter, adjusting her glasses afterwards. Tristan roared (or at least made a sound similar to a roar) as a retort.

Smashing his pincers against the roof tiles below him, Tristan broke them into sharp pieces. Then, throwing his pedipalps up, he launched them towards Hay Lin and Taranee. The Air and Fire Guardians evaded the projectiles with ease, and Taranee took the chance to throw a few more fireballs towards Tristan. But the scorpion had used his last attack as a mere distraction. The Shapeshifter had quickly resumed his offensive against Jackie and Viper, this time far more viciously. While the pair was able to dodge most of his strikes, including the one coming from his stinger, they both took a direct hit from the rest of his tail, sending both of them twirling down. The only reason they didn't fall from the rooftop was because Hay Lin generated a current of air in order to slow them down. Taranee descended from the air and helped them to their feet.

"Great, kid's getting smarter;" Viper grumbled as she got up.

"And there isn't anything else we can do here," Jackie said. How long would it take the guards to climb up here, anyway?

"Let's go, then;" Taranee declared, throwing her arm onwards and casting another torrent of flames, this one big enough to halt Tristan's advance. Then the Fire Guardian grabbed Viper and took to the skies, from where Hay Lin flew downwards at high speed, grabbing Jackie and flying up again.

As the group of four flew away, Viper and Jackie dedicated one last glance towards their foe. There, standing in the rooftop, flames already vanishing from around him and already shifting back to his human form, was Tristan. The white-haired boy glared at them in anger and silence, knowing that it had become impossible for him to catch his enemy. And yet, what had they achieved with their little quest? Nothing else but drive Elyon out of Lannion.

In the end, they were returning to the Infinite City with empty hands.

* * *

 ** _The Infinite City_**

CLANG!

The chamber continued to be silent, save for the sound of metal clashing against metal. Everyone had their eyes fixed in the battle taking place bellow them. In the center of the arena, Aldarn and Caleb fought each other with ferocity.

CLANG!

Even for the untrained eye, it was clear that Aldarn seemed to be holding a slight advantage over his foe. His strikes were faster, his blows delivered more strongly. Caleb wasn't doing so badly, however. Instead of answering Aldarn's offensive with more aggression, he had decided to adopt a more defensive approach, blocking Aldarn's most powerful blows with his blade and counterattacking when possible. Therefore, while the rebel leader wasn't exactly setting the pace of the fight, the challenger wasn't overpowering him, either.

CLANG!

But that didn't mean they were unscathed. Both teenagers had been already wounded, cuts here and there, Caleb's biggest one in his left arm, just above the elbow; while Aldarn had a very nasty cut over his chest; product of one of Caleb's counterattacks. Blood poured from them, dirtying their clothes. Their sweat fell over their opened wounds, making them even more painful that they already were.

CLANG!

Aldarn moved closer to Caleb's center, crouching slightly in the process. He unsheathed his curved dagger only then, and directed it towards his foe's stomach while he struck upwards with his scimitar. Caleb wielded his normal longsword with only one hand then, using it to protect himself from the dagger. Next he grabbed the still sheathed Sword of Thanatos and used it to block the incoming scimitar. Aldarn's weapon collided with the cursed bastard sword's covered blade, generating a curious sound. Struggling with the other's strength for several seconds, both opponents realized that they needed to put some distance between themselves if they wanted a better opportunity to attack, and thus both of them jumped backwards, raising up their weapons after their feet touched the ground. Caleb adopted a defensive stance once again, this time armed with his two swords, even if he was clearly reluctant to use the full capabilities of the Sword of the Berserker. Seeing this, Aldarn narrowed his eyes at his former friend.

"Stop holding back. We both know you are much better than this;" the half-breed declared, pointing his blade at Caleb as if it were an accusatory finger. "Are you trying to mock me? Or is this some kind of deception?" he asked. "Perhaps you are hoping that, if I defeat you like this, some rebels won't follow me, but that's just ridiculous..."

"Brave words coming from a man that uses deception himself;" Caleb counterattacked, this time with words instead of his blade.

"What?" a confused Aldarn asked.

"You think I'm stupid?!" Caleb yelled this time. "I know you voted in favor of Ludmoore joining us! This duel is founded over a problem you created on your own in order to use it as a justification to challenge me! I just want to know... Why, Aldarn?!" Caleb cried out in anguish. "Why?!"

Murmur started to be heard across the stands, the rebels whispering to one another, discussing the information they had just been given. Many of them were expecting Aldarn to yell that Caleb, to say that he was lying. To the surprise of all spectators, that didn't happen. Instead, Aldarn... laughed. He laughed dark and slowly, as if reacting to a horrible joke that only he had heard.

"You think... you think this has anything to do with Ludmoore? Or with me wanting your position?" Aldarn's face darkened after uttering those words. Using the hand he was holding his curved dagger with, he pointed at the stands. To the Baroness of Fallbottom, to be precise. "It has to do with her! And the Count! And the Viscount and his wife too! With all of them! With each of those servants of the tyrant that you have decided to forgive for their crimes!" Aldarn paused and glared at Caleb, his face was a mixture of pure, unadulterated hatred and the coldest sadness. In Caleb's eyes, his friend looked broken, in the verge of tears. He didn't look any less broken when he screamed at the top of his lungs and ran towards Caleb, sword and dagger ready to strike.

"I'm doing this for my mother!" Aldarn yelled as he delivered a bunch of quick yet powerful blows towards Caleb, who couldn't do nothing but keep his guard up, protecting his torso and head, but getting cut across arms and legs anyway. The intensity of the attack was so brutal that Caleb had to take a step back. "I'm doing this for Rolph, and Bessie! And James, and Nadia and Gormath!" Aldarn delivered a blow strong enough to break through Caleb's guard, kicking him in the gut afterwards. "I'm doing this for every son, every daughter, every father and mother they killed!" Aldarn took advantage of Caleb's disorientation to get behind him and get him into a neck lock. "Tell me..." he said sadly. "Tell me that you haven't forgotten about them..."

"I haven't forgotten about _anyone_!" Caleb yelled, hitting Aldarn in the face with the back of his head. Turning around in a swift movement, Caleb kicked Aldarn this time, forcing the other teen to fall backwards and roll over the ground.

"Then tell me why!" Aldarn screamed, getting up. "Why let them join us?! Why let them go unpunished for their crimes?! Do you have any idea how many they have killed?!"

"And how many have _we_ killed, eh?!" the bleeding Caleb shouted back, making Aldarn to shut up. "How many sons, and daughters, and fathers and mothers?! How many innocent people have we cut down just because they were in our way?!" Caleb stopped talking for a second, panting. His wounds were stinging. "Defeating Phobos doesn't mean anything if in order to do that, we have to stand over a mountain of corpses! Why don't you get it?!" now it was Caleb's turn to look at Aldarn with a sorrowful look in his face. It felt as if the rebel leader could see every enemy he had killed in his short life standing there, before his friend and him. "I need to right these wrongs. I can't keep carrying this burden."

Aldarn didn't utter a word at first. He looked at his side with a hardened face and a hardened look. "And what happens with the burden I'm carrying?" he asked, at last. "I have done... so much for this Rebellion. I have sweated for it. I have bled for it. I have cried for it. I have killed for it. And I have lost as much. Friends… and family; same as you did;" he said, looking down afterwards. "Everything… everything in the name of the ideal this Rebellion fights for. And you…" he said at Caleb, his eyes flaring with hatred once again. "You are destroying it! And I can't tolerate it anymore. I will take this Rebellion in the right path… even if I have to kill you for it."

Now it was Caleb's turn to don't say a word for several moments. He contemplated what his friend had told him. "Is that everything you have to say?" the rebel leader inquired.

"Yes," Aldarn declared with determination. Caleb saw no doubt in his friend's face, and decided to answer in equal measure.

"Very well," the rebel leader declared, throwing his normal longsword away. "Then I'm sorry, my friend;" Caleb declared, slowly unsheathing the Sword of Thanatos; "because I can't tolerate you taking the Rebellion down that path, either." Caleb unsheathed the Sword of Thanatos completely, black marks spreading through his body, his wounds stopping bleeding. The scarred rebel leader adopted then a different stand than before, ready to attack. "I won't hold back anymore."

"And neither will I," Aldarn said, to Caleb's surprise, throwing his curved dagger away and reaching behind him with his freed hand. From under his clothing, the challenger extracted a bundle covered in bandages. "Do you really think you are the only one with a magical triumph card?!" Aldarn yelled in triumph, taking the bandages out of the bundle as he did so, his lips forming a victorious smirk.

What the bundle was revealed to be made Caleb's heart to skip a beat. It was a mask, a blue mask resembling a monster. In the stands, a shiver ran through Tohru's spine. The Guardians, Jade, Ludmoore and every single rebel that identified it for what it was, stood up. Even the 'Mage' was shocked.

 _That's Ikazuki's…!_ Ludmoore thought with worry.

"Don't do it, you idiot!" Tohru yelled from the stands, recognizing the trinket for what it was; but it was too late. Aldarn had already put the Oni Mask over his face.

As the Mask closed over his cranium, blue scales adapting to the features of his face; Aldarn let out a roar. Not a scream, or a yell; but an animalistic roar. Shadows stirred across the entire chamber, smaller shadows splitting from bigger ones and travelling over the floor until they reached the arena. Each shadow formed a puddle of darkness, and from each puddle of darkness appeared a tall humanoid being, each clad in black armor, each carrying a katana at their waist. Their heads were covered in black helmets, a red visor acting as their only source of sight.

"Samurai…" Tohru whispered.

Caleb couldn't do nothing but stare in impotence as his friend's visage became the one of a demon and he stood there, flanked by these new Shadowkhan clad in black armor. When Aldarn looked back at him, his entire cranium was dark blue. It kind of fitted him, due to his lack of hair.

"This is MY Rebellion now!" the masked Aldarn yelled, his voice distorted as he did so.

* * *

 ** _The Infinite City's prison_**

Not every single rebel was present at Caleb and Aldarn's duel. Some of them ( _few_ of them) had been left taking care of the basic chores that kept the Rebellion working on a daily basis. Some of these rebels were the ones tasked with guarding the prison behind the waterfall, where at the time only one single prisoner was held behind energy bars. This prisoner was the fallen Viscount Roderick Servantis, who now spend his days and nights sleeping, contemplating the mistakes of his past, or just looking at the air. Long gone were the clothes that he had been imprisoned with, and now he wore a bunch of mismatched clothing that the rebels had provided him with. Food and water came three times a day, and nobody had tried to mistreat him in any way. Was it compassion born from the fact that he was now a cripple? Or was it just the rebels' way of mocking his broken life? Or maybe it was just pure pragmatism. After all, if he was dead he couldn't be of use if the Rebellion wanted to bargain. How much time had he spent here, living the life of a vulgar criminal?

A criminal… wasn't he one, from a certain point of view? He had once betrayed his Queen and friend in the arrogant idea that his fellow nobles and him could lead Meridian better than her; just to put a madman on the throne, that then had gathered more madmen around and against him, and had dragged Meridian down to the Abyss. And yet… and yet… everything he had dreamed of, everything he had hoped form… everything lost because of these peasants in a thirteen-year-long frenzy!

"What are you doing here?" he heard a voice from the other side of the energy bars. Servantis tried to focus into what was going on outside of his cell, but he found hard to see. "Wait, what are you… ack!" he heard next.

"You damned…! Ack!" he heard another voice, followed by a blunt sound. As if something had hit the ground…

"Stay away from the bars," a shadowy figure said from the entrance of his cell.

"What…?" Viscount Servantis began to say, unable to properly see who was talking to him. But then the shadowy figure grabbed something from the ground… a body? No, a corpse; it was the corpse of a rebel, killed by a knife that had pierced his throat. The shadowy figure proceeded to slam the corpse against the energy bars, producing a huge amount of sparks due to the friction the energy was causing with the flesh. The shadowy figure pushed the corpse even further, and then a cracking sound was heard. And the sparks stopped, the corpse fell to the ground and the energy bars were no more. The figure advanced towards Servantis. Only then did the Viscount recognize someone that he had thought lost.

"Ishol?" the fallen nobleman asked weakly, looking up from his spot at his wife. She really looked like an apparition from the heavens.

"Hello, my love;" the noblewoman said warm and happily, lending him some clothes she had brought with her. She kneeled down and passed her hand over his shoulder, reaching the stump that was now in place of his arm. After looking sadly at his missing limb, the woman looked at his face once again, and smiled. "It's time to get out of here."

* * *

 ** _The arena_**

Chaos had erupted amongst the rebels once Aldarn had put in the Oni Mask and had summoned these new Shadowkhan to his aid. The chaos had only grew bigger when more of them had appeared from the shadows and blocked every entrance, katana drawn and ready to cut whoever tried to escape. The three Guardians that had remained in the Infinite City were already in the air, albeit neither Cornelia nor Irma were employing their elemental powers yet. The same could be said about Jade, who had remained in her human form at Matt, Sephiria and Drake's side, albeit her fists were already coated in her reddish Chi Magic. Tohru had drawn his dried blowfish out, Vathek ready to go hand to hand with these beings until he found a weapon. Ludmoore remained calm and collected, though his eyes danced from one Samurai to another. The 'Mage' was pretty much the same, whitish blue sparks dancing across her fingers. And down in the arena, Caleb was still finding incredibly hard to believe his own eyes.

"Are you completely out of your mind?!" the rebel leader shrieked at his former friend. "Do you have any idea what you just put over your face?!"

"As if you were one to lecture others about using cursed artifacts;" Aldarn said sarcastically, swinging his scimitar in the air a couple of times. "And the results speak for themselves… not only the ability to control these unending soldiers, but the strength and power I feel within me… I should have put on this Mask long ago! I feel so… _mighty_ …"

"Are you even listening to yourself?!" Caleb screamed once more.

The masked Aldarn looked at him with his now deep green eyes. He grinned with a fanged, unnatural mouth, and pointed his scimitar at Caleb. "Attack," he commanded coldly, and the Shadowkhan that were in the arena with them rushed towards Caleb, holding their blades with both hands and over their heads.

Once they reached him, Caleb found himself fighting enemies that, somehow, could keep up with his strength and speed even in the first stage of transformation that the Sword of Thanatos submitted him to. As his cursed sword clashed with these creature's strange ones, he noticed that these Shadowkhan didn't fight like the ones he had fought before. Facing each of them felt like facing a seasoned warrior, versed in combat with or without the sword. He finally broke through the defense of one of them, and impaled the Sword of the Berserker into its stomach. The Shadowkhan let out a pained shriek, and dissolved into darkness. The other four that were attacking Caleb stopped their assault then, and instead adopted a defensive formation, with two of them standing with their katana high while the other two flanked them, one with his blade at the left and the other at the right. Were they… were they waiting for him? Could this new type of Shadowkhan actually adapt to whichever enemy it was fighting? And look at how much effort it had taken Caleb just to get rid of one, and that had been only thanks to a sword that killed instantaneously.

"Enough!" the masked Aldarn yelled to the remaining Shadowkhan as he walked, confident and calmly towards Caleb. "I will deal with him myself. Kill the noblewoman…" Aldarn ordered, pointing to the stands; "and anyone that gets in your way."

"You can't do that!" Caleb shouted as the Shadowkhan disappeared. He faced the approaching masked teenager. "You are breaking the rules of this duel! No rebel will follow you!"

"Please, as if I had any other means to win this match. The Guardians are here, the Mage is here, Vathek and Drake are here. I don't think any of them would accept me as leader, even if I won this duel fairly;" the masked Aldarn justified himself, shaking his now deep blue head. "So I brought something that will guarantee that they accept me as leader, no matter how this duel turns out, and no matter what they think."

Caleb narrowed his eyes at his fallen friend. Was the dark power within the Mask that was making Aldarn to talk like that? Or was it just empowering a thought that had been there, within him, for a very long time? Whatever explanation there was for it, Aldarn's new behavior gave Caleb an idea about how to take advantage of it.

"Then how are you any different from Phobos?" the rebel leader asked.

"Don't compare me to the Prince! He is nothing but a monster that has taken everything from us! He deserves to pay! Every one of his servants deserves to pay! He is a tyrant! And I…" Aldarn declared proudly, and then he roared and charged towards Caleb with clear killing intent. "I'm going to avenge everyone he's ever wronged!"

* * *

 ** _The stands_**

The chaos that had erupted amongst the rebels after the appearance of these Shadowkhan had only strengthened after they had started to attack the Baroness' loyalists. She and her small group of soldiers were actually doing pretty well on their own, having pulled short weapons such as daggers, small axes and even short swords from under their robes. Surprisingly, many rebels had come to their aid. It seemed that the fact they had fought side by side on Kelliwic had managed to strengthen ties between them. Of course, the Shadowkhan took this as an indication that every rebel in the chamber was their enemy.

But this newest type of Shadowkhan looked to be made of a tougher paste than their Ninja, Squid, Leech and Mantis variants. And nobody understood that better than Jade Chan. These Shadowkhan (these... Samurai Khan) were, if not faster than the Ninja, yes much stronger and durable than them thanks to their armor and bigger muscle mass. While lacking the stretching, shadow-eating or wall-crawling abilities of their 'cousins' (for lack of a better term), they made up for it with their skill with their swords. And destroying them with her chi degradation ability was being harder than usual, as they not only seemed more resistant to it, but dodged her attacks and adapted to her pace and fighting style. She had opted for not transforming, as being in her wolf form would only make her a bigger target; and instead was fighting the Samurai Khan with her kung fu and Chi Magic alone.

"Tohru!" the black-haired Chinese girl called for her friend as she evaded the next katana strike from the nearest Samurai Khan. "How do we get rid of these guys?!"

"Without the Hana Fuda and the key ingredient, it's impossible!" Tohru said as he blasted a pair of Samurai Khan with a greenish chi attack. It sent them tumbling back and fuming, but they didn't dissolve until he hit them with a couple more blasts.

"Fan-freaking-tastic!" Jade said in her most deadpan tone as she delivered a chi-empowered jump kick to a Samurai Khan's head. She saw another four approaching her, and she prepared herself to face them, her teeth instinctively shifting into fangs. Then, to her surprise, the 'Mage' appeared in front of her in a flash of green light. The elder woman extended her hands towards the five Shadowkhan, and with a chant, they all disappeared in the same way the 'Mage' had just appeared. And as fast as she had materialized in front f her, the sorceress was gone.

"Wow," an astonished Jade said. Had… had that been the same thing Yan Lin had done in the castle's dungeons so many months ago?! Could the Mage do that too?! "Just… wow."

* * *

The group of five Shadowkhan the 'Mage' had teleported away appeared in an empty chamber of the Infinite City. Mere seconds later, the 'Mage' herself teleported there, instantaneously dropping her glamour and revealing her true appearance as Nerissa Crossnic. The Samurai Khan attacked her instantly, but she answered by calmly rising her flesh arm.

"Quintessence," she declared coldly, shooting a stream of lightning towards her foes, electrocuting the five of them. Seeing that this wasn't enough, she activated the Dragon Talisman embedded in her metal arm, and added a wave of dragon-fire to the attack. The quintet of Shadowkhan dissolved instantly due to the fire and Quintessence combination.

"I leave these children alone for five minutes, and everything goes to hell;" the extremely wrinkled sorceress complained, then she donned the glamour of the Mage once again, and teleported back to the chamber the fight was taking place in.

* * *

The first time Matt Olsen had seen a fight against a large group of Shadowkhan it had been from afar, when the girls had been fighting against the possessed Jackie and Viper, and the summoned Leech and Squid Khan. From that distance, the image of his girlfriend and her teammates overcoming all the odds and defeating a seemingly endless horde of enemies had looked cool. Now that he was caught in the middle of it all… not so much.

"Find cover!" Drake, a sword in one hand and a short spear in another, told both him and Sephiria.

"Where?!" Matt asked as a trio of Samurai Khan rushed towards them. Fortunately, the little group of Samurai Khan was hit by what could only be described as a tidal wave in miniature.

"I swear to God," a very pissed Irma Lair said from the air, blasting Shadowkhan after Shadowkhan with her powers; "if fighting a new type of Shadowkhan every month becomes a thing…!"

"Fight now, complain later!" Will ordered as she flew down and snatched Matt and Sephiria by their clothes, taking them away from the fight with some difficulty due to their weight, landing near one of the exits of the chamber that fortunately was unprotected at the moment. "Find any other rebel you can and tell them to come here! Take as many wounded as you can with you and help them! Can you do that?!"

"Of course," Sephiria said.

"Y-Yeah!" Matt said too, albeit he wasn't so convinced about what he could do now.

"Good," the redhead acknowledged. Then she turned around and delivered a crescent moon kick towards an incoming Samurai Khan. Thank _everything_ for a Guardian's super-strength! "Matt?"

"Yes?" the teenage guitarist asked awkwardly, feeling a hundred times more awkward when the redhead pulled him into a kiss. "Wha-"

"Just… don't get hurt, okay?" Will said.

"Sure," Matt answered with a smile, and then he and Sephiria departed.

With a smile of her own, Will flew upwards and joined Cornelia and Irma again.

* * *

Charles Ludmoore blocked the descending blade of a katana with a shield made out of deep blue Raw Magic. The sword struggled against the barrier for several moments, before breaking through it. Ludmoore was able to jump back at the last second, though, evading being cut.

 _This isn't really my style…_ the businessman thought, using his Raw Magic to deliver a series of small magic blasts to a few Shadowkhan. "Over here," he addressed them coldly, running towards one of the chamber's exits, the Samurai Khan following on his trail. One of them jumped ahead, kicking Ludmoore into the hall the chamber was connected to, sending the man to the ground. The Samurai then prepared to deliver a fatal blow to the fallen man's head… just for the soulless being's katana to stop in midair, as if held by an invisible force.

"No witnesses here," Ludmoore said in a more happy voice, using the telekinesis of the Noble Rooster to push the Samurai Khan back. Eyes flaring in orange, he used the power of the Noble Pig to shoot a couple of eye beans towards it. The blast went through the creature's skull as if it were butter, the Shadowkhan dissolving into a puddle of darkness afterwards. The other four closed distances with him, but Ludmoore had been quick to get up; "which means I don't have to contain myself. Gan, Ren, Chui!"

The three Dark Chi Warriors he had stolen from Wong materialized from clouds of purple smoke, already carrying their weapons. They engaged the Samurai Khan in a fight immediately. Meanwhile, Ludmoore clasped his wooden and flesh hands together, generating a sphere of both Raw and Chi Magic between his palms. He made his Dark Chi Warriors disappear then, throwing the sphere towards the quartet of Shadowkhan, trapping them within it.

"Now… disappear!" Ludmoore said with a triumphant grin.

Powerless, the otherwise mighty warriors struggled in vain against the combination of both types of magic. Unable to do anything, Ludmoore's attack tore them apart, and they crumbled into tiny pieces of shadow.

Charles adjusted his clothes and put on his coldly façade afterwards, and with unnatural and natural hands clasped behind his back, he headed into the chamber.

* * *

 ** _Back at the arena_**

Back at the center of the arena, the masked Aldarn fought tooth and nail against Caleb. The power of the Oni Mask and the Sword of Thanatos made their strength and speed to go beyond what the bodies of regular people would be capable of, yet they still remained evenly matched.

"Aren't you seeing what you are doing?!" a desperate Caleb shouted as he parried Aldarn's next attack. "Your monsters are harming the same rebels you fight for!"

"If they choose to stand with the tyrant's minions, then they choose to stand against me!" the masked Aldarn exclaimed in return, continuing with his incesant rain of attacks. "They aren't any better!"

"That's the Mask talking!"

"The Mask just makes everything clearer!"

The next time their blades collided, the Sword of Thanatos broke Aldarn's scimitar at its blade's middle. Seeing this, Caleb kicked Aldarn over the waist, sending him to the ground.

 _I have him!_ Caleb thought as he closed distances with Aldarn. He was ready to deliver the finishing blow and end this madness once and for all, but in the last second... he stopped. Something as simple as scratching him with the Sword of Thanatos would be enough to kill him! And yet...! And yet...! And yet he couldn't bring himself to do it, could he? He couldn't kill his best friend.

 _No, boy! I have YOU!_ the voice of the demon within the blade resonated inside Caleb's cranium then, and the black marks around his right arm started to expand and make his skin as black as oil. Caleb growled painfully, but unable to fight back the power of the curse, he put the Sword of the Berserker back in its enchanted sheath. His body returned to normal shortly after, wounds bleeding and stinging once again. He fell on one knee.

The masked Aldarn, meanwhile, had come back to his feet. "Sword broken or not," he threatened, looming over the wounded Caleb; "this is as far as you go, my leader... my friend."

Aldarn raised his broken scimitar in the air, and then lowered it with the intention of decapitating Caleb... just to be hit by a gigantic vine sprouting from the ground, just below him. The challenger went flying for several second until gravity did its job and he fell to the ground.

 _What?_ the wounded Caleb thought, looking up just to be greeted by the familiar appearance of a certain blonde Guardian. "Cornelia?! What are you doing here?!"

"Oh, hello Cornelia! Thanks for saving my butt from certain death!" the Earth Guardian said sardonically, one hand on her hip and the other in the air. "I can't go all out on the stands, too many rebels;" she cleared out, making more vines to sprout from the ground. One of the vines grabbed the longsword Caleb had previously thrown away, and as Cornelia landed at his side and helped him up, it delivered the normal blade to him. "And you need help."

"I… won't deny that," the green-eyed rebel leader said, taking his longsword again, holding it with both hands now.

Cornelia's statement turned out to be truer than expected, as when Aldarn rose up again, he didn't lose time before summoning five Samurai Khan to his aid. The quartet of armored shadow warriors held their katana at their sides, and charged towards the pair. Meanwhile, Aldarn roared to the skies in a way not so different than an animal would do, and six more Samurai Khan manifested themselves from the shadows, joining the other four. Cornelia kicked the ground below her, making more vines to erupt from it and attack the incoming shadow warriors. The Samurai Khan, however, used their katana to chop the incoming giant plants, getting closer and closer to the duo. The blonde continued her onslaught by tearing apart the ground below them, levitating two large rocks afterwards. Then, clenching her fists, the pair of large rocks broke into tiny, sharp ones, and she used them as projectiles against the Samurai Khan. By the time their enemy reached Caleb and Cornelia, only five Samurai remained.

Caleb parried the next incoming katana strike with difficulty, while Cornelia used her flying abilities to evade the black blades. The same Samurai Khan that he had parried proceeded to kick him on the chin, and another jumped over the shoulders of his fellow Shadowkhan, using him as a springboard in order to jump high enough to reach Cornelia. The blonde protected herself by making a pillar of stone to erupt from the ground and that acted as a shield against the katana. The blade went through it as a hot knife goes through butter. The pair found itself in the ground again, cornered by the remaining Shadowkhan within the arena, while the battle continued to rage on the stands.

"You're a coward, Aldarn!" Cornelia yelled at the masked rebel, who was still where he had incorporated. "You're letting these things do your dirty work!"

"I'm not a coward! I'm not!" Aldarn yelled. "Little Guardian, living in her perfect little world at the other side of the Veil! You haven't suffered as much as I have!"

"Alright…" Cornelia said, an eyebrow crooked; "I think he's lost it."

"I'm not a coward!" the masked Aldarn yelled, grabbing his head. "I am a rebel! I am a hero! I am… Mighty! Mighty! Mighty! MIGHTY!"

"No," Caleb said, noticing how the Shadowkhan had stopped their attacks, and were now looking at their master. In the stands, the other Samurai Khan had done the same. One by one, each Samurai Khan hoisted their katana in the air, yelling triumphantly afterwards. "I think this is way worse."

"Are they… cheering?" Cornelia asked, freaked out by the Samurai Khan's nearly human behavior.

"RAWR!" the masked Aldarn roared again, but this time much louder. It was enough to make every rebel, Guardian, wizard and sorceress in the chamber to stop their fighting, all their eyes glued into the masked challenger. He threw his arms upwards, hands clenched into fists.

"IKAZUKI LIVES!" Aldarn, or more accurately the Oni General trapped within the Mask and now on possession of his body, proclaimed loudly. "BOW BEFORE MY MIGHTY FORM…! Of a pubescent, skinny meridianite;" he said disappointed, getting a closer look at Aldarn's body. "I suppose it could be worse. Um…" he mused, inspecting Aldarn's broken scimitar. "Western crap," he declared, throwing it aside. A Samurai Khan appeared then kneeling at his feet, ready to hand him a sheathed katana. "Much better!" he said, taking the Japanese blade. He then focused his piercing deep green gaze on the injured Caleb and Cornelia. "And you…" he gazed at the stands, at every rebel, wizard and Guardian looking at him and his soldiers. "Hmpf! Guardian and human! Know this! Know that I, General Ikazuki, Kage no Ken Ikazuki… and Mightiest of Lord Tarakudo's Generals, would love to trade blows with you! As a warrior, there would be nothing better than engage you in glorious battle, even with this inferior, puny body! As a warrior, there's nothing I desire more right now! But as a General…" he said, rising his hand. The shadow at his feet became bigger, as did the ones under his remaining Shadowkhan. "As a General… duty is more important than pleasure. Sayōnara!" he exclaimed, sinking into the puddle of darkness under his feet, his Samurai Khan following his example.

"Wait!" Caleb yelled, rushing towards the disappearing Oni and Shadowkhan. "Wait! Aldarn!"

By the time Caleb reached them and kneeled down, extending his hand as if to grab them, it was too late. They were gone, and with them, his friend's body.

"ALDARN!"

* * *

 ** _Many hours later_**

 ** _The Small Council's room_**

"Has anything good actually happened today?" a tired Drake asked, one of his arms bandaged.

Around him, the rest of the Rebellion's Small Council (now with Ludmoore amongst them), the Guardians (back in their human forms), the Baroness of Fallbottom, Matt Olsen, Galgheita Rudolph and the whole Chan Clan (minus old Uncle Chan) shared that same question. It had taken them hours just to calm the rebels that had been attending the duel, and even more to put an end to the Baroness' justified anger at the fact that one of her new 'allies' had decided to kill her and her followers. Then they had had to put the wounded to treatment and take the (thankfully not as many as they had thought there would be) dead out of the chamber. The only good thing to come out of the whole experience had been that Aldarn's followers had lost all credibility amongst the rebels. Then the news of the two captured nobles escaping had reached them. And then Team Lannion had returned from their mission, without Elyon.

"I'm sorry," Alchemy apologized. "If I'd chosen my words better, then Elyon…"

"Alchemy, don't apologize;" Cornelia told her friend, putting a calming hand over her shoulder. "If Elyon doesn't want to see reason after everything you've told her then…" the blonde gave a deep breath; "then it's not your fault."

"So the Princess is still within her brother's grasp. The Viscount and the Viscountess have escaped," Vathek said somberly; "and we have lost Aldarn."

"And now there is an Oni General on the run," Tohru said, shivering a bit. "One that we can't stop without the Hana Fuda cards."

"Yeah, and his Shadowkhan are no joke;" Irma said, rubbing her shoulder. "They're a lot tougher than the others we've fought!"

"We should go back to Earth and inform Captain Black about this," Jackie told the sumo. "This General may try to take the Masks that are on Section 13."

"The vault is protected against Oni like Tarakudo… but I don't know if the spells will work on a possessed human. The General called himself Ikazuki," Tohru recalled. "Sensei and I will investigate; see if we can find any clue on what the key ingredient for his mask-removal potion is."

"So… we lost," Taranee complained. "Again."

"Not necessarily," Will said then, making her friends and companions to look at her. "True, we've lost Aldarn, and that's terrible… but frankly, it's a better outcome to deal with than the one that we would've to deal with had he won. We'll find a way to get that Mask from his face. Elyon isn't in our side yet, but I doubt Alchemy and that Trill's words haven't had an effect on her. All in all, I think we still got the edge."

"And what about the Viscount and the Viscountess' escape?" Vathek asked. "How does that affect our plans?"

"In no way," Will told the blue Galhot. "In fact, it's probably better than having to bargain using a broken Ishol."

"How is it better?" Ludmoore asked then.

"Oh right," Taranee said. "You don't know."

"It's an idea I had when we learned that Ishol's mom's some kind of super-grandma;" Jade said. "I call it the 'Rasputin Stratagem'." the Chan girl told them.

"Rasputin?" Ludmoore inquired.

"Yeah, 'cause he's…" Jade began, but then shook her head. "Look, it goes like this…" she said, beginning to explain to the businessman what the so-called 'Rasputin Stratagem' consisted in.

"But that is just… brilliant," Ludmoore complimented their plan after a brief explanation about what it consisted in, even if he did so emotionlessly.

"Please, no compliments from the coldhearted guy that only cares about profit;" Jade complained, feeling a little bad with herself after that.

"I'm still not okay with that," Jackie broke into the conversation then, crossing his arms.

"Neither was I, Jackie;" Taranee told the archeologist. "But you've to admit… it's the best option we have to minimize loses."

"See?" Will said, a small grin making its way to her face. "All in all, this was just a minor setback. Everything's still going according to plan."

* * *

 ** _Aldarn's room_**

"What's that?" Cornelia asked.

In front of her, sitting on what she supposed had been Aldarn's bed, was Caleb, with a bow in his hands. The scarred rebel leader had been one of the first one to have his wounds treated, and the he had spent the entire meeting of the Small Council in silence. When it had ended, he had walked out of the chamber without uttering a single word. Cornelia had only found him due to Vathek telling her that he was probably here.

"It's the bow Aldarn and I stole from one of Phobos' armories," the rebel leader explained. "The day I met you all for the first time. We were trying to get more weapons, and powder too, but the Guard caught me and… well, I had to blow up the armory."

"You blew up an armory?" Cornelia asked, finding the thought funny. "And you only grabbed a bow?"

"I… needed an escape route," Caleb said, chuckling a bit. "And it was the only thing I could take. Aldarn… said the same thing."

"I'm sorry… for all of this Caleb," Cornelia told the boy, putting a hand on his back. "You were trying to do the right thing and… you didn't deserve any of this."

"Yes, but that's the thing, isn't it?" Caleb said. "I do the wrong thing, and good people die. I try to do the right thing, and my best friend tries to kill me," under her palm, Cornelia could sense how the teen was trembling. "And now he's out there, his body controlled by some monstrosity, and we lack the means to save him. W-What if we have to kill him to stop the Oni controlling him? W-What if… oh, Light…"

"Caleb, it's okay;" Cornelia told him. It had taken her too long to understand that Caleb wasn't just trembling, he was sobbing. "Just… let it go."

It took Caleb seconds before breaking into crying. It was a loud, long, and painful cry, more similar to a scream than anything else.

* * *

 ** _Shadow Realm_**

The Shadow Realm. The Void between the worlds. The place were every nightmare was born, inhabited only by a swarm of abominations and their Master that, if ever were to run beyond the boundaries of this place; would tear worlds apart. It was Hell. And the place every Oni under Tarakudo's command obtained their power over the Shadow from.

And speaking of the King, there he was, just floating around, meditating, while the Cavalcade sang their mad tunes far down below. And in his gigantic ethereal head form, no less! Ikazuki had never liked that form, it gave his King a look that didn't suit him at all. Then again, he wasn't one to talk about unsuited forms, was he? Definitely not as he was right now.

"Ikazuki?" the King inquired, breaking out of his meditational trance. His gigantic head-shaped self turned around, dedicating the General a first curious and then funny look. "That body..."

"Some meridianite boy that put my Mask on," the General, bowing his head, told his King.

Tarakudo chuckled. "It doesn't do you any justice, General."

Ikazuki answered with a laugh of his own, floating towards Tarakudo. "Look who's talking! The greatest Oni of all time, and you look like something out of a bad bedtime story for children!"

King and General looked at each other for a few moments, then they both broke out in boisterous laughter. Then Ikazuki kneeled down (a hard feat to accomplish in a place with no gravity or floor, mind you), bowing to his liege.

"It's good to have you back, old friend;" Tarakudo said warmly.

"It's good to be back, my King;" Ikazuki said with equal sincerity, rising to his feet. "Even if it's just for a while."

"You know about the plan?" the King asked, genuinely curious.

"Ikki left some of his memories regarding your ploy in the shadows," Ikazuki explained. "In the moment I woke up, they were transmitted to me." Ikazuki paused, flexing his arms. This body was so weird... "If the only ones left are Soichiro and Hadosheru, why not retrieve them from Ludmoore, break into the vault holding the others and obtain our freedom?"

"Because Ludmoore is not a fool," Tarakudo said. "The moment he perceives us as a menace to his goal, he will throw Soichiro and Hadosheru into the heart of a star. And then there will be no freedom for none of us." Tarakudo closed his eyes, thinking for a bit. "But as things are now, his success is dependent on our success... and vice versa. We must let the wheels of war to turn, and wait for our moment." Tarakudo let his lips curve into a happy and vicious smile. "And then, we will obtain the victory that Escanor and Leryn stole from us through trickery and sorcery."

"Does that mean that I can do as I please for the time being?" Ikazuki asked.

"What do you have in mind?" Tarakudo asked.

"This boy has some interesting memories," the Samurai said, grinning. "Between them, I recognize an old enemy I wouldn't lament crossing swords again with."

* * *

 ** _Days later; a forge in the Capital_**

 _Clink! Clank! Clonk!_

The sound of the hammer against the anvil was steady and calming, to a degree. Like the sound that a drop makes when falling over a quiescent surface of water, just louder. Caleb stared in silence at the blacksmith giving shape to the red hot metal with his hammer, then to how he carefully plunged it into water in order to cool it down. Then he left the finished piece aside, grabbing another he had in the hearth and repeating the process. For Caleb, who was used to fight with weapons but not to see how they were made, this looked like… magic.

 _Clink! Clank! Clonk!_

 _Clink! Clank… Clonk._

The blacksmith had stopped. He glanced over his shoulder to look at Caleb for the fraction of a second, then returned to his work.

 _Clink! Clank! Clonk!_

"Bold of you to come here," the man, a short, bulky and bald Galhot said. "The city's been a mess lately. The Wizard goes insane; the Prince goes madder afterwards, taking more energy than ever from the land. The Guard takes people out, to a safer place, they say."

 _Clink! Clank! Clonk!_

"I have come to talk, Aketon;" Caleb addressed the Galhot. By the Light, he looked like an older, shorter version of his son. "About Aldarn."

 _Clink…_

"Is my son… dead?" the blacksmith asked.

"No," Caleb answered. "He is just… lost."

 _Clink! Clank! Clonk!_

"Why tell me this?" Aketon asked, his eyes not leaving the anvil and the red hot piece of metal over it. "My son… I haven't seen him in years. He hates me, called me a coward last time I saw him…"

"You are his father," Caleb stated. "You deserve to know;" the rebel leader told him, and then paused before continuing. "And I want to ask you… why did you leave? Aldarn… Aldarn needed you. Only now, after everything that has happened between him and me, I understand how much. And you abandoned him. It couldn't be just fear. Why?"

CLANK!

"Do you know that I was friends with some guards?" Aketon answered, never stopping his forging. "Before this, before Phobos. I still… consider them to be my friends, and I suppose they do the same for me. The ones that remain alive, that's it. The rest are long dead, in this war of yours."

 _Clink! Clank! Clonk!_

"I spend my days, and some nights sometimes, forging weapons;" Aketon continued. "Making swords of any type, pikes and lances, and steel-bows and arrows too. And I know that they end in the hands of the Guard, and in the ones of the rebels too, via smuggling."

 _Clink! Clank! Clonk!_

"And sometimes I spend time awake, lying on my bed and I think… Do my weapons kill innocent people? Was one of my swords used to decapitate an innocent man? Did one of the steel-bows I once made kill the woman I loved?" Aketon paused.

 _Clink! Clank! Clonk!_

"Will my son be killed with one of these one day? Or will he kill another living creature with them? During all these years… has my son killed one of my friends with my weapons?" Aketon asked. "I think it helps put a lot of things into perspective."

 _Clink! Clank. Clonk…_

"They say that the worst thing that can happen to a father is that his children are killed, that they outlive him;" Aketon told Caleb. "It's nothing compared to the thought that your children have killed another breathing, living being, be it human or Galhot. That's the reason I left. This war took the person I loved the most from me. And I watched, powerless, as it threatened to take my boy too. This war and those stupid hero tales…"

"I… understand;" Caleb said. "But… you shouldn't have left. Aldarn needed you. You have no idea what he has been through, what everyone has been through. Perhaps, if you had been there, with him, many of those things wouldn't have happened. Perhaps, all those questions that plague you at night wouldn't be there if you hadn't left."

CLANK!

"I know," Aketon said. The next time the hammer hit the anvil, it didn't rise again. "I know… but what was I supposed to do?" he said. "Perhaps my son's been right, for all these years. I really was a coward, wasn't I?"

"That's not something I have any right to say," Caleb said, turning around. "Your son… my friend is still out there. I just… hope that, if I ever find him and bring him back, you can be there for him. He's lost enough, already. Everyone has. And I'm so tired of it."

Caleb left with those words, having already done what he had come here to do. As he exited the forge, he thought that he had caught a glimpse of the blacksmith hunched down, sobbing. It passed as fast as it had come, and by the time the rebel leader put his feet on the street and pulled his hood up, the only sound coming from the forge was the one of the hammer hitting the anvil.

 _Clink! Clank! Clonk!_

* * *

 _What do rebellions fight for? For hope and freedom? For justice and truth? For vengeance and blood? For power and glory? History has taught us that rebellions are uprising movements against the established power. If that's good or bad… depends on the case, and who you ask. At least, that's my opinion_.  Professor Dean Collins

* * *

 **A/N: And here we are, after almost three months without any update. I stated my reasons for this delay above. I hope the next one, which doesn't contain any action, will come sooner, but I don't really know. Don't expect nothing from this story until the next year, which is one of the reasons I have made this chapter so big. With all said, it was incredibly hard to put everything into words here, and manage all the characters involved into the action. Hope you have enjoyed this chapter, and I hope to see you soon.**

 **Bye, bye!**


	27. This thing called Love

**Disclaimer: I own neither the WITCH cartoon-show nor Jackie Chan Adventures; they are the property of their respective creators, writers, and producers.**

 **A/N: Hello there, dear readers. Long time not seeing each other yet again; more than four months, to be precise. Before we start this chapter, which is pretty light in comparison with the previous one, I'd like to say something; which I think I already said before, but I think it's worth repeating it. To every people out there, at the other side of the screen and that take their time to work into the TvTropes page for this story (which now contains a character page, many thanks to the amazing Zim'sMostLoyalServant for that), you all have my utmost thanks. To all readers that enjoy this tale of mine and also take their time to leave reviews, favorite it or follow it, you also have my thanks. When I started writing this story, I didn't know it would become so popular or that it would become so enormous; and it wouldn't have if not for each of you. So… thank you, from the bottom of my heart. Sentimentalities aside, I hope you enjoy reading this chapter. Have fun, and leave a review if you feel like it.**

* * *

Guardians, Wizards and Kung-Fu Fighters

Episode Twenty seven

This thing called Love

* * *

 ** _Meridian. The Royal Palace_**

 ** _A day after Caleb and Aldarn's duel_**

It had taken Elyon all the previous day's morning and afternoon to reach the Capital, mainly due to two factors. One, she didn't really know the proper way to travel there (she knew the overall direction she needed to go into; but that was it), and two, she had yet to completely master her recently learned ability to fly. Therefore, she had been forced to make several stops along the way in order to both prevent herself from losing control mid-flight and falling to the ground, and make sure she was travelling in the right direction. By the time she had arrived to the castle it was already dark and she had been so exhausted that she had entered her chambers through their balcony, dropped over her bed and fallen asleep. When she had woken up with the first light of the next morning, the exhaustion continued to be there.

She knew that tiredness not to be a product of her continuous use of magic, though. Thanks to her status as the bearer of the Heart of Meridian she had a practically endless amount of energy at her disposal. No… it was due to something completely unrelated to that. Alchemy and Trill's words had echoed within her head during her entire flight and when she had closed her eyes, their faces and words had come to her in dreams, followed by Ludmoore's, her adopted parents' and, ultimately, Cornelia's. Words that questioned her, that told her she had made the wrong choice, that she was acting out of pure selfishness and a desire to be the center of attention, that her brother was a monster just manipulating her and that he had been the one to kill their biological parents, that Cedric had lied to her, that she was nothing more than a selfish kid… and that, despite all of this, they still cared for her. They still _loved_ her. And that they were telling the _truth_.

Could each one of them have been right? No, that couldn't be. Her brother… her brother loved her! Look at how much time and effort he had put into finding her, into rescuing her from a life built on nothing but lies! And look at how much good she had been able to do under his care! But the more time she dedicated to think about them, the more sense Alchemy's words made. And so did Mrs. Rudolph's and Trill's. Since the moment she had arrived to Meridian, she had seen very little of the world she was supposedly going to rule in the near future, barring the inside of the palace and some parts of the Capital and Lannion. And now that she actually thought about it, there were some parts of the palace that she hadn't been to, mostly because her brother and Cedric had told her not to go there. What was the reason for that? Was there something that they didn't want her to discover? Could they have been lying to her all this time? No, that made little to no sense. However, Elyon also doubted that Alchemy and Trill had lied to her. But if Alchemy and Trill were telling the truth… were Cornelia and the girls doing the same? Were her adopted parents? And if they were telling the truth, wouldn't it be clear that Cedric, Miranda and her brother were the ones lying? God, had… had Phobos really been the one to murder their biological parents?

Elyon didn't know what to believe anymore. Who was telling the truth and who was lying? Was anyone lying? Was anyone saying any truth? Was anyone interested on her well-being, or were they just trying to manipulate her? She didn't know. She needed answers. She needed… she needed to test her brother. Yeah, that was it. That was the best course of action. Put her brother to the test, figure out if he really was trustworthy or not.

 _Just give him one more chance to prove himself_ , Elyon thought as she exited her chambers. _One last chance._

When she exited her chambers and started to head to the throne room, however, she started to notice that there was something different about the castle since last time she had been there.

There were less servants moving around, the number of Lurdens standing guard at the entrance of every corridor and every chamber had been doubled and, most important of all, there were sections of the palace that had been completely wrecked. Many pieces of furniture had been smashed to pieces, curtains and carpets had been torn apart, and even some walls had been broken. Even for Elyon Escanor, who had never been to a battlefield in her life, it was clear that all these could be consequence of one thing only: Combat.

"What's happened here?" the Princess of Meridian asked of the nearest Lurden once she gained access to the main hall of the castle.

The Lurden, dressed in the typical attire of his people (which consisted mainly of a loincloth and little else), didn't answer right away. Was he, perhaps, startled by the Princess of Meridian speaking to him so sudden and casually?

"The Archmage," the Lurden spoke, at last; "Wong, the wizard, he... did something to us. Controlled our minds, made us fight for him, against our brothers and sisters... He wanted the throne. He almost got it."

And in that moment Elyon's head was quickly emptied of every doubt and question she had. She found herself dashing down the hall, and before she could realize it, she was in front of the great doors of dark wood that led to the throne room. She paused for a brief moment, the doubts and questions coming back to her. But strengthening her resolve, the straw blonde pushed the gates onward, and entered into the chamber ahead.

To her surprise, the throne room continued to look exactly the same as always. The brilliant and marvelous walls, the bright red roses growing around the throne… they were in the exact same and perfect state as they were the day Elyon had left for Lannion. Whatever had happened to the rest of the castle, it didn't seem to have affected the throne room in the slightest. As usual, her brother was sitting in the throne. At the bottom of the stairs that connected it to the floor of the room were Cedric, Miranda and a skinny, pale girl Elyon hadn't seen before, dressed in similar clothes to the ones Tristan wore.

"Phobos?" Elyon called out, drawing her brother's and his courtiers' attention upon herself.

"Elyon?" her brother asked, his face showing both surprise and concern. "I thought you would be on Lannion for…" he continued, rising from his throne and descending the stairs that connected it to the room's floor. Cedric, Miranda and the other girl, meanwhile, kept themselves silent, watching the elder sibling approach the youngest. "Why are you here? _How_ are you here? Was there any problem?" Phobos inquired, now standing in front of her. "Was there any attack?"

"I… big brother… you see…" Elyon began.

It took Elyon less than she had first expected to explain to her brother what had forced her to flee Lannion. Then again, she had decided to omit certain details during her retelling of last night's events, especially the ones concerning Alchemy and Mrs. Rudolph's appearance and the talk they had had with her. She hadn't let Trill and the reveal she was a rebel spy out of her tale, though. While being cautious enough to not talk about what the chubby, middle-aged maidservant had told her about the role Phobos had (according to her) played in their biological parents' deaths, she had told her brother that Trill had probably been the reason the Rebellion had discovered she was in Lannion.

Therefore, by the time Elyon finished speaking Phobos only knew the following things. One, Trill was a rebel spy; she probably had always been one. Two, she had revealed his sister's location (and who knows what else) to the Rebellion. Three, a group of unknown rebels had infiltrated Lannion and tried to kidnap the Princess. And four, that Elyon (not wanting to destroy the whole place while fighting them) had fled the great city.

"I knew this kind of problem would arise sooner or later, but I didn't imagine the rebels to be bold and stupid enough to attempt to kidnap you in such a way and so soon;" Phobos said after a moment, taking one of his hands to his chin and looking down. Then he raised his eyes, looking at Elyon. "What about the Shapeshifter I assigned to protect you?"

"Tristan?" Elyon asked. Oh, Christ. She knew she was forgetting about something! Or someone, in this case. "I guess I... left him behind."

"I will make sure to send a messenger to Lannion as soon as possible," Cedric assured them both after Phobos made a quick glance at him; "and order him to return. I shall also inform the Guard, the Lurdens and the rest of the servants about Trill's betrayal."

"The important thing now is that you are safe," Phobos said afterwards, placing his hands over his sister's shoulders. "But I don't want to risk this situation repeating itself. From now on, you won't be leaving the Capital, and you will only leave the palace accompanied. Understood?"

"U-Understood," Elyon said, voice trembling a little. _Yeah, that doesn't sound suspicious at all_ ; a sarcastic thought crossed her mind afterwards. "What about you?" the Princess asked while grabbing Phobos by his wrists in an affectionate gesture, making her brother to slightly tilt his head, as if confused by this action. "The castle's wrecked, and some Lurden told me that Archmage Wong tried to kill you, and..."

"Wong's betrayal, while surprising, was... unsuccessful. Lady Roberta here, a Shapeshifter of his own creation, was crucial into turning the tide against him;" Phobos interrupted Elyon. He took his hands off her, turning around and heading back to the throne afterwards. The Princess remained where she was, not moving even an inch. "That traitorous wizard, however, is still at large; which is yet another reason for you to remain within the palace. Wong could target you."

"O-Okay..." Elyon said, directing her gaze at the floor for a second. When she looked up again, her brother was already climbing the stairs back to the throne. Clenching her fists, Elyon breathed deeply. It had to be now.

"If that is all that you have to..." Phobos began to say.

"I wish to see Alborn and Miriael."

Phobos froze in his tracks. Both Cedric and Miranda looked at Elyon with shocked expressions, while Roberta narrowed her eyes a little, finding the reaction of the other two Shapeshifters intriguing. The Prince turned around, expression neutral, but eyes wide opened.

"You what?" Phobos asked flatly.

"Alborn and Miriael," Elyon said, looking at her brother in the eyes. "I want to speak with them."

"With all due respect, my Princess, please think about what you are asking;" Cedric quickly intervened, giving a couple of steps and putting himself between Phobos and Elyon. "Those two kidnapped you and lied to you for years. I don't think anything good can come from interacting with them."

"I know that's probably the case," Elyon said to the Shapeshifter Lord, perhaps a bit somberly at that. "But... even if everything that they said to me during my entire life really was a lie, they were still the ones that raised me." Elyon narrowed her eyes a bit, losing herself in the memories of her not so distant childhood. Remembering every meal around that old-fashioned table, every family movie-night, every trip to the beach in summer, every laugh and hug... but also every yell, every tear, every single time she had been sent to her room because she had done something bad. She remembered every time each of them had told her ' _I love you_ '. "That's the reason I want to speak with them."

"My lady, think about it for a second..." Miranda pleaded.

"I think it's a wonderful idea."

Now it was Phobos' turn to shock them all by uttering a single phrase. All eyes were now focused on him, the Prince still standing at the middle of the staircase. He had his hands at his back, staring at the quartet of individuals below with an unreadable expression.

"Compassion is a laudable attribute for a future Queen," the Prince said, smiling a little. Then the smile faded and he looked at his side, as in deep thought. "And even though they are deceivers and kidnappers..." Phobos let out a tired sigh, then focused his attention on Elyon once more; "I can understand the way you feel."

"Does that mean...?" Elyon asked, face lighting up with hope.

"It means I shall arrange for Alborn and Miriael to be brought to this palace's dungeons from Lannion, nothing else;" Phobos said matter-of-factly. "These are dangerous times, the war grows more violent every day, and taking you to Cavigor would be too risky. You will remain in the Capital until they arrive."

"Of course, big brother;" Elyon said, smiling politely. "Thank you."

Elyon left the throne room shortly afterwards, and she did it alone. It was better that way, she supposed. While Miranda had been of great help into getting properly adjusted to the life and customs of Meridian, Elyon couldn't avoid feeling as suspicious of her as she felt about Cedric and her brother.

 _I hope this actually works_ , Elyon thought in regards to her little ploy as she walked back to her chambers. If Phobos brought her adoptive parents to the Capital, then not only would she be able to speak with them about _why_ they had taken her from Meridian all those years ago, but it would also prove that her brother could be really trusted. On the other hand, if Phobos didn't bring them to the palace, if he put up some kind of excuse, then… Then…

 _Then it'll mean he's lying_ , Elyon thought. _That all of them have been lying, and that maybe Cornelia and the others are telling the truth. About him… and about me._

* * *

 ** _Back at the Thorn Throne_**

"She was lying, my liege;" Cedric declared as Phobos finally sat back on his throne.

"Yes Lord Cedric, how _perceptive_ of you;" Phobos answered the Shapeshifter's declaration as sarcastically as he could. Tilting his head slightly to his side as one of the many thorny vines that now infested the throne room wrapped around his waist, the Prince sighed a little. "I know, I know;" he muttered, seemingly to nobody in particular. Phobos waved his right hand while rubbing his forehead with the other; and as he did so, the glamour that kept the throne room under disguise faded, revealing its true, dark and gloomy nature. He let out a dark, quick and small chuckle, as if he was laughing at a jest only he could hear. "I suppose it takes a liar to recognize another, wont you agree?"

"I... agree, my lord;" Cedric said, a little disturbed by the Prince's behavior.

"Are we sure that everything she said was a lie?" Miranda wondered as she and Roberta positioned themselves at Cedric's sides. "The idea of that maidservant, Trill, being a rebel spy it's not so farfetched. It is widely known that she served the late Queen Weira for many years..."

"If she really is a spy..." Phobos mumbled, drumming his fingers against his throne's armrests; "then the fact that she has spent so many years operating under your noses only speaks of your incompetence!"

"We don't know if she really is a spy, my lord;" Cedric interrupted the Prince before his anger could grow anymore. "We will need to investigate further. Right now, our priority should be to find a way to not allow your sister to interact with Alborn and Miriael. Else we risk..."

"Her request will be granted," Phobos cut him off.

"My lord?" a surprised Cedric asked.

"I said that her request will be granted, Cedric;" Phobos repeated, staring down at his second-in-command from his throne. "Until I take the Heart of Meridian from her, my sister is the most powerful being in this world, and therefore must have every need or whim she has satisfied, including this one. I thought you already understood that reality perfectly."

"But, my Prince..."

"ARE YOU TRYING TO CONTRADICT ME, LORD CEDRIC?!" Phobos suddenly shrieked, unconsciously using his magic to generate a shockwave that, albeit way weaker than the ones his sister could create, was strong enough to shake the throne room.

"Never, my liege;" Cedric said seriously, giving a couple steps ahead and kneeling, head bowing down. "I shall inform Captain Lothar and make sure that a platoon of guards is sent to Cavigor and that they bring Alborn and Miriael immediately."

"No, no, no, no..." Phobos said, his lips forming a truly wicked smile. "You and Miranda will handle this personally. This is too important of a matter to be handled by the Guard. And besides, I bet the people of Cavigor will enjoy you paying them a visit after all these years."

"Very well, my liege;" Cedric said, finally accepting the Prince's orders.

"You are free to go," Phobos told the Shapeshifters. "Not you," he added, looking directly at Roberta before the trio had the opportunity to leave.

In silence, Cedric and Miranda turned around and headed towards the gates, crossing them and exiting the throne room. As the gates closed behind them, their faces (up until then showing nothing but fear and submission towards Phobos) became full of a calm smugness, and their lips curved into smirks that put the Prince's to shame.

This whole situation couldn't have developed any better…

* * *

 ** _Across the Veil_**

 ** _A day later_**

 ** _Heatherfield's docks; night_**

 _This has to be the biggest cliché I've seen in my entire life_ ; Cyrus Ludmoore thought as he crossed his arms over his chest.

Seriously, an abandoned warehouse? Had they gone back to the nineties? And the weather wasn't helping any matters. It seemed that the first days of summer had arrived with full strength in Heatherfield. Even at night the heat was almost unbearable, which coupled with the huge amount of humidity in the air and the fact that he was still dressed in his meridianite clothes didn't help matters. Why Charles had chosen a place like this for this little ' _business meeting_ ', as he called it, was something that the youngest Ludmoore sibling didn't quite get. Surely there were better places to meet at for an illegal purchase of weapons than this one, right?

Sweeping a few drops of sweat from his brow and letting out a small sigh, Cyrus looked at the people keeping him company. There was dear big brother Charles, of course, just a few feet in front of him, dressed in the kind of attire you would expect of a meridianite peasant… except without a trace of dirt on it. Typical of Charles, even when dressing in the same manner as the commoners, he had to dress impeccably.

Then there was Sephiria, the nun standing at Cyrus' side. Her green hair, usually tied either into a topknot or a braid had been left free, gracefully falling over her shoulders. While the leader of the Faithful within the Rebellion tried to keep up appearances, there was no disguising that she was feeling nervous; a fact revealed by how, from time to time, she took her left thumb to her mouth and proceeded to bite her nail.

Next were the around twenty armed men behind them all and the ones carrying bows and crossbows that were hiding in the shadowy beams of the warehouse's ceiling. Were they there to protect them if something were awry during the meeting? Or in order to keep an eye on Charles and kill him with an arrow to the head if he tried to do something? Or a combination of both?

And last but not least, standing at the eldest Ludmoore sibling's left, was Caleb; Sword of Thanatos sheathed but kept in hand instead of hanging from his belt. He still had that old, ragged and worn-out coat on, but his clothes underneath it had changed from a pair of light brownish pants and a white shirt to a pair of dark pants and what appeared to be a dark brown t-shirt, probably acquired at this side of the Veil. The boots were the same though. While seemingly focused on his current task, it was clear for someone like the youngest Ludmoore brother (that had spent so many years living alongside him) that the thoughts of the rebel leader were elsewhere, probably trying to fruitlessly determine the possessed Aldarn's whereabouts.

Although Cyrus Ludmoore knew that he shouldn't be bothered by it, Drake the rebel couldn't avoid feeling a huge amount of sorrow due to the pain the green-eyed boy that he had called friend for so many years was clearly feeling. It felt like it had been an eternity ago, but Cyrus still remembered perfectly and fondly the moment he had joined the Rebellion as Drake, a poor young man and former member of the Guard that had lost everything thanks to the brutality of the Prince's regime; his mother killed by Lord Cedric himself, no less. The fact that he had left the corpses of twelve officials of the Guard behind in the Capital did help a little with the rebels taking him in without making too many questions. It had been there and then that he had met Caleb and Aldarn. Two little boys fighting a war; that had been everything Cyrus had regarded them as for many years. Some time passed and then came the conversations, the friendly jokes at the expense of one another, the times they had fought back-against-back during one of the Rebellion's attacks over the Prince's prison camps, the times they had survived against all odds, the mourning of shared and beloved companions over a glass full of ale or wine… He didn't remember exactly when it had happened, but one day Cyrus had woken up and had discovered that, even if they knew him as a man he really wasn't, he had made two new friends. And it had never occurred to him how much he really cared for them until now, after one had tried to kill the other and had had his body stolen by an ancient demon. And he knew that if it pained him this much, it pained Caleb, who had grown up alongside Aldarn, tenfold.

Cyrus was then taken out of his thoughts by what he rightly assumed to be the sound produced by an approaching vehicle. The vehicle in question was a grey truck that drove towards the warehouse and parked just at the building's entrance. Considering how big it was, Cyrus understood why Charles had decided to celebrate this meeting in this place and at this time of the day.

Half a minute after the truck's engine stopped, an average-looking man with tanned skin and blond hair (and equally blond whiskers), dressed in a pair of jeans and a light blue t-shirt and wearing glasses descended from the passenger's seat. The man looked over everyone assembled in the warehouse and then smiled in a calm and affable way. He gave a thumbs up to the truck's driver, who proceeded to get off the cab too and head to the truck's cargo area. He returned moments later in the company of three large men, bringing several large and wooden boxes with them.

"You know, for a guy that's supposed to be dead..." Raphael Silla said as he calmly walked towards Caleb and Charles, talking to the latter; "you look pretty damn well, Mr. Ludmoore. Except for the creepy arm," the man remarked, adjusting his glasses after giving a proper look at the businessman's wooden and moving arm. "What's up with that?"

"None of your business, Mr. Silla," Charles answered coldly, flexing his wooden fingers as he did so.

"Always the soul of the party, eh?" Silla joked in a friendly way. He then turned his head towards Caleb. "And you and these gentlemen," the man told the rebel leader; "must be our latest customers. What's up with the whole ' _medieval_ _cosplay_ ' thing you've going on here?"

"None of your business, either;" Caleb told the bespectacled man, albeit in a much less cold manner than Ludmoore had.

"Everyone's a stick in the mud tonight..." Silla complained, rubbing his neck. "Get moving, boys;" he told to the thugs accompanying him, "time to show these gentlemen our merchandise."

One by one, each of the large boxes the rebels had been presented with was opened, revealing the large variety of firearms they contained. Shotguns, machine-guns, sniper rifles... and even some grenades and other types of explosives.

"We've got many more like these in the truck. They're not very different from what you'd find in your average guerrilla or any heavy-armed band ready to storm into a vault;" Silla said while walking to the only box that had remained unopened. His thugs opened it using a crowbar, and the blond, bespectacled man took one of the guns it contained. "These, on the other hand..."

It wasn't a regular gun, or at least it certainly didn't look like one. First off, it was of a metallic grey color, as large as a shotgun and considerably bulkier. The cannon was the most remarkable part, as (instead of your average gun's) it was shaped in a triangular way instead of a round one. Silla aimed it at a nearby wall and pulled the trigger, firing what could only be described as a blazing-red laser-beam. The laser-beam hit the wall, melting a section of it down and leaving nothing but a fuming hole behind.

"As you can see, they're anything but average;" Silla praised the gun, leaving it back in the box although smoke still rose from the cannon. "Any of these can melt steel, so you can imagine what they can do to a man."

"I don't think we agreed to buy this kind of weapon," Caleb stated, his grip around the Sword of the Berserker's scabbard tightening.

"These are on the house," Silla informed. "You get them for free, you use them as you see fit. You just have to let me know how they performed."

"That sounds like something someone wanting to test a prototype would say," Ludmoore commented coldly.

"And that sounds like something someone complaining unnecessarily would say," the bespectacled tanned man retorted affably. "Especially considering that you're clearly not the guy in charge here. So, Scar-Boy;" Silla addressed Caleb; "it's your call. Take it or leave it."

"We are taking it," Caleb declared.

"Fantastic!" Silla said cheerfully. "So… what exactly are you taking?"

Caleb made a sign to some of the rebels behind him. They walked forward, carrying large sacks. Once they reached Silla they dropped the sacks, some of the silver, jade and jewels that they contained being spilled into the floor.

"Everything," Caleb told a pleasantly surprised Silla.

* * *

 ** _Fifteen minutes later_**

 ** _An alley near the warehouse_**

Unbeknown to Raphael Silla and his small escort, the Guardians of Kandrakar (already transformed), Jade Chan and Blunk the Passling weren't so far away from the warehouse he and the Rebellion had met in, hiding in a darkened alley with a fireball that Taranee had created and that was floating over them as their only source of light.

While none of them expected the meeting between rebels and criminals to go wrong in any way, it was always wise to have an ace-in-the-hole, as the popular saying goes. And what better ace-in-the-hole than five Guardians, (four of them able to wield elemental Raw Magic) and a Shapeshifter trained in the martial art of kung fu and able to use Chi Magic; ready to sweep into the warehouse if some complication arose? As for Blunk...

"Can someone remind me why is he here?" Cornelia asked in a whisper, trying to cover her nose as discreetly as possible while looking at how Blunk, currently at the end of the alley, inspected what could only be described as a pile of junk. "I don't want to be offensive, but we've got the whole 'super-smell' area covered with Jade. And I could do without the stench."

"Tell me about it," Jade commented, also covering her nose. Passling-folk were quite smelly by themselves, so you can imagine how much it affected the enhanced sense of smell of a Shapeshifter.

"C'mon girls, don't be mean;" Hay Lin told her teammate. "The little guy's just trying to help. Right, Blunk?" the Air Guardian asked loud enough for the Passling to hear.

"Blunk help friends. They're Blunk's friends, after all;" the Passling answered happily, his head popping up from the pile of junk he had submerged himself in. He emerged from the pile carrying a bunch of used and tattered clothes and dusty yet still intact cameras. He looked quite satisfied with what he had obtained. "And while friends don't need help, Blunk can pick many treasures from this side of the Veil."

"Figures," Irma said sarcastically, shrugging a bit and smirking.

"The trash of a man is the treasure of another," Taranee quoted the famous saying.

"Uh... does Guardian want one of Blunk's treasures as a token of friendship?" Blunk asked, offering her an old and dirty shirt up.

"Uh... No, thanks;" the Fire Guardian answered as nicely as she could.

"Aw, come on;" Cornelia said jokingly. "Don't be mean."

"Hey," Jade interrupted the girls' banter after sniffing the air. "They're here."

The group fell silent and mere seconds afterwards they heard the sound of a large group approaching. Caleb walked into the alley first, followed by Drake and Sephiria. Behind them was Ludmoore, and behind him the rest of the rebels, carrying the boxes containing the guns Silla had sold them.

"How did it go?" Will, who hadn't uttered a single word until then, asked.

"As expected," Caleb answered, passing a pair of fingers over the scar that travelled over his face. "We have what we came here for," he said, pointing to the boxes.

"You'll fill us in the details later," Will informed the rebel leader. "Right now, our priority's taking all this back to Meridian."

Without further delay Caleb searched within his coat's pockets and extracted the Seal of Phobos from them. The rebel leader held the golden, rhomboid pendant up, picturing the halls of the Infinite City in his head. After a moment, the pendant started to emit energy and a Portal opened in front of him. The rebels started to cross it without any need for instructions, shortly followed by Blunk, who waved the girls goodbye, and Ludmoore, who did little more than look at the Guardians and Jade.

"Take this," Caleb told Drake next, handing him the Seal of Phobos. "Give it to Vathek when you get back to the base. If there's an emergency, open a Portal and let us know."

"Very well," Drake, Portal swirling at his back, said as he took the Seal in his hand. "Are you sure you don't want to come back with us?"

"No, I..." Caleb said, glancing aside. Cornelia was quick to put a hand over his shoulder. "I'm sorry, but... I need this."

Drake gave a little nod, accompanied by a compassionate and understanding smile. He then turned his attention towards Sephiria. "And you?"

"My presence was requested," Sephiria told the blond rebel. "If I can be of any help, then I shall stay in this side of the Veil for the time being."

After giving another nod, Drake turned around, ready to leave. He stopped before crossing the Portal, however. "I will organize some searching parties, in order to look for Aldarn. We will find him."

Now it was Caleb's turn to give an approving nod to Drake, who quickly proceeded to cross the Portal. Afterwards, Will held up the Heart of Kandrakar in no different manner as to how Caleb had held the Seal of Phobos before. There was a bright pink flash... and next the Portal was gone.

* * *

 ** _Across the Veil_**

 ** _Dreaming…_**

Cold.

The very first thing Aldarn felt was cold, one that went through his skin and flesh and all the way to his bones. The second thing he felt was numbness, surely a product of the cold. The rebel found himself awakening from a deep sleep that didn't seem to have allowed him any rest. As he opened his eyes, he found himself in a dark... place. Yes, that was the best way to refer to it. No walls, no windows, no ceiling, no furniture; nothing that could give him any clue about his whereabouts. There was just an endless darkness. The only source of light was an unknown one over him, but it was so weak and dim that it didn't allow him to see beyond a meter away.

Next he tried to move, but he found himself unable to do so. As he tried to look around him, eyes still acclimatizing to the darkness; he noticed that his feet weren't touching the ground. Senses sharpening, he finally realized the kind of situation he was in.

He was chained. Thick, powerful chains had been wrapped around his wrists, his arms, legs, waist, torso and neck; suspending him in the air and preventing him from moving or escaping. They seemed to come from the darkness itself

What was happening?! How had he ended like this?! He tried to remember. Remember... remember... He remembered the duel for the Rebellion's leadership. He remembered his fight against Caleb, and then... then...

The Mask. Then the warriors made out of shadow, then clashing with Caleb once more and then... nothing.

"What is happening?" Aldarn mastered to say.

"You are being held captive, you treacherous worm;" somebody answered. "That is what is happening."

As he spoke, Aldarn's interlocutor stepped into the dim light, letting the chained rebel to get a proper look at him. He was a towering individual, taller than many men he knew. And even though he was clad in a strange-looking black armor (not very different than the ones the Shadowkhan he had had briefly under his control wore, if perhaps a bit lighter in color) with only a dark-red belt at the waist as an ornament; Aldarn could perceive that his body was at the peak of the physical condition. His shoulders were wide and his neck, chest, abdomen, arms and legs were bulking with thick muscle. His skin was of a deep dark blue, and the face... oh, the face was the part that caught Aldarn's attention the most. It was... it was just like the Mask! The same fanged mouth, the same piercing green glare!

"You... you are the Mask..." Aldarn said weakly, starting to fight against the chains. But before he could do anything else, the demon struck him across the face with the back of his dark-blue, scaled hand.

"No need to struggle, worm;" the monster told the chained rebel. "You won't accomplish anything. You surrendered your body to me in the moment you put on my Mask!" the monster hit him again.

"My body... No, this can't..." Aldarn struggled to say.

"What? This can't be?" the blue demon laughed at him. "Arrogant fool, thinking your will to be stronger than mine. But there is too much doubt within you, too many questions plaguing your mind. There was no way for you to resist me. So sit back and enjoy the show;" the monster said, striking him a third time. As the already dim light started to fade and darkness to swallow him, the only thing Aldarn's eyes were able to see was the face of the monster, looming over him.

"Because this is mighty Ikazuki's body now!"

* * *

 ** _Meridian's Wild_**

The Samurai opened his eyes, the heat and dim light produced by the embers of the bonfire he had lit when the sun had begun to set being the first things to greet him, the shining full moon in the sky the second. He sat up and proceeded to inspect his surroundings. There was a forest at his back, old and dark, the only thing coming from it the hooting of the owls and the sound the nocturnal wind made against the old and dry branches. In front of him was nothing but a common plain, not even remarkably big, and covered in yellowed grass. In the distance, the silhouette of a small village could be seen.

Letting out a deep breath, General Ikazuki extended his arm and grabbed a piece of raw meat from one of the two little Hermeneuta beasts he had hunted down before sleeping. No. It wasn't his arm that he extended, and it wasn't his hand that he used to grab the meat and toss it into his mouth. And he supposed it wasn't his mouth, either. They were the arms, hands and mouth of this puny boy he was using as a meat-puppet. And speaking of the meat-puppet's body, the Oni's chi was doing an excellent job getting it back into shape.

 _Good, that's good_ ; Ikazuki thought as he munched the meat. After all, he needed this body, as inferior as it was compared to his true one. He swallowed the meat in his mouth. _Uhm!_ _Not as good as I expected_. Hermeneuta were among the most common animals that populated Meridian's forests, which coupled with the fact that they usually tasted quite good made them a perfect source of food for anyone resourceful enough to hunt them. But that wasn't the case here.

The Samurai closed his eyes and concentrated. Even for he, that had always preferred the ways of the blade over the ways of sorcery that some of his fellow Generals practiced, the situation was crystal clear. This world was sick. Not dying, but yes sick to such a degree that the animals had begun to be sick too, no doubt result of the actions of that foolish descendant of Escanor, if the memories of this meat-puppet were to be trusted.

The General got on his feet, stretching the limbs of his meat-puppet afterwards. Lord Tarakudo had given him permission to do as he pleased, and what would please him the most right now would be to fight someone worthy of fighting against. Instinctively, his gaze fell over the silhouette of the small village in the distance, only illuminated by the moon and the stars. It was just a lonesome village, and he had an unending army of Samurai at his command. It would be so easy…

Yes, yes it would. And precisely because it would be so easy, Ikazuki wouldn't do it. The killing of unsuspecting and untrained peasants that probably hadn't been in a battlefield in their lives wouldn't bring him any honor. Only the killing of strong foes in a true fight would satisfy him and bring honor to his name. Fortunately, Didier seemed to still be around, even if it was in the form of an undead. Well, it wasn't as if Ikazuki himself was at his prime, so that should even the odds. But where to find his old foe?

"Come," the General called, rubbing his neck. Shadows projected by the light of the moon and the embers of his bonfire grew until they became five puddles of darkness, a Samurai Khan rising from each of them afterwards, giving a respectful bow to their master. "Find Didier or ' _Tracker_ ' as he calls himself these days," Ikazuki ordered them.

The armored Shadowkhan gave another respectful bow, and disappeared with the same ease as they had appeared. Ikazuki was then left alone, staring into the horizon and pondering what to do in the meantime. While he was completely certain that his Shadowkhan would accomplish what they had been ordered to do, his Samurai weren't the same as Uta's Ninja or Hokori's Bats. They would take a while to find his foe, and if there was something Ikazuki hated was to fool around. He summoned a katana from his own shadow next, attaching it to his waist. Next he turned on his heel and headed towards the deep forest. It would be just like old times then, travelling on foot and only a sword and Tarakudo keeping him company. Well, his King wasn't here right now, but… you get the idea. Breathing deeply once again, Ikazuki threw his arms upwards and let out a roar that pierced the night.

"Animal, Changeling, Lurden, Human, Galhot!" he yelled. "I, Ikazuki, do not care which one! Come at me! Fight me!"

* * *

 ** _Across the Veil, morning in Japan_**

 ** _Mariko Takeda's apartment_**

Nimue had grown rather attached to the strong smell of recently made coffee that filled Mariko's apartment in Tokyo every morning. She had to admit that she also liked how the coffee tasted, and that was not speaking of the whole breakfast. It was one of the best she had had, which was a great compliment coming from a woman that had lived for over a thousand years, had travelled to every corner of this world (and many others') and had tasted almost every dish and had drunk almost every drink you could imagine.

"Liam defends himself quite well in the kitchen," Nimue commented while she took a bite of one of the cupcakes Mariko's boyfriend had baked. "For a Fast World habitant, that's it."

"He's had more than thirteen years to practice," Mariko, sitting at the same table as her teacher, still clad in her pajamas (composed of a t-shirt and a pair of shorts, both of them pink) and moving the coffee within her cup with a spoon. "And a pretty good teacher," she added, smugly.

"Oh, really?" Nimue asked playfully. "The student has surpassed the master, then."

"Hey!" Mariko protested, throwing a little piece of bread to her mentor's head. "My cooking is not that bad!"

"Please, could you tone it down?" Liam asked, entering the kitchen while covering the speaker of a phone. "I'm trying to hold a conversation here."

"Sorry darling;" Mariko told her fiancé after sharing a laugh with her mentor.

Feigning annoyance, Liam put the phone against his ear again. "Sorry for making you wait, Mr. Higashikata;" Liam said, sparking Mariko and Nimue's interest upon pronouncing Tohru's surname. "Yes. Yes, I think I can find... Yes. What was the name again? Very well… Yes, I will send you any information I'm able to find in a... a..."

"A PDF, a PDF;" Mariko whispered.

"In a PDF," Liam finished a bit nervously. "A pleasure, as always;" the dark-skinned blonde said as a farewell, hanging the phone and sitting at the table alongside the two women afterwards.

"The Chi Wizard's apprentice?" Nimue asked, drumming a finger over the table while one of her purple butterflies perched itself in her shoulder.

"Indeed," Liam answered.

"Something to do with the Oni?" Mariko wondered, her coffee forgotten.

Liam focused his attention on Nimue, the ancient witch looking quite serious right now. "Does the name Ikazuki ring any bells?" the dark-skinned Fast World inhabitant asked her.

Nimue looked down at her half-emptied cup of coffee for a few moments, her violet eyes narrowed as if trying to read through countless volumes that only she could see. She grabbed one of the ends of her jet-black hair and twisted it around her finger. For some odd reason, Mariko and Liam could have sworn that the mention of the Oni's name had made the witch angry, which a rare sight to behold considering how rarely Nimue did lose her cool.

"Ikazuki…" the witch finally said, alongside a dark chuckle. "That is a name I haven't heard in a long time… and also the name of Tarakudo's right hand man, an Oni that stylizes himself, his Shadowkhan and fighting style after the one of ancient Samurai."

"You know him?" Mariko asked her teacher, genuinely curious. "Have you ever fought him?"

Nimue shook her head, looking at her pupil once again. "No," she said. The she looked at the ceiling, putting one of her index fingers against her chin. "Actually, I have never fought any of the members of the Naindēmon shōgun directly; although I have fought regular Oni, of course. In fact, I only knew of the way to remove the Mask containing General Uta because Japanese wizards were kind enough to leave the spell and key ingredient written down in some tablets."

"Yet you seem to know a lot about this Ikazuki," Liam replied.

"I _have_ to know;" Nimue said, and then chuckled darkly once again. "After all, he was the Oni General to decapitate Didier almost a thousand years ago. If not for him... Didier wouldn't have become the monster he is nowadays."

The kitchen fell silent after Nimue had uttered those words. The silence was finally broken when a nearby toaster went 'ding!' and ejected a pair of crisped toasts. Liam rose from his chair and took them to the table.

"His Mask was kept in Meridian, unlike the ones containing his fellow Generals;" Nimue continued her explanation, putting both her hands over the table. "If that was done as a show of power by the meridianites, as a way to honor the deaths of those who perished fighting the Oni, or as a way to prevent his Mask from falling into the wrong hands; that I don't know." Nimue was smiling now, but it was a sinister, cruel smile; the kind of smile that someone that enjoys the suffering of a hated enemy has. "I had always planned to leave him for the end, when the rest were dead, but then I found myself tangled in so many things... and then the Veil was raised, and Kandrakar forbid me crossing it."

"Do you think that Tohru called us asking about Ikazuki because his Mask's being worn by somebody?" Mariko asked.

"Probably," Nimue said, sighing. "It's an awfully problematic situation, if that's the case. Considering how powerful Tarakudo is, I wouldn't be surprised if his second in command was just a bit weaker than him. And if he is in Meridian, then I can't cross the Veil to face him..."

"But you can create Portals," Mariko pointed out.

"So?" Nimue asked, a little bit confused by the Japanese young woman's statement.

"Well, I was just thinking;" Mariko continued, looking at her fiancé this time. "You can't cross the Veil, but there's nothing stopping Liam and me from doing so, finding Ikazuki and..."

"Wait, are you serious?" Liam interrupted the love of his life. "You want to face an Oni General, just the two of us?"

"We did pretty well against Tarakudo," Mariko replied.

"He crushed us!" Liam retorted.

"Yes, but we survived! Against a demon with enough power to equal the one of a Heart-wielder!" Mariko protested. "And Ikazuki can't be as strong as Tarakudo. If the Nine Generals were as strong as their King, they would've conquered half of the Known Worlds a millennium ago!"

Liam crossed his arms. "You have a point there…" Liam admitted reluctantly; "and there must be some limits to what Ikazuki can do if he's just controlling someone. Hell, maybe he hasn't possessed whoever is wearing his Mask yet;" Liam theorized. Unfolding his arms, he looked at his fiancé, then at Nimue. "It could work."

Nimue looked at the pair of lovebirds, and this time her lips curved into a smile of genuine happiness. Thirteen years, since she had struck that bargain with the Queen of the Fast World, Arkaam. Thirteen years since she had agreed to teach and protect Mariko until the Veil was lifted and travel between the Fast World and Earth was possible again in exchange of a favor from the White Queen. Thirteen years during which she had seen Mariko grow and fall in love with Liam, the son of one of the Queen Arkaam's advisors that had been sent to Earth as a bodyguard of Mariko even before Nimue had met the girl. Thirteen years in which she had learn from the mouth of Mariko's own father, Foreman Takeda, about how he and Arkaam had met and fell in love; even if they belonged to different worlds. Thirteen years of lessons and battles, some hard some easy, in which Nimue had ended caring for Mariko like she had only cared for a handful of people over the centuries.

"Indeed, it could work;" the ancient witch declared. "Very well, I will cast a locator spell; see if Ikazuki isn't really in this side of the Veil. If not, you two better be ready, because you will be going into a broken Meridian alone, and once there, no matter what happens, I won't be able to help you."

"Don't worry teacher," Mariko tranquilized her. "We'll be alright."

"I hope so," Nimue said with utmost sincerity. Ikazuki had already taken someone she loved from her. She didn't want that situation repeating itself. _I really hope so…_

* * *

 ** _Heatherfield, afternoon_**

 ** _The Chan Flat_**

Once Tohru had ended his conversation with Liam, he had hanged the phone and returned to the living room of the flat the Chan Clan had rented in Heatherfield. Uncle was there, going through books thicker than many encyclopedias as if they were magazines. Taranee and Hay Lin had come over in order to help, bringing Sephiria along so the nun could provide them with any valuable information concerning the Oni that the meridianites and their Faithful could have. Hay Lin had given the green-haired young girl clothes that she could use on Earth without calling a lot of attention over herself (and the green hair could be explained as she dyeing it), composed of a long, light-blue skirt and a sleeveless white blouse. And lastly was Jade, lying over the couch, eyes closed as if sleeping; even if Tohru knew that she was in deep meditation.

"Did apprentice accomplish anything?" Uncle asked without raising his eyes from the pages of the book he was reading right now.

"Liam agreed to send me any information he can find, sensei;" Tohru addressed his mentor respectfully. "But I fear it might not be of any help. Not without the Hana Fuda and the key ingredient."

Uncle nodded a couple of times; putting the book he was reading down and extending his hand towards Taranee. "Give Uncle the green book near the top of the third pile over the table, beginning by Uncle's right;" he said, and Taranee did as told. "Uhm…" he muttered as he opened the book and turned page after page until he settled in one near the end. He closed the book afterwards, leaving it over the living room's table. Next he took his tiny, round glasses off, cleaned them as calmly as it was possible for a human being, and put them back on. "Does meridianite girl have any more information regarding the Oni?"

"No. I have told you everything I know about the Nine Demon Generals," Sephiria told the Chinese elder respectfully, "and everything else I have been able to find about them."

"Aiyah…" Uncle said tiredly, rubbing his eyes. "How is Uncle supposed to find a way to defeat this Oni General if doing research doesn't provide him with any new information?!" he shouted afterwards, genuinely frustrated. "One more thing! If meridianites once fought Oni, then why didn't they leave any record about how to defeat them again?!"

"Sensei, calm down;" Tohru said, placing one of his huge hands over the elder's back.

But it was incredibly frustrating, wasn't it? And the mountain of a man was starting to understand why. Up until now it had never occurred to Tohru how many advantages his sensei, Jackie and Jade had had while dealing with supernatural threats. The hunt for the Talismans? Section 13 had as many resources as Valmont in order to track them down. Shendu being reborn? True, they had needed Tohru's help in order to know about Shendu being… well, _Shendu_ ; but once that detail was known, sensei had been able to give Jackie the ability to strip the draconic Demon Sorcerer of the Talismans that powered him. And as for Shendu trying to free his siblings from the Netherworld, it was just a matter of reading those inscriptions back in the temple containing the Pan'ku Box and then casting the appropriate spell for the appropriate demon using the symbols of the Eight Immortals, which were easily known by anyone versed enough in Chinese mythology and folklore. There was a lot of information and as many resources they could use against the enemy in all those cases.

But that wasn't the case with the Oni. Aside from the Japanese demons' natural weakness to onions, their only real advantage against Tarakudo and his Generals were the Hana Fuda, but now the cards were gone. And no cards meant there was no key ingredient to remove the Mask from the host, and also no way to locate the other two Oni Masks that were yet to be discovered. And since Ikazuki didn't seem to have left Meridian they couldn't get Captain Black's help with this, since they had to keep the existence of other worlds secret from him. Everything seemed to play against them these days…

"That's kind of a good question," Taranee pointed out regarding Uncle's last inquiry, taking Tohru out of his somber thoughts. "Why not leave some way to defend yourself in case an enemy you've only sealed away comes back?"

"Maybe there were some books about it," Hay Lin said; "but they got blown up when Phobos destroyed that cathedral in Lannion."

"Perhaps," Sephiria practically whispered.

Tohru looked at Jade next, the chest of the young Chinese girl going up and down with every breath. _I hope you are having better luck than us_ , the Chi Wizard apprentice thought.

* * *

 ** _Within the Ben-Shui Chosen One's soul_**

"I still can't believe that of all Oni you could possibly encounter you let Ikazuki loose on a world!" Murasaki Shikibu yelled angrily, while both her previous incarnation and the ones who had followed her in the reincarnation cycle stood around her in the colorful and ethereal world that the collective soul of the Ben-Shui Chosen One was.

In front of her, arms crossed and eyes rolling for the umpteenth time, Jade Chan let one of her characteristic 'Tch!'-s out. "I already told you that it isn't our fault that he's running around! Some guy put his Mask on, that's it!"

"This wouldn't be a problem if you lot hadn't lost the Hana Fuda to Tarakudo!" Murasaki continued to nag Jade, ignoring her while she adjusted the sleeves of her purple kimono.

"Can you help me or not?!" Jade yelled too, starting to get tired of the poetess and her attitude.

"Murasaki," Ben-Shui interrupted; "stop chastising the girl for something she has no fault on. You know it's our duty to aid our reincarnations in everything we can."

"Good luck getting that fact through that thick skull of hers," Lady Báthory commented with a mocking tone, earning herself a glare from Murasaki.

The Japanese poetess, however, was able to compose herself before starting an actual argument with the aristocratic Hungarian woman. The Bloody Countess smirked, anyway. They had been playing this game with one another for too long, after all. Ever since Báthory had awakened as a Chosen One, to be precise.

"Very well," a calmer Murasaki said, choosing to ignore Báthory completely. "I shall help you. But know that Ikazuki is not like the rest of Tarakudo's Generals. In the same vein Tarakudo rose as King of the Oni due to his sheer might, Ikazuki rose as his right-hand man for the same reason."

"He's strong, I get it;" Jade told the Japanese woman. "His Shadowkhan were tougher than the others we've fought too."

"Not just strong, but with the level of skill to back that strength up;" Murasaki explained. "If you face Ikazuki in battle again, don't let his bravado fool you. His mastery of the katana knew no equal back in my time, and his ability to adapt to his enemy's rhythm, strategies and fighting style was astounding. Don't confuse his eagerness to fight and his fixation with charging head-first into a fight with recklessness either."

"Oh, I like him already!" Vlad said with a cocky grin.

"How were you able to rule a country is beyond my comprehension," Rasputin, standing next to the Impaler, muttered.

"I was a very competent and just ruler, actually;" Vlad explained. "I just liked to leave my enemies impaled in spikes."

"You make him sound invincible," Jade told Murasaki, not paying any attention to the pair of men.

"On the contrary," the Japanese poetess and sorceress declared. "Ikazuki's might makes him incredibly arrogant, even by Oni standards; and that is an incredible weakness. Back in Japan, we challenged him to fight one hundred of our best soldiers alone, and he accepted out of sheer pride. When he was tired, I and my fellow Chi Wizards gave the finishing blow. The only reason he escaped alive was because another General took him out of the battlefield. That is his greatest weakness: no matter how unfair the challenge may seem, he will always take it."

"So we've got to trick him..." Jade said, narrowing her honey eyes. "Hey, just to be sure... what happened to the hundred soldiers?"

A shadow of grief crossed Murasaki's face. "He killed them all."

"Well, that's ominous!" Norton said, floating in the distance.

* * *

 ** _Heatherfield University's Gym_**

 ** _An hour later_**

"I don't think we have time for this," Jackie Chan said as he occupied his place in the tatami. As he began to stretch his limbs Viper positioned herself in front of him, stretching her limbs too. "I don't think we have _permission_ for this."

"What's wrong with a member of the professorate using one of the university's public facilities during his free time?" Viper asked rhetorically. "Especially when there's no one around but us;" the ex-thief pointed out. Indeed, there wasn't a single soul using that specific part of the gym at that time. It probably had to do with the fact that practicing martial arts wasn't the preferred way to exercise the body by the staff and the students, or perhaps it had to do with the time of the day; but Jackie and Viper had the place to themselves.

"What if Uncle or the girls need us?" Jackie asked. "It wouldn't be the first time…"

"If they need us, then there's nothing stopping them from calling;" Viper answered, pointing to their phones, safely lying in a bench near the tatami. "Face it _Baby-Face_ , you aren't getting any change to dodge this. The girls may be fighting in a war, but so are you. And if they can find time to relax then you can do exactly the same."

"And you thought that a spar would be relaxing?" Jackie asked. _There are times in which I don't know what is going on in this woman's head_ , the archeologist thought as he sighed. _She appears out of nowhere after I finish my job for the day, she ask me if I have some time to spend with her… and here we are, in full training gear_.

"A spar can be relaxing if you do it the right way," Viper explained, stretching her legs. "You know, letting all that frustration and worry out in a safe environment and all that. Seriously, when was the last time you had a fight that wasn't a matter of life and death?"

"I guess you are right on that," he accepted. "Could you at least stop calling me _Baby-Face_?"

"If you insist, _Tiger_ ;" Viper told the archeologist, delighted to see that her substituting one nickname for another hadn't exactly pleased him. "So, when exactly are the higher-ups of this place sending you to Bhutan?"

"Once summer is over, I believe. They need to get all the paperwork ready and…" Jackie began, but before he even had the opportunity to end the phrase, Viper was already rushing at him with the intention of kicking the archeologist right in the guts. Jackie blocked it (of course), but Viper took advantage of the momentum of her attack in order to bounce back and land at a safe distance from any move Jackie may counterattack with. "I thought you said this was going to be relaxing!"

"It's still a spar," Viper said in a funny tone. Oh, she was enjoying this. _Great_. "And what can I say? Since we ran into each other back in New York, I've always felt a little curious about who would win in a fair fight between us. You know, without demons possessing us this time;" the ex-thief declared, taking a fighting stance.

Understanding that there was no way to avoid this, Jackie decided to play along. Taking a fighting stance of his own, the archeologist let Viper take the initiative. The former thief took the opportunity, slowly bridging the gap between them before she attacked with a series of quick strikes. After blocking and dodging for enough time, Jackie counterattacked with a one-inch punch towards the ex-thief's face, which of course the woman dodged by doing a back-flip. Jackie decided it was his turn on the offensive, and so he attacked.

Fighting Viper felt… the word wasn't difficult, but weird. Or at least it felt weirder than fighting people like Tohru, El Toro or Hak Foo. Tohru's fighting style was centered on cunningly using his astounding brute force (and sometimes environment) to crush an opponent with one precise and demolishing strike if possible; with no sign that the mountain of a man had had any formal (non-magical) training in his life. El Toro was a wrestler, and therefore he fought like one. Hak Foo had a tendency to transfer the footwork and acrobatic kicks that characterized his namesake and preferred fighting style -the Black Tiger Fist- into the rest of the Five Animals styles of Kung-Fu that he used, especially mixing it with the speed and aggressiveness of the Leopard Style and the strong body defense derived from training in Stone Monkey Style; which resulted into an equally parts durable, strong and fast opponent.

But Viper… Viper seemed to have picked something from many different types of martial arts and mixed them in order to create her own style. Her way of using her hands in order to attack was very evocative of the whipping strikes that characterized Snake Kung-Fu (which didn't surprise Jackie in the slightest), but her kicking techniques were more similar to Hapkido than anything else, and if she found herself in close combat using foot stomps, groin strikes or head-butts that revealed that she had been trained in the use of Krav Maga came as naturally as breathing. Her quick and fluid movements when dodging seemed like a form of unrefined Capoeira, and her defense was centered on movements and stances taken from Shotokan Karate. This resulted into a fighter that had an advantage that Tohru, El Toro and Hak Foo did not: Unpredictability.

Ironically, the only other person Jackie knew that used such variety of styles at the same time was Jackie himself. He had started only knowing Wing Chun (thanks to the training he had received from Uncle) and then learning Southern Dragon Kung-Fu during his college years. But as he entered adulthood and started to work as an archeologist, Jackie started to train, learn and incorporate into his way of fighting many other styles; such as Five Ancestors Fist, White Crane Style, and both Shandong Praying Mantis and Southern Praying Mantis Style. Hell, he had even learned a form of Drunken Fist! His insistence over learning as many styles as possible had resulted into Uncle naming Jackie's own fighting style as ' _Chop Suey Kung-Fu_ '.

"Hey!" Viper called for the archeologist as she blocked one of his punches, taking him back to reality. The two of them were sweating and breathing way faster than before by now, but a lot of the initial tension had vanished. Viper had been right, he did feel more relaxed.

"What?" Jackie asked as both of them stopped their little spar, standing one just a few feet away from the other.

"Date me."

The words made Jackie to freeze in the spot. For a second, he thought that he had misheard her, or that it had been his imagination. He had been so shocked that he lost any trace of concentration he may had, and thus didn't see Viper's next kick coming, which of course hit him right across the face, sending him to the ground.

"Oh, crap!" Viper said, rushing to his side and helping him to come to his feet. "Are you alright?"

"Yes, I'm fine…" Jackie said, rubbing his chin. Then his mind reminded him of why he had been hit in the first place. "Did you just… ask me to date you?"

"Yes," Viper answered once she made sure Jackie was fine.

"Why?" the archeologist asked.

"Why not?" Viper retorted. "We are both adults, we enjoy each other's company, we have shared tastes, we are probably some of the few people in the planet that can fight the other on equal ground…"

"How is that one…?"

"Let me finish," Viper silenced him. She breathed deeply. "And you can't deny that we are physically attracted to each other. But, if you can come up with any valid reason as to why we shouldn't date, then I'm all ears."

Jackie opened his mouth as if he were to say something, but then closed it. He tried to think of a good reason for not dating Viper, but he couldn't. He opened his mouth to say nothing for the second time before going back to thinking. No new arguments came to mind. He opened his mouth for a third time. No word came out of it this time, either. Was there actually a reason for not dating this woman? Or was it that he couldn't think of any because he really wanted to date her?

"So?" Viper, who had been smirking through the whole ordeal and clearly enjoying herself, asked.

"Ah..." Jackie said. "Dinner tonight?"

"See?" the ex-thief said, delighted. "Was it really that difficult?"

* * *

 ** _Across the Veil; the next morning_**

 ** _Near the Meridian Plains_**

Ishol had really thought about everything, hadn't she? Not only had his wife taken advantage of the rebels' hypocritical sense of morality, not only had she only acted when the time was right and the majority of members of the rebel army that were in the Infinite City were distracted; but she had seemingly planned their escape down to the last detail. The Hoogong they had rode in order to escape the Rebellion's base, the supplies they had been feeding on for the last few days and the tattered yet clean clothes he was now dressed with were proof enough of that for Roderick Servantis. As he took a small slice of an orange with his remaining arm and ate it, the now fallen from grace Viscount looked at his wife, currently sitting in the ground a few meters away from him and meticulously sharpening a series of knives of different sizes. Behind them, the stolen Hoogong they had stolen was sleeping, breathing deep and peacefully. Poor beast, they had rode him for an entire night and day, trying to put as much distance as possible between them and any rebel they could send after them.

"Where we be heading next?" the Viscount asked of the Viscountess. They had rarely exchanged any word after leaving the rebellion's headquarters, probably due to them both wanting to avoid talking about the… the…

"We won't run out of food until a few days from now, maybe a week if we divide it in proper rations;" Ishol said as she ended sharpening the last knife and putting it in the ground, alongside the others. "And by then, if we continue heading towards where the rest of the nobles have assembled their armies according to the rebels' prattle;" she continued, looking at the Hoogong; "we will have encountered any scouting party they may have patrolling the area. How is your arm doing, my love?"

"It… doesn't hurt anymore, at least;" Roderick answered, touching his stump.

"Good," she said warmly. "When we finish making preparations, I shall wake the Hoogong and we will depart immediately. Only the Light knows how many rebels must be chasing after us…"

The fallen Viscount ate the rest of the orange that was going to serve as his only breakfast and began to gather up their belongings as best as he could. Meanwhile, silence took hold of the noble couple's little and improvised camp. Ishol had talked to him in the same vein

"Ishol," the nobleman called his wife's name. "We should… talk."

"Uhm?" the noblewoman, who had just ended gathering her knives and was petting the Hoogong gently in order to wake the beast up, looked at him. "Talk? Talk about what?"

"About what… happened," Roderick answered. "In Torus Filney, when that rebel…"

Roderick's words were cut off when the Hoogong woke up suddenly, letting out a painful screech. Ishol looked at her hand in surprise; she had plucked several feathers from the gigantic beast without knowing she was doing so.

"There is nothing to talk about," the Viscountess said as she calmed the beast down.

"Ishol, please…" Roderick pleaded. "I know it is…"

"No!" an enraged Ishol yelled. "You know nothing! Nothing!" her face was now contorted into an expression of both rage and sorrow. As she grow calmer, however, and the rage died down; only sadness remained. "Nothing..." she repeated, bitterly.

The way she looked broke Roderick's heart even more than it already was. It wasn't just how bitter and furious she had looked at him, but how... tired, for lack of a better term, she seemed now. Viscountess Ishol Servantis, who had always looked at the bright side of life and was always so full of energy looked now as if she had aged a decade in a couple of months; and her eyes seemed to have lost the light that characterized them. It was at that moment that Roderick finally understood that everything he had gone through, that losing his city, his clothes, his arm; that all of that paled in comparison with what his wife had went through. She had been right. He really did know nothing, for he couldn't even begin to understand.

"Ishol..." he said her name yet again.

"Don't," she replied. "Don't say a word."

And he didn't, not for the rest of the morning at least. They packed anything that was necessary for the rest of their journey through the Meridian Plains and they proceeded to ride their stolen Hoogong into the distance. They didn't stop until past noon, when they were forced to halt out of pure exhaustion near a large pond of water that in turn was near some strange and large rock formations similar to pillars. As they dismounted from the Hoogong and let the beast drink from the pond, they looked at the horizon, where the blue sky started to become of a sickly yellow, which denoted a proximity to the part of the Plains nearest to the Capital, and therefore to the spot where the nobility had assembled their armies. They still had such a vast distance to traverse…

Both mind and body more tired than in any other moment of their lives, both nobles lied down (after tying the Hoogong to a nearby rock), backs against the hard, dusty, dirty and warm rock that the ground of the Meridian Plains was made of, and neither of them said a thing. Then, to his surprise, Roderick felt Ishol's hand tightening around his remaining one. Almost by instinct, he grabbed hers. Yet none of them uttered a single word. It wasn't necessary. Was it an apology? From her or from him? From both? Or was it an opportunity? For what? For mutual understanding? To heal the wounds that both of them had suffered, both in their body and soul? Whatever it was, both welcomed it.

After a few minutes, each turned to face the other. They didn't kiss, neither did they strip and made love to the other there, in the middle of nature; for healing takes effort and, most of all, time and patience. And thus each hugged the other as best as they could, and there, embraced, husband and wife closed their eyes. It didn't take long before they fell asleep. Their eyes opened several hours later; awoken by a sound they both knew too well.

The sound made by the hooves of cavalry against the ground.

* * *

 ** _Across the Veil; Sheffield Institute_**

"And I hereby wish you all a prosper summer vacation!" Mrs. Knickerbocker declared from the center of the stage, where she and the rest of teachers and staff of Sheffield were standing. The headmistress really had a flair for theatrics, didn't she? As if this little ceremony was really necessary in order to bid farewell to the students until the next school year began.

After Mrs. Knickerbocker's speech, the students left the auditorium as if the Devil himself was chasing after them. In the midst of the student marabunta, Jade Chan and Irma Lair were able to spot the auburn head of a certain petite girl.

"Hey, Alchemy!" Jade called for the teen. "Wait up!"

Alchemy Ethel did her best to slow her pace and let the pair of girls to catch up to her. Once they had done so, the trio continued walking ahead, towards the school's exit, where their friends were waiting for them.

"How's everything going, Al?" Irma asked the petite girl.

"I'm... still trying to digest everything," Alchemy answered.

"Hey, it takes time;" Jade told her. "Especially if you don't have magic super-powers."

"It's easier to digest than whatever they gave us for lunch today, though;" Irma complained, then grabbed her belly comically and made an exaggerated disgusted face.

"I know, right?" Jade said after letting out a little laugh.

"You had _seconds_ ," Irma said dryly.

"I was _hungry_ ," Jade explained. Then both girls shared a laugh.

"How do you do that?"

Jade and Irma turned their heads towards Alchemy, who was walking at a slower pace and keeping her voice down.

"Do what?" the Water Guardian asked.

Alchemy took a deep breath. "Just a few days ago, we were in another _planet_. Cornelia's boyfriend, or whatever he is, fought his best friend in a duel, and you fought a bunch of magic samurai. I saw Elyon jump out of a window, and then _fly_. And your uncle and aunt fought a guy that can transform into a giant scorpion. And all of this happened while Hay Lin's grandma was at my home posing as me and fooling my parents!"

"Viper's not my aunt," Jade pointed out. "I think she and Jackie had a date last night, but I'm gonna wait until they make it official before I tell Uncle I won the bet..."

"That isn't the point," Alchemy interrupted her. "The point is... how? How can you be here after... _all_ _that_ , and make small talk, or be joking?"

"Al, listen;" Irma told the auburn-haired girl. The busty brunette put an arm around the other teen's shoulders. "It's either joking and making small talk, or going crazy."

"Irma's right," Jade supported her friend's argument. "We're lucky we've got these chances to rest at this side of the Veil. Look, over-thinking about what's already happened won't solve anything; it'll just make it worse. Try to… chill when we're here."

"Yeah, go play your new guitar, or go to see a movie, or play video-games like Jade and I do or... whatever suits you;" Irma suggested. "It's the best way to relax. Tell you what; Jade and I are going shopping this afternoon. Wanna come with us?"

"Thanks, but I actually _do_ have guitar class this afternoon;" the petite teen informed the other two girls.

"Hey, no problem;" Irma said, shrugging.

"How did your folks take you dropping the violin for an electric guitar, anyway?" Jade wondered.

""Eeeeeeh… better than I expected," Alchemy said. "At least they didn't freak out."

"Why would they freak out?" Irma inquired. "Rock it's much cooler than classic music."

"Oh boy, make sure Uncle doesn't hear you saying that;" Jade said with a grin. "Last time I said something similar, I spent three hours listening to some old Chinese music."

Alchemy laughed at that, and the other two girls joined in.

* * *

 ** _Hale residence_**

"Another day, another school-year gone by;" Harold Hale commented as he looked over the little newsletter containing her daughter's grades. Pretty good ones, mind you. Not perfect, but Harold had decided that if there was something he was never going to ask from any of his two daughters, was perfection. "Ah… next time I blink my eyes, you will be in college."

"Don't exaggerate, dear;" Elizabeth said as she entered in their living room carrying a box of medium size enveloped in green gift wrap and leaving it over the little table the family had just in front of the couch. Lillian followed in her mother's footsteps, enthusiastically waving a pink pen that she proceeded to use in order to write down the name of whoever the present was for in a little gift card glued to its side.

Cornelia, for her part, rolled her eyes as she leaned against the doorframe. "Whatever," the blonde said, biting the nail of her thumb for a second. Dressed in a blue summer dress, sandals and wearing a khaki hat, she was standing next to a little backpack.

"Where are you going?" Lillian asked.

"None of your business, pipsqueak;" Cornelia told her little sister. "Where are _you_ going?"

"Oh, we are going to the birthday party of… Veronica? Was it Veronica?" Elizabeth asked of her youngest daughter, who nodded while smiling from ear to ear.

"We're going to Vero's party!" Lillian cheered and jumping a bit in the air. "It'll be so cool! I bet she's got one of those castles you can jump on!"

"Bouncy castle, little princess;" Harold told the ten year-old.

"Oh my, that sounds like the best party ever;" Cornelia said sarcastically.

"Like you're one to talk;" Lillian counterattacked. "When you organized Will's birthday party you didn't make anything especial. And it looked like someone barfed in the walls!" she said, referring to the frog imagery that Cornelia had used for Will's party.

"You take that back, pipsqueak!" Cornelia raised her voice and gave a couple of steps forward, making Lillian to hide behind Elizabeth.

"Cornelia, what have your father and I told you about treating your sister like that?" Elizabeth asked, adjusting her glasses and looking at her eldest child with her eyes slightly narrowed.

"Agh… that it's not something a good big sister should do and that it's a sign of immaturity;" Cornelia repeated what her parents had told her a million times before as she rolled her eyes.

"That's a good girl," Elizabeth said, returning to her happy nature in a blink. Dear Lord, she could be terrifying sometimes. "But seriously now, where are you going? Are you going out with the girls? You look kind of nervous."

"I'm… going to Shell Beach," Cornelia finally confessed, evading her family's gazes. "With a boy."

"You've a date?" Lillian asked. "With a boy?"

"No, I've a date with a toaster;" Cornelia mocked her sister again. "Of course I've got a date with a boy!"

"Well, it could be a date with a girl;" Elizabeth commented.

"Mom!" Cornelia said, blushing a bit.

"Alright, alright!" Elizabeth said in a funny tone. "But you have to admit that all those sleepovers you and the girls have recently are a little suspicious."

"For the last time, I'm not into girls!" Cornelia shouted.

"What's being into girls?" Lillian asked.

"You know how in Snow White the Prince Charming wakes her up with a kiss?" Elizabeth told little Lillian, who nodded. "Well, imagine that it's a Princess Charming giving the kiss instead."

"And this is starting to get off-topic," Harold interrupted them, and then looked at his wristwatch. "Isn't it time for you two to go?"

Elizabeth looked at her own wristwatch then, her eyes widening. "Goodness! Come on Lillian, we'll need to run now!"

"Okay!" the youngest Hale said, grabbing the birthday present and running after her mother. "Enjoy your date, Cornelia!" she told her older sister with a playful grin.

"Enjoy your friend's party, pipsqueak;" Cornelia replied, a little worried. _She's going to be asking me about my date-life until kingdom come, isn't she?_

"You know, your mother is right;" Harold said after his wife and youngest daughter closed the door. "You should try and be kinder to Lillian."

"Okay dad, when you're the one who's got to handle a bratty, annoying little sister, I'll be kinder;" Cornelia told her dad.

 _Well, I technically was older than Morgause, even if it was just for a couple of minutes. But I guess we were both kind of bratty and annoying for Morgana_ ; Harold thought, mind travelling back to a thousand years ago, her mind filled with bittersweet thoughts about both his twin and older sisters. He beat those memories to a pulp when the image of a young, blond man wearing golden armor and standing in a snowy field crossed his mind. "Who is the boy you have a date with? Do I know him?" he asked.

"Technically, you do. His name's Caleb, he's…" Cornelia doubted for a second if it was right to tell her father or not, "he's the leader of Meridian's Rebellion."

Harold stood where he was, looking at his daughter with a neutral expression. "You are going on a date… with the leader of Meridian's rebel movement. The same fifteen-year-old boy the criminal organization I'm working for while trying to sabotage them sold an entire armory to a couple of days ago? The one with a sword that kills people by scratching them?"

"Y-Yes," Cornelia said awkwardly. "But the whole buying weapons from the Dark Hand was our idea, though."

Harold kept his mouth shut for a few moments. "I guess I can't say anything to dissuade you about this?"

"Look dad, I'm not a little kid, and this is less about us dating and more about us trying to figure out what we want to do," Cornelia cleared out. She took the backpack from the ground and hanged it from her left shoulder. "By the way, did you do anything about that truck? Because the idea of criminals starting to use laser-guns in robberies it's something that I think Captain Black is looking p to."

"There are multiple trucks carrying those guns, actually;" Harold told her. "And of course there are many more of those 'laser-guns', as you call them, from where the ones your boyfriend's Rebellion bought came from. But don't worry," Harold reassured her. "I already made a couple of calls."

* * *

 ** _San Francisco_**

 ** _Section 13's HQ_**

Far away from Heatherfield, in a secret, underground base beneath San Francisco; was Section 13. An organization created by the United States of America and which's existence was unknown to the public, Section 13's priority was to dealt with the type of crime that the average force of law enforcement or even organizations such as the F.B.I. and the C.I.A. couldn't handle, either because they lacked the recourses to do so or because their hands were tied by the law. Ever since they had discovered the existence of magic and magical creatures and how their adversaries were taking advantage of them in order to commit criminal activities, however, their goal had changed quite a bit.

It was already troublesome to deal with an international crime syndicate that was as resourceful as Section 13 itself when magic wasn't part of the equation, so you can imagine how much things such as magic itself, those who could wield it, artifacts enchanted by it and creatures born from it complicated everything.

And Captain Augustus Black, commander-in-chief of Section 13, was sure that it would become even more complicated. As he sat behind his desk in his office, staring at his computer screen, waiting for a video-call; he contemplated what was likely to happen. It had happened before, after all. If the forces of order and law-enforcement used semi-automatic guns, criminals used automatic ones. When law-enforcers began wearing bullet-proof vests, criminals bought bullets that pierced through them, and started wearing vests of their own. In this modern age of computers and telecommunications, the upstaging contest between both sides of the law was fought with software and by hackers, but it was mostly the same. And now that magic had come into the picture, it was fated to follow the same process. How long would it take for magic-based crime to hit the streets? How long would it take before the smallest, pettiest of crooks could lift a car over his head or become invisible?

That was the main reason Section 13 had been slightly repurposed into not only fighting against the type of crime that regular law-enforcement couldn't tackle, but also to spearhead the birth of magic-based crime-fighting in response to magic-based crime.

 _It's all still too surreal_ , Captain Black thought as he passed a hand over his bald head. _Like something out of a book_.

His computer beeped, and the Captain knew now wasn't time for daydreaming anymore. Typing a couple of commands in his keyboard, the screen of his computer was split in two horizontal sections, the face of Mrs. Foster appearing in the one at the left and the face of Mr. Folkner appearing in the one at the right.

"Sir, ma'am;" Captain Black addressed his two superiors. "Mr. Harris and Mr. Comstock won't be joining us?"

"Mr. Comstock is still in Washington, trying to make things work with the freemasons;" Mrs. Foster answered, sitting at a white table in what appeared to be her office judging by the replica of Picasso's 'Gernika' hanging at her back. Her taste for that particular artist's paintings was well known. The woman looked as serious and stern as ever, though. "You would be surprised how well connected they are."

"It isn't all that surprising, ma'am," Black told her. "A secret society doesn't stay hidden all that long without having the appropriate connections."

"As for Mr. Harris, he is currently traveling to Brussels;" Victor Folkner informed. "The Dark Hand is running as many operations in the European Union as is doing in American soil, after all."

"Does that concern us?" Black asked.

"Our little deal with Hale may have worked better than expected, and the Interpol and the Chinese and Taiwanese governments were very thankful to us about dealing such a crippling blow to the Dark Hand's Asian branch by putting Chang under arrest;" Victor Folkner explained, sitting in a bluish chair; "but make no mistake, these criminals are far from being completely dealt with. The only reason the American Branch didn't become even stronger than before under Chang's command was thanks to the efforts of our estimated Jackie Chan and the fact that we could pressure Harold Hale into the role of our mole within the organization. As Valmont's downfall proved, it's not enough to get rid of one of the branches. We must work in tandem with other countries' authorities if we really want to make sure that the Dark Hand crumbles and it doesn't rise again from its own ashes."

"And in order to do that, we must know our adversary and the resources they possess;" Mrs. Foster declared, rubbing her chin. "Which brings us to this little meeting. Captain Black, I believe that our partnership with Mr. Hale has already paid off, hasn't it?"

"Yes, ma'am;" Captain Black answered. "If you could excuse me for a second…" he said, typing something in his keyboard. While nothing new appeared in his computer screen, Black knew that his two superiors were seeing something in theirs. "Harold was able to provide us with information regarding certain Dark Hand operation across the whole country. Nothing out of ordinary, just a simply arms dealing operation… at least, on the surface;" Captain Black typed something again in his keyboard. "What you two should be seeing right now sir, ma'am; is footage of the use of some of the guns we retrieved. As you can see, they aren't exactly normal."

"This is unexpected," Mr. Folkner said seriously. "And worrying too."

"Are… are those laser-guns?" Mrs. Foster asked, genuinely intrigued.

"Not exactly. It's completely different from any of our hard-light based tech;" Captain Black explained. He then opened one of his desk's drawers and pulled something out of it, holding it in front of the computer screen's webcam. It was a small, black rock that appeared to have a scarlet Celtic rune engraved on it. "They're powered by these little things, according to my head engineer, Kepler. The rock is simple obsidian, but the rune is…"

"Magical," Mrs. Foster said, frowning a bit.

Captain Black nodded. "The rune in combination with the obsidian produces, according to the tests run over it, an amount of energy that would last for days even if you were to pull the trigger of the gun continuously. Kepler needs more time to determine if it can produce the same effect with other minerals, but…"

"But the fact that the Dark Hand has access to such powerful weaponry, and the ability to dispense with ammunition," Mr. Folkner said; "it's troublesome, to say the least."

"For not speaking of how common obsidian is in comparison with other minerals," Mrs. Foster said, shuddering at the implications. It wasn't just that these guns had such high fire-power, but that they could be mass-produced with relative ease.

"We will need to find an expert in Celtic magic, then;" Folkner said. "Captain Black, instruct the scientists and engineers under Section 13's employ to try to reverse engineer these weapons abilities by using regular science until we do so."

"Very well, sir;" Captain Black said. "Anything else?"

"I guess we have no idea from where these remarkable firearms came from, do we?" Mrs. Foster wondered.

"No, ma'am;" Black answered. "But I'm inclined to think, based on the Celtic rune, that they came from overseas."

"Which only proves that we need international support in this matter," Folkner commented, scratching his cheek. "Anything else that needs to be discussed?"

"Not for my part," Mrs. Foster answered.

"Very well," Folkner said, pleased. "An excellent job, Augustus;" he sentenced, and his half of the screen went black. Mrs. Foster's did the same afterwards, and Captain Black was left alone in his office, reclining on his chair. He felt tempted to close his eyes and stay there for the next thirty minutes or so, but he rose up and left the room seconds later.

There was still much work to do…

* * *

 ** _Heatherfield's streets; afternoon_**

"Your mom actually got mad at you for your grades?" Matt Olsen asked, perhaps a bit too funnily to Will Vandom's liking; while they both walked down the street, enjoying a peaceful and simple date. Nothing too complicated; no going to the movies, no going to the pool... just enjoying each other's company while going for a walk.

"Okay, not mad-mad;" Will told her boyfriend. "More like 'You better get better grades next year'-mad. And it's not like I got bad grades! In fact, they're some of the best I got in my life! My worst grade this year was a C in Math."

"Ah yes, Math;" Matt said, comically shaking his fist in the air. "Every teenager's archenemy."

Will laughed at that. "What about yours?"

"Oh, my grades are fine;" Matt confessed. "I even got a better one at Math than you," he added, poking at her cheek with his finger.

"Don't say that as if it makes you a genius!" Will laughed again, softly elbowing her boyfriend in the ribs.

"Ouch, ouch!" Matt exaggerated, grabbing his side, which only made the redhead to laugh even more.

"So how's everything going with… ' _You-know-what_ '?" Matt asked as the couple turned around the next corner, accessing a narrow street.

"Fine, I guess;" Will told her boyfriend. "Or at least fine enough to give us a couple of free days to catch our breaths. But I think this is going to be a busy summer."

"Have you thought what's going to happen if some of the girls go on vacation somewhere else?" Matt asked.

"Eh, it's not really that important if they do or not;" Will explained. "With the Seal of Phobos we can open a Portal from Meridian to anywhere on Earth. In fact, I've been thinking about this thing in which we open two Portals very close to each other here on Earth, but each of them crosses to parts of Meridian that are very far away…"

"Okay, but how're some of you going to explain to your families if you need to go Guardian and disappear in the middle of the night?" the teenaged guitarist asked.

"There's always the Astral Drops," the Keeper of the Heart answered.

"Don't you think you're abusing those a little?" Matt wondered.

"Hey, if Kandrakar didn't want us to use them, then using them wouldn't be an option;" the redhead rationalized. "You… you still want to be part of all this, don't you?"

"Well, yeah;" Matt said sincerely.

"Even after the whole ' _almost got murdered by magical samurais_ '?" Will kept pressing.

"Yep," Matt said funnily.

"There's nothing I can say to make you change your mind, right?" Will asked.

"Okay Will, we already had this conversation. And besides, even if I didn't want to be a part of this;" Matt said, changing to a serious tone of voice and actually stopping and leaning against the wall of a nearby building; "you know how these things go. You've read comic books, you've watched cartoons. Sooner or later, you'll make an enemy that tries to get to you through your loved ones. And I'm your boyfriend. That means that I'm going to end being a primary target of some crazy dude with magic powers wanting to use me as a meat-shield against you. So instead of trying to put me away from all danger, why don't we try to make sure that I can defend myself on dangerous situations?"

Will wanted to say something. That life wasn't a cartoon or a comic book, that the danger was pretty real. But Matt knew that already, and besides, he kind of made a very good point. Phobos had already attacked them on Heatherfield once, and he had managed to kidnap Jade and her back then. And that wasn't speaking of how easily Cedric had bended in back when he was posing as Rick Hoffman. If he had wanted to do something at their families back then, who could have stopped him? What stopped their current enemies from doing so now?

Sighing and admitting defeat once and for all, Will gave Matt a heartfelt smile. "Alright, I'll talk with Jade and Jackie and see if they can give you some self-defense classes. And we're meeting in a few days to discuss what we're going to do about Ikazuki, so if you want to be there…"

"Thanks," Matt said with a smile of his own. "Maybe that Caleb guy can give me some swordplay classes too…" he suggested.

"I don't know;" Will said. "The idea's not bad, but I think he's got enough to think about for now."

* * *

 ** _Shell Beach_**

A wave broke against the sore, producing a strong yet somehow appeasing sound. The sand beneath his feet was rough and hot, but not in such a way that harmed him yet not warm in the exact meaning of the word. It was a pleasant hotness, one that travelled through his whole body from toe to head.

Caleb had never thought that it would come a day in which he stood barefoot in a beach of another world. He glanced at the clear and pitch blue sky, birds crossing it from time to time. The sun was shining so brightly that Caleb was forced to cover his eyes with his hand.

"Hi, handsome;" he heard at his right. And speaking of bright things...

"Hello," he greeted Cornelia, the blonde reaching him and handing him one of the two glasses she was carrying. Caleb stared at the glass he had been given, full of what appeared to be... "Is this ice?"

"It's lemon slush," Cornelia said, sipping from her own glass through the straw that accompanied it. "Try it, it's good."

Caleb did as he was told, sipping through his own straw and letting the expected cold of the drink to fill his mouth. Of course, it was refreshing, something that was welcomed while standing under the sun as he was. Yet there was something...

"It's kind of sweet," Caleb said after tasting it properly. "Isn't lemon supposed to taste acid?"

Cornelia looked at him for about three seconds. "Just drink the damn thing," she said afterwards, and Caleb, unable to find any way to retort to that, drank.

"Any problem with that _thing_?" Cornelia asked, pointing to an object next to Caleb's feet that, to a stranger's eyes, would look to be nothing more than a black, old backpack. In reality, this was the Sword of Thanatos, glamoured by the hands of Yan Lin so Caleb could walk through Heatherfield without calling attention towards himself and the fact that he was armed with a medieval weapon.

 _Tell her_ , the remnant of the spirit of the demon Abaddon said from within the cursed blade, a voice only its wielder heard. The monster sounded kind of…annoyed, more than anything else. _Tell her I will kill the Air Guardian hag first for making me look like this_ …

"It's under control," Caleb assured the blond Earth Guardian.

Cornelia shrugged, and then both teenagers stared into the nearby ocean, the sound of the eaves crashing into the shore being as relaxing as before. "So," the blonde broke the silence, "ever been to a beach before?"

Caleb shook his head. "Never. Not like this one, anyway;" he said, briefly staring into an elderly couple at their left, walking away barefoot near the water, the waves wetting their feet as they went away. "Meridian's beaches are mainly small ports for small villages to trade with other parts of the kingdom by sea, mainly with Heliosport. That or fishing hamlets used by…"

"You know, saying 'No' would've been enough;" Cornelia cut him off.

"Sorry, I didn't mean to..." Caleb tried to apologize.

"No, I get it;" Cornelia stopped him. "You're one of _those_ guys."

" _Those_ guys?" Caleb asked, genuinely confused.

"You know, the ones who just say trivialities when they can't think of anything better to say;" Cornelia said while shrugging. "I should've phrased that better..."

"No, not really. It's..." Caleb excused her, but found that he really couldn't think of anything better. "It's kind of true."

"Christ, can't we make this less awkward?" an exasperated Cornelia muttered. It was a question more for her than for anyone else.

Both teens returned to stare into the ocean. A seagull landed in front of them, picked something up with its beak and flew off.

"We kissed," the Earth Guardian said after another uncomfortable silence.

"We did," the green-eyed rebel leader said.

"And I know we've been through a lot," Cornelia continued, "me with my dad, and you with the Rebellion and now with everything concerning Aldarn..." the blonde made a pause; "but I need to know where this is going, and if it isn't going to go anywhere, then I need to know too. Are we dating now, are we... something now?"

"I don't know," Caleb answered sincerely, albeit he knew that wasn't the answer the blonde wanted to hear. "I haven't dated anyone in my life. Abyss… we don't even have a concept of _dating_ on Meridian. People don't even formally marry unless they are nobles! Commoners just… get together, and form families."

"Yeah, that's not happening anytime soon;" Cornelia cleared out after chuckling nervously. She had never thought about that, had she? About the fact that Caleb and her were not only from very different backgrounds, but also _worlds_. That was a problem Cornelia had never had with any of the other boys she had dated, and only now she began to understand how big of a problem that could be. The mutual attraction was there, stronger than anything both of them had ever felt in their young lives, but would it be enough? She wanted it to be enough. God, why was she feeling so nervous about this?! She had dated boys before! But granted, none of them were Caleb. Was perhaps all that nervousness a sign that he really mattered to her? That she actually felt for him something stronger than what she had felt for any other boy she had had a crush on? "So you've never dated anyone? Never been _just_ a boyfriend?"

"No;" Caleb answered, turning his head towards her. For the first time since they had begun this conversation, they stared into each other's eyes, his green against her blue. "But… I could try. I'd like to try. And besides," Caleb added, alongside a small smile that slowly made its way to his face; "the first meridianite to ever date doesn't sound all that bad."

 _That_ made Cornelia to laugh genuinely. "It sounds pretty good to me," she said, feeling how her cheeks reddened. The feeling was somehow eased by the fact that his cheeks grew red too. _Yeah, this will work_ , she thought. _It has to_.

"So… is there any trick to this, or…?" the scarred meridianite boy began to ask.

"Just give me a kiss already," she cut him off again, and if there was anything else any of them wanted to say, it was left unsaid when their lips touched.

And for that brief moment in which their lips were touching, there were no worries. There was no drama. There was no war tearing apart another world, there were no secret criminal organizations in the one they were standing. There was no scheming, there was no manipulating, and there were no betrayals.

There were only Cornelia and Caleb.

* * *

 ** _Heatherfield's Shopping Mall_**

Meanwhile at Heatherfield's Shopping Mall, Jade Chan and Irma Lair were buying clothes for the summer and trying to both relax and enjoy themselves. As she sat in a bench in front of one of the many fitting rooms that were in the boutique they were currently visiting and played with her mobile phone, Irma Lair sighed, slightly tired of waiting.

"Are you done?" Irma asked.

"Not yet!" Jade's voice came from the other side of the fitting room's door. "Wait just a little bit more, I'm trying to pick between the white or the blue one…"

Irma rolled her eyes. "Do you need help?"

"No! God, I'm not a baby!" Jade's voice came again, stronger this time. "And remember last time?!"

Irma let out a snicker. Yeah, of course she remembered. That had been fun. "Okay, okay. Just let me know…"

"I'm getting out right now," Jade said then, opening the fitting room's door. "What do you think?"

Irma turned her phone's screen off and looked at Jade. The Chinese dark-haired girl was standing at the fitting room's door's threshold, having exchanged her orange, long-sleeved hoodie for a white, sleeveless one that didn't even reach to her navel, letting her abdomen (which by the way seemed to be becoming more and more toned with every day that passed) to be seen. The type of blue jeans she usually wore had also been exchanged for shorter, darker ones. The only thing that remained from Jade's previous attire was her pair of sneakers.

"I… I can see your… _tummy_ ," Irma said a bit nervously. _I can see your soon-to-be awesome abs would be more appropriate_ , she thought.

"I know, right?" Jade said happily. "I never liked this kind of clothes, but hey, it's summer. And if I'm gonna get awesome abs, I'm gonna show them!" she exclaimed, almost saying word for word what Irma had thought.

Irma entered the fitting room next, leaving the bench empty, something that Jade took advantage of in order to sit down. Swinging one of her legs in the air while maintaining the other over the bench, the Chinese girl rested her head over her right shoulder.

"So how's the whole 'radio station' thing going on?" Jade asked.

"You mean 'Lair in the Air'?" Irma's voice came from behind the door just like Jade's had done moments before.

Jade laughed. "Lair in the Air?"

"Yeah, it was Martin's idea..." Irma said.

"It's cute," Jade commented. "But how's it going?"

Irma kept silence for a few moments. "It's going well, but it's hard to do everything just between Martin and me;" another pause; "so we've been thinking about getting others into it. Wanna join?"

"Me? Nah," Jade answered. "It's your thing, and I don't think I've got what it takes to..."

"Aaaaand... done!" Irma surprised Jade, opening the door and getting out of the fitting room. She was now wearing a light red low-collar t-shirt that showed just the right amount of cleavage. Her pants, however, had been exchanged for a pair of shorts that heavenly accentuated the girl's hips and let Jade see her legs almost in their entirety.

"You look…" Jade began, hoping that the heat she was feeling in her cheeks wasn't a sign that she was blushing. _Hot_ , she thought; "awesome!"

"Thanks," Irma said, blushing too.

After changing back to the clothes they had entered the boutique with and buying the clothes they wanted, each of them bough an ice cream from the nearest ice-cream shop and headed back home. As they walked through Heatherfield's streets joking and laughing, and Irma made comments about how Jade had bought ' _that new hoodie to show her biceps on top of her abs_ ' and Jade said that Irma was really ' _working those shorts_ ', a thought seemed to cross the minds of the pair of teenage girls almost simultaneously.

 _Are… Are we flirting?_

* * *

 ** _Across the Veil; the Royal Palace_**

 ** _Night_**

Everything was starting to fall into place. Cedric and Miranda had already departed to Cavigor. If they were able to bring those two peasants that his sister had once thought about as her parents or not was, frankly, irrelevant. Or rather, it was just that Prince Phobos was going to render both possibilities irrelevant. That was, after all, his plan.

Oh, don't get the wrong idea. The Prince understood perfectly how bad things could turn out for him if his sister's own suspicions were confirmed. She was, after all, a borderline almighty being as long as she held the Heart of Meridian within her. If she unveiled the truth about Phobos' real intentions, she would surely destroy him with ease. But as the saying goes, there is no victory without risk. And of course, if the Prince's newest ploy succeeded, then the Princess would have no power to wield.

Ah... things would be much easier if Cedric managed to bring Alborn and Miriael here. The Prince could just put them under a spell; make them tell the Princess whatever Phobos wanted them to say. But he couldn't trust Cedric anymore, not after what had happened with Wong. And if he couldn't trust Cedric, neither could he trust Miranda. That girl had always been more loyal to the Snake than she had been afraid of the Prince. And all that meant that his plans were at risk of falling apart. He needed to hasten things up.

" _This is not going to turn out the way you want_."

"Keep your mouth shut," the Prince said with authority.

Roberta, who was currently walking behind him through the castle's halls, tilted her head in confusion but did not question her new master's words. A most interesting girl, this one. Ambitious and greedy, always ready to take advantage of the situation in order to climb up the ladder; but neither skillful nor powerful enough to create opportunities on her own. Always the follower, never the leader; a girl that had made a living out from following those that gave her power and ditching them for the ones that came up with a better offer. And right now, Phobos had the best offer.

" _Is your madness only surpassed by your foolishness? You are only exchanging one traitor for another_."

The Prince grunted, but said nothing. He had arrived where he needed to be. He pushed the small door open and he and Roberta entered into the chamber. The pair of alchemists, last of their disgraceful caste, lifted their eyes from their texts and flasks to look at the Prince, bowing their heads in respect and fear.

"My lord, we were just..." one of the alchemists began.

"Show me what you have found," Phobos ordered, approaching the table the texts and flasks were on. Roberta followed on his steps, arms behind her back.

"We were able to find these spells," the second alchemist said, pointing to a series of scrolls over the table. "In conjunction with the Ritual of Amalgamation and the Escanor blood in your veins, they should be able to let you take the Heart of Meridian from your sister even when she hasn't given it willingly or the Ritual hasn't reached its peak."

"Of course, there must be some downsides;" the first alchemist explained; "such as your sister probably surviving the process. And we suppose that the Heart will still recognize her as the true heir..."

"Will I be able to get what is rightfully mine or not?" Phobos demanded to know coldly.

"Well, yes; but…" the pair of alchemists said at the same time.

"Does anyone else know about these spells?" Phobos asked, ignoring their words. "Is there anyone within these castle's walls that knows about their existence or about how to counter them?"

"Aside from us? No one;" the alchemists said in unison once again.

" _Phobos! Don't do it!_ "

"Good," Phobos said in a pleased tone. "I shall make sure it remains that way."

Yellowish sparks danced across the Prince's fingers, and before any of the alchemists could react two lightning bolts of a ghastly yellow color shot from the Prince's right hand, piercing the both of them. Two corpses hit the ground. Poor little alchemists, hoping to survive between their scrolls and flasks by bowing their heads and never speaking out of turn. Slowly, the Prince reached for the table and took the scrolls they had found with his left hand, and then he turned his attention towards Roberta.

"Do you want power?" Phobos asked the artificial Shapeshifter, who hadn't moved an inch since they had entered the chamber. If she was afraid, she didn't show it. She, however, nodded n order to answer the Prince's question. "Then, from now on, the only being in this castle with authority over you it's me, and only me. But be careful," the Prince said, making more ghastly yellow sparks dance around his hand; "your power is nothing but a projection of mine. And if I were to fall, you would fall with me. Understood?"

Roberta nodded once again. Yes, she understood perfectly. 'Obey me, be loyal to me; and once I possess the Heart of Meridian and I'm a god over this land, you shall be the greatest of my angels.' That's what the Prince had really told her. 'Disobey me, show me any hint that you pretend to do with me as you did with Wong, and I shall obliterate you.'

"Very well, Lady Roberta;" Phobos said, walking past her. "Instruct some Lurdens or servants to clear this mess;" he ordered, already having abandoned the chamber and walking through the hall in the throne room's direction. He looked down at the scrolls he was carrying and the magic formulas they contained; and the Prince couldn't avoid letting out a satisfied laughter.

" _You will fail. And then there won't be any chance to go back_."

" _Foolishness, just utter foolishness. You are just a weak-minded fool_."

" _I'm trying to help you!_ "

" _AHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!_ "

" _Pathetic excuse of an Escanor. Greatness only comes for the bold!_ "

" _Don't listen to the others! I'm the one on your side!_ "

" _EHEHEHEHEHEHEHEHE!_ "

" _Imagine Cedric's face when he discovers this!_ "

" _Enemies, enemies all around us! They must be dealt with, before they strike us down!_ "

" _Kill the others before they grow suspicious!_ "

" _Ohohoho…_ "

" _Phobos, I beg of you, stop this madness before it's too late._ "

"I have more important things to dedicate my time to;" Prince Phobos Escanor declared, ignoring the voices. As of lately, he had gained a lot of experience doing that.

* * *

 ** _Princess Elyon's private chambers, some days latter_**

 ** _Morning_**

Tristan had had to make use of every resource within his grasp in order to come back to the Capital. Yes, the men in charge of protecting Count Cornelius' home in Lannion had provided him with a horse, but nothing else. Food and shelter for both him and the animal, a map, indications... that had come out of his own pocket. Well, at least money was something he didn't need to worry about since he had become a closer servant of royalty. And if money wasn't enough, some intimidation in his Shapeshifter form would suffice to get what he wanted.

Upon reaching the Capital and then the Royal Palace he basically underwent an interrogation process, first by the Guard under Captain Lothar's orders and then by some Lurdens under Roberta's command. Their questions were similar, his answers the same. Yes, there had been an attempt to either kidnap or kill the Princess. Yes, Trill was probably a rebel spy, judging by how quickly she had disappeared after the skirmish. After the interrogation, he was ordered to return to his usual duties, which ironically seemed to have become most unusual.

The Princess, especially. The tribulations and thoughts that occupied the mind of royalty were a mystery to Tristan, and to be sincere, he didn't really care. But the girl he had met being tender, bright and full of energy was now quieter and slower in her movements; as if her mind was somewhere else at all times and she let her body go through her daily life mechanically. Tristan wondered if this was how he had looked in the eyes of the other servants when working at the kitchens.

"Tristan?" the Princess called for him. She was currently leaning against the railing of her private chamber's balcony, looking at the yard below and the Capital beyond the castle's walls. The commoners were tiny dots in the distance, going on with their lives. "Can I ask you something?" she asked, without even looking at him.

"Of course, my lady;" Tristan answered. Why was he even here? As if the Princess needed protection when within this fortress. Or was he here in order to provide company? Miranda was nowhere to be seen…

"Do you think I'm selfish?"

Tristan was taken by surprise by those words. Of all question princess Elyon, the Light of Meridian made flesh, could have asked him, why that one? "I…" he began. "I'm afraid I don't understand."

"And I think it's a pretty simple question," Elyon said, turning around and looking at Tristan face to face. "Am I selfish?"

Tristan didn't say anything for the next few seconds. He avoided the Princess gaze, looking at his own feet. When he raised his eyes once again, he had decided to answer with nothing but the truth. "I don't know, Your Highness;" he said with utmost respect. "I… I don't even know you."

Now it was the young Princess' turn to look at the ground. "I'll ask another one, then;" she said, looking at her side, then at the ceiling. "Is my brother a just ruler?"

"What?" a confused Tristan asked.

"Is my brother, Prince Phobos Escanor, a good ruler?" Elyon repeated her question, locking eyes with Tristan. "Please, answer me."

"I… don't think I'm qualified to answer that," Tristan told her. "Why are you asking me this?" the Shapeshifter asked.

"Because… Christ, because I want to know. Because I _need_ to know;" Elyon said, voice cracking just a little. "I left everything behind when I came here from Earth. When I did it, it felt like the best decision of my life. But now, I… I'm starting to have doubts." She turned her back to him once again, returning to stare into the distance. How many people populated the Capital? Of those, how many had she helped? And of those, with how many had she really talked? Why were in need of helping? Why was the sky of the Capital always yellow? Why, the nearer you were to her brother's castle, the waters seemed more cloudy, and the land drier? "So many doubts…"

"Is that why you have asked me if I think you are selfish?" Tristan asked now. He took her silence as a 'yes'. "You are the Princess. You are royalty. You are, on top of those, the wielder of the Heart of Meridian. You should be able to do whatever you want." _It's not as if I ever cared about Phobos being a good ruler or not when I began working here and when I offered myself as Wong's guinea pig_ , he thought. _It didn't matter, at the time. After all, for so many years, the only thing I wanted was revenge_.

"I wanted to be the center of attention," Elyon told him, back still turned towards the Shapeshifter. "Just once," she added, chuckling sadly. "Just one time I wanted to be the one everyone admired, the one everyone liked. I wanted to be… a princess. But now?" Elyon paused. "I don't even know what I want anymore. I guess… that I just want to do the right thing."

Tristan lowered his gaze, deep in thought.

* * *

 ** _The Capital's streets_**

"Treasures for trade! Treasures for trade!"

"How much for this one?"

Blunk the Passling stopped his cheering and looked at his newest client, a young Galhot peasant. He was holding what, in the eyes of an earthling, would be nothing but a rudimentary hand-crank flashlight.

"Uh! Client has good eye! Blunk shows how treasure works, right?" the greenish dwarf asked, holding out his hairy hands. The client gave the device to the Passling, who proceeded to turn the crank several times. "Client does this and…" he said, turning the flashlight on; "light without fire! Very good, right?"

Indeed, it was very good. More than that, it was astonishing! For an earthling, a flashlight that recharged itself by turning on a hand-crank was nothing especial. But for a meridianite, the idea of a source of light that didn't need to be lit every handful of hours, that didn't need to be drenched in expensive oil to last longer… it was something extraordinary! And if there was something a Passling understood better than anything else, was that extraordinary meant _expensive_.

"Blunk trades for no less than three sacks of potatoes," the Passling named his price; "one basket of fresh fruit, and two small barrels of ale or a small one of wine."

The purple-skinned Galhot crossed his arms. "Your price's too high, Passling;" he said, a bit angrily. "You ask for too much."

Blunk, however, shrugged and smiled. "Blunk needs to eat and drink. Blunk's mama also needs to eat and drink. And Blunk knows this client won't be using this treasure himself;" the Passling said, waving a finger in front of his face. "Peasants don't need torches as much as they need hearths, Blunk thinks. But guards? Guards like torches, for when they patrol at night. Good client will trade with Blunk, but treasure will be sold to a guard, Blunk thinks. For much money. Many silver coins. Maybe even gold. Blunk knows. Blunk's seen too many times."

The Galhot growled. The freaking Passling had read him like an open book. But the price was still too high. A whole basket of fresh fruit in these times?! Preposterous. But it was a trinket from another world, one that produced light with just a simple movement. Why couldn't the little green shit have asked for salted meat or...

"Oil. I can give you... three crocks full of oil. And an entire Jibhoo fish in a large can full of salt;" the Galhot bargained. "But I can't give you fresh fruit. And only one sack of potatoes."

"Uhm..." Blunk pondered. "Blunk's new offer: Two sacks of potatoes. The three crocks of oil. The Jibhoo fish. And only one small barrel of ale. And Blunk will give good man this for free," the Passling said, taking a small, discolored and old music box from the objects he had for trading. "See? Funny box! Makes good music."

The Galhot looked at what the Passling offered him. He tried not to show it, but his eyes denoted that he was going to accept. "Give me half an hour to get everything," he finally yielded.

"Deal!" Blunk said happily, shaking the Galhot's hand.

* * *

 ** _Afternoon in Meridian's Capital_**

Today had been a good day for Blunk the Passling. While he hadn't been able to trade more than two of the treasures he had acquired from the other side of the Veil, he had been able to trade one of the sacks of potatoes and the barrel of ale for some onions and herbs and the three crocks of oil for a basket full of eggs. He had even gotten himself an entire salted Jibhoo! It was more than he was expecting to obtain today, frankly. Blunk was still a bit surprised that the Galhot had taken the 'basket of fresh fruit' bait so easily. No, of course Blunk didn't need fruit. He didn't need so many potatoes; neither did he need ale at all. But a crafty Passling always asks for more than needed, so the client actually offers more than what he should. But hey, it wasn't the Passling's fault that the man didn't know how to trade properly.

"Now Blunk needs to get home, share earnings with mama…" the Passling said aloud, sitting in a cracked box in an alley, surveying his belongings. Carrying the remaining sack of potatoes would be easy, same with the onions and herbs. The eggs and the Jibhoo would be the biggest problems. But he would manage, he always did. Good thing he had left the treasures he had been able to trade in his little hideout in the Capital, or else…

"Passling;" he heard at the entrance of the alley.

"Sorry, but Blunk doesn't trade more treasures today;" the greenish dwarf said, getting up. "Come back tomo-"

Blunk's words became ash in his throat once he looked at the alley's entrance and saw the face of his interlocutor. There, standing with one hand at his back and leaning against one of the alley's walls with the other, was a white-haired boy. Blunk had seen him only once, many months ago, when he had ended up in the mountains back on Earth, helping the girls and Caleb fight against Daolon Wong.

"Oh, but I insist;" Tristan, son of Ban, said.

Blunk attempted to run towards the alley's opposite overture, leaving his earnings behind. They would be useless to him if he was dead! But before he had any opportunity to give more than three steps, a giant scorpion pincer grabbed him by the waist, lifting the poor Passling in the air and turning him around, forcing the greenish dwarf to look at the horrid face of the giant scorpion Tristan had shifted into.

"Please, don't kill Blunk!" the Passling begged. "Blunk will share his treasures with you, eh? Blunk will sell them; then we split the money 60/40! Does that sound good?" Tristan growled and brought Blunk closer to his face. "50/50! Blunk will give Shapeshifter half of his…!"

"I don't want your _trash_ , Passling;" Tristan interrupted Blunk, dropping him to the ground; "and I don't want your life, either;" he declared, shifting back to human form.

"Then what does Shapeshifter boy want with Blunk?" the Passling asked.

"You work for the rebels and the Guardians," Tristan said. "I have seen you in their company too many times for it to be a coincidence or for them to have paid for you're the use of your nose."

"Uh…" Blunk muttered, lost for words.

"I'm not here to imprison you," Tristan assured him. "But you are going to make me a favor."

"What favor?" Blunk asked.

Tristan leaned over him. "You are going to deliver a message to the rebel leader for me," he said, and for a moment, the white-haired boy looked doubtful and pained. He regained his seriousness shortly after, and spoke. "Find him, no matter how much time it takes you, and tell him that Julian didn't die during the Rebellion's attack over my home. Tell him that Julian the rebel was taken prisoner and into the Underwater Mines," as he pronounced those words, Tristan's lips curved into a smile of triumph. "Go and tell him, Passling."

"Tell him that his father is alive."

* * *

 ** _The Underwater Mines_**

There had been a time when the Underwater Mines had been nothing but what their name made them to be, mines that had been dig so deep that their main tunnels reached deep into Meridian's ocean. They had been a symbol of the prosperity that characterized the reign of the Escanor Queens too, as they were one of the greatest sources of iron and silver of the kingdom. Entire villages had been built around these mines, and commoners of all sizes and backgrounds came to work on them.

When Prince Phobos had seized the throne and after his disastrous attempt to invade Zamballa, however; he had decided to give them a different purpose. Oh, the mines continued to give iron and silver, and many speculated that they would do so for many more centuries. But those who extracted the metals were no longer willing workers, but prisoners of the Prince's regime. No matter if you were human, Galhot, half-breed or Passling, if you broke the Prince's law and you weren't lucky enough to be taken to the castle's oubliette or Cavigor, then you ended up in these mines. And in these mines, they chained you to a line, they gave you a big hammer, they assigned you a letter and a number; and you used the hammer to break rock and mineral. You were only given enough food and water to barely survive, and if you died from exhaustion… it didn't matter! There a dozen prisoners waiting in line to take your place! Broke a limb, lose consciousness, disobey orders… and the result was the same. And of course, there was also the whipping. Always the whipping.

Between all these prisoners, there was one who had been put to work almost two years ago. A tall man, with white skin and powerful arms, overgrown brown hair and beard, and many scars over a body that had been stronger in other times, before a diet consisting mainly of water and bad stew. This man of dark brown eyes had become quite famous among his fellow prisoners, having survived longer than most. All the others who had been taken in with him were dead by now. The cruel chief warden and his men had even started a bet over how much longer he would last. Of course, some tried to cheat by whipping him longer and harder than they did to the others. And yet here he stood alive, striking the earth with his hammer day by day, surviving against all odds. Many of the other prisoners looked at him and asked themselves… how? How was he able to resist for so much time, how was he able to endure things that would have driven any other to death or madness by now?

And yet, here he stood alive, pounding the earth with his hammer, shattering rock after rock; all in complete silence. Such was the determination of Julian, former leader of the Rebellion. Such was his hope that, somehow, after the Rebellion had won the war and they had been freed, he would be able to see Caleb again.

Such was his love for his son.

* * *

 _Behold! Between parents and their children! Between brothers and sisters! Between friends, old and new! Between lovers, young and old! Between teachers and students! Deeper than the greatest abyss! Brighter than the brightest star! Behold the greatest power in the Universe! Love!_ Lancelot du Lac

* * *

 **A/N: And here we are, four months after my last update; just as I told you before. A few… things hadn't been going according to plan in my life as of lately. Last week of January, a member of my family passed away. And between that and work I haven't had a lot of time to write. Plus, I had to make this chapter from scrap, as its existence wasn't scheduled. Anyway, hope you enjoyed this chapter; as it was mostly a preparation for what is to come in chapters 28 and 29. I'm not very sure how it turned myself, as romance has never been my forte when it comes to writing. If you feel like it, leave a review. I ignore when I will be able to update again. Thank you for reading, and until next time.**

 **Bye, bye.**


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